6 Questions for Ronni Sanlo, Ed.D

By Mark McNease

I met Ronni Sanlo a few years ago—one of the remarkable people I’ve had the pleasure of encountering by doing LGBTSr the past seven years. She’s an educator, publisher, historian, resister, playwright, and is currently involved with the Joy Silver campaign for the California Senate.

Ronni is a well-known keynote speaker and workshop presenter at colleges and universities around the country. Her focus is LGBT history, learning outcomes, strategic planning, and LGBT center development. Ronni speaks not only from her perspective as a higher education/student affairs professor, LGBT center director, dean of students, and faculty in residence, but also from her personal life experiences.

Read all about Ronni at her website, and follow along for this ‘6 Questions’ interview with someone I’d rightly call fierce.

MM: Can you bring us up to speed on your personal life? What’s going on with Ronni Sanlo these days?

RS: Life is so good, Mark! My kids and grands are healthy. My precious wife Kelly and I are still travelling wherever and whenever we can. One of our most recent trips was a bike ride with WomanTours.com to the Dalmatian islands in Croatia. What a thrilling experience!

Since the 2016 elections, Kelly and I have been actively involved in the resistance. Kelly maintains our FB page with daily posts of what folks might do to help deal with this insanity called the administration, and we’ve been working mightily in the Joy Silver campaign in California.

My writing has evolved into stage production. I’ve discovered that I love writing stage plays, mostly for Readers theater where people read rather than memorize parts. It’s so much easier for older populations to participate. The focus of my plays for the most part are LGBT-related social justice topics. Kelly, of course, is the world’s best producer!

MM: Your accomplishments and activities are extensive, so let’s focus this time on your ‘Today in LGBT History’ blog. I’ve followed it on Facebook and find it fascinating. What prompted you to start this?

RS: It has always been clear to me that people simply don’t know LGBT-related history. LGBT folks did not just pop out of a bar last Thursday night. We have a long, rich history that must be made visible. I have a gay son and a lesbian granddaughter. I want them to know on whose shoulders they stand, that they could not be as open and free as they are without the lives and accomplishments and challenges of those who took this walk in the past. So it’s my desire, perhaps even my call, that all people know LGBT history. I publish it on my daily blog at www.ronnisanlo.com/blog and on my FaceBook page at https://www.facebook.com/ronni.sanlo. The cool thing is that I often get messages from teachers who tell me they’re using my posts in their classrooms!

MM: How do you find your historical information, and what’s been your experience with researching our history?

RS: I use a variety of resources, mostly on line, but I have a decent personal library of LGBT history books as well. Faderman, Boswell, Duberman, D’emilio, Quist, Back2Stonewall, even Wikipedia are among my many sources. And people send historical information to me as well. I’m in awe every single day when I put my history post together. (It’s my morning ritual after coffee but before yoga.) Our LGBT foreparents were so courageous, so brave, so at risk, and yet they persisted. There is so much I didn’t/don’t know and am thrilled each day at what I learn. It’s also painful for me to note (thought I don’t actually print much about this) how many of our foreparents – men and women alike – were alcoholics and drug addicts. Many died so young. Some, like J. Edgar Hoover for example, were powerfully homophobic while living “openly” in their closets and who made life a living hell for many LGBT people. But the bottom line for me is that I’m proud of my history as a lesbian and proud to be in community with so many other LGBT people. Right now I have over 500 pages of historical information that needs to be researched. I need an intern or even an older LGBT person who has time on her hands, some computer skills, and an interest in history. Know anyone???

MM: We live in a time when historical perspective and reference don’t seem to have as much value, especially for young people who may take our gains for granted. Why is it important to remember our history?

RS: In this day of outlandish, impossible, insane politics, learning our history as LGBT people is nothing short of courageous resistance! Oklahoma is de-legalizing adoptions, Pence’s idea of “religious freedom” really means freedom to discriminate against us, the new Secretary of State is proudly homophobic, the KKK is openly recruiting; it just doesn’t stop! The ironic thing is we’ve seen it all before. We  fought back, rose above, and persisted…and we will continue to do so. Understanding from where we came gives us a foundation to move forward with power. I truly believe that.

MM: Having the long view of our history, how are some ways you’d say we’ve progressed as a society vis a vis equality, and some ways we haven’t?

RS: But have we progressed that much, Mark? It feels like we have in some ways, of course, yet far too many young LGBT folks are bullied and/or commit suicide. Is there equality even among ourselves when some of our own internalized their homophobia and hurt other LGBT people? Is there equality when we older folks are frightened to deal with caregivers, medical people, or assisted living facilities and staff? Yes, we have marriage equality, but in 29 states people still lose their jobs, their housing, and so much more if they’re out. The best thing I can say here is that we may have won some battles but the war still rages…and I suspect it’s going to get worse before it gets better. We have to maintain our courage to speak out, to be present, and to support those who are fighting for us.

MM: We now have an administration that is actively attempting to erase us from the public record. Is there danger between a readiness to forget the past and our ability to create a future? It’s an odd question, but there’s something there: many of us became complacent as we saw what we thought was the triumph of assimilation, only to discover with a single presidential election how precarious our place at this table really is. Thoughts?

RS: I don’t agree about a willingness to forget the past. It’s just that people don’t know our past! That’s why I do my Today in LGBT History posts each day. For what were our foreparents fighting? Freedom, of course, but wasn’t it actually assimilation, to be like everyone else? I think so, but assimilation is now biting us in our collective butts. Have we been accepted by mainstream society because of our incredible uniqueness or are we trying way too hard to be like everyone else and lose our delicious fabulousness? The one good thing about this election and administration is that it’s brought us and other marginalized communities together is ways we’ve not experienced previously. A place at the table? Do we really want to be at THAT table? Not I. I want to be at the table of many faces and ages and genders and languages, and abilities. I want to be at the table where each person’s uniqueness is valued and treasured…not a bland melting pot but a beautiful salad where all flavors complement one another. And as for complacency, damn it, Everyone…VOTE in 2018!!!

‘6 Questions’ is an interview feature at LGBTSr. Copyright MadeMark Publishing.