Honoring a life of service

Water is one of the most powerful elements.

What seems to separate it from the others is its ability to be just as powerful in small doses as large ones.

No, a single raindrop won’t shape a mountain, but if you have enough raindrops, well, you get the Grand Canyon.

The same can be said about activism and our fight for equality.

Yes, we deserve equal rights. And yes, it is easy to pound our head against the wall: why hasn’t it already happened yet? Haven’t we flooded this world with coming out stories? Haven’t there been enough teen suicides as a result of bullying? Haven’t there been enough trans folk fired simply for trying to be a more perfect version of themselves?

Yes. But then again it took millions of years – and a whole lot of rain (plus a platonic shift or two) – to create Red Rocks.

We live in a world of immediacy and glitter bombs. We have forgotten how far and how hard others before us have worked. How long it took them to get the tiniest amount of progress.

The fight for gay rights in Denver started in 1973. That was 39 years ago. If Out Front Colorado’s market research is correct, about half of you reading this column weren’t even born yet.

One of the men on the forefront of the fight was attorney Paul Hunter. And on April 21, the Colorado chapter of the Humans Rights Campaign will once again bestow an award in Hunter’s honor to another member of our community who exemplifies the namesake’s passion for political and social justice.

This year’s recipient is Joe Barrows.

Barrows began advocating for the community long before he ever came out.

“When you look back, to be a gay business person, in the 1970s and 1980s, it was necessary to lead a double life,” Barrows said. “You could never use your real name when you were out at a gay bar.”

Barrows, now a vice president for Colorado Business Bank, lived in two universes for more than two decades.

“Most of my clients were Mormons,” he said.

But his friend Paul Hunter was out, and was carrying on the work of some of Gay Denver’s earliest advocates, fighting police brutality and excessive arrests of gay men.

“DPD would just be waiting outside gay bars – The Broadway, especially – at night, to ticket and arrest men leaving the bars, jaywalking at 2 a.m. when there was no traffic at all,” Barrows said. “Oh, Paul would just go crazy.”

So Hunter and a group of community members decided to take matters into their own hands, to help elect pro-LGBT officials, including former Denver Mayor Federico Pena.

Once elected, Pena appointed Hunter and his friends, including Barrows to key committees and boards.

Barrows served with Hunter on the Board of Health & Hospitals. The two helped guide public health officials during the earliest days of the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

“The question was how do you treat those living with AIDS,” Barrows said.

“Everyone was frightened. But we worked hard to make sure there was adequate care.”

The duo also fought for – and won – an anonymous testing site.

“It was a big thing.”

And just as the gay community was getting a grip on HIV, “along came Amendment 2.”

Barrows decided to come out and fight.

When Denver’s City Council passed a gay and lesbian inclusive equal protection ordinance, a group of anti-gay citizens attempted to overturn it, almost immediately.

The already formed Equal Protections Ordinance Committee worked to keep the law and was successful. But it wasn’t a cheap fight.

Barrows became a fundraiser.

He stepped up to the plate again when funds were needed to stop the statewide initiative to outlaw gay rights, and again when it passed and a legal challenge needed financing.

Eventually, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Amendment 2 unconstitutional in 1996.

And it became easier for Barrows to lead one – not two – life.

For most of us, living our lives openly is second nature. We don’t think about it. But we’re only afforded that privilege because of the work of Joe Barrows and gay men like him.

Since the days of Amendment 2, Barrows has served openly on a variety of boards and commissions addressing civil rights and public policy, including the Judicial Vacancy Commission for Colorado’s Second District, the Board of Directors for Metro Volunteers and the Board of Directors of the Colorado Municipal League.

He was part of an advisory team to the Rose Community Foundation for its “Boomers Leading Change” initiative and served on transition advisory teams for former Denver Mayors Wellington Webb and John Hickenlooper.

To this day, Barrows serves as a director for Challenge Denver, an anti-bullying organization working in Denver Public Schools; and Colorado Humanities, a statewide entity that helps promote youth and adult literacy and fosters a better appreciation for and understanding of Colorado’s history, culture and ethnic diversity.

At one point in our interview I asked Joe what he did to deserve the honor.

“I’m not sure,” he said.

HRC Colorado Chairman Hank Provost said it best: “Joe has been a legacy member of the community for more than 30 years. His resume of accomplishments is broad and deep not only within the space of LGBT equality but building the broader Colorado community as well. Joe has been one those folks in the community that people know as a major influencer of change but also someone who has been in the background and not promoting himself. When we looked across the community of possible candidates we realized that Joe’s accomplishments had not been fully recognized and appreciated. We felt strongly that it was time to give Joe the recognition for his work.”
Joe’s actions cannot be likened to a raging revolutionary river, but like a gentle – and humble – rain he has, in his own way, washed away homophobia allowing us all to fly our rainbow flags.