The Ninth Street Center was founded 35 years ago, and defined itself as part of the Gay Movement of the 1970s. Apart from the talk groups, it also offered socializing — art classes and dinners. It seemed like a good idea at that time and maybe it was. But it didn't do much to recruit new people who were interested in psychology and research.
Moreover, the Ninth Street Center meetings only reached the lucky few who happen to live in New York — and even then, those meetings have to compete with the weather and all the other funky things you can do in Manhattan on a Friday night. But those who were actually interested in the ideas of Paul Rosenfels, rather than just in socializing, have found his books first — in libraries, and on the website. They started by reading, and maybe this is the best way to discover polarity theory.
If this is true, then the Center has definitely reached its purpose — to make Paul's works available for everybody who wants them.
This is a comment we heard again and again, pointing out the main problem we face by attaching ourselves to the gay community. This is one aspect of this project that has clearly outlived its usefulness.
Like any emancipation movement, the main goal of the gay rights movement was to integrate queer people — to change society to the degree it accepts them like anybody else. And only to this degree. For Western democracies, this goal has been mostly reached. There are still a lot of idiots barking, but most people have no problem with lesbians raising children, and would rather object to the politics of Berlin's mayor than to his sexual orientation.
If you want to be a fashion designer, you are almost expected to be gay. If you want to be president or an army general, though, you might still have to wait until the news that gays/disabled people/women/Asians/whatever are mostly harmless has trickled up.
What a deviant sexual orientation does not guarantee, however, is a tendency to be more progressive and open-minded than other parts of the population. So, the term "homosexual lifestyle" is a bit misleading, precisely because this is not about whom you have sex with, and because the gay community does define itself sexually rather than psychologically.
Creativity has a lot to do with not focusing all your attention on your car/wife/house/kids/career. Everybody who thinks there must be more to life than raising the next generation of consumers can profit from reading Paul's works. Being creative doesn't even mean you have to live childfree (it helps, maybe), it just means you define yourself psychologically rather than sexually.
Two other things that need to change are the name, and the legal structure of the Ninth Street Center.
The titles "Paul Rosenfels Archive", or "Paul Rosenfels Community", respectively, give people a better idea what this is all about than "Ninth Street Center". This is easier to understand, and closer to the true nature of this project.
Finally, the legal structure. It is causing more unhappiness than anything else. It is not necessary to be incorporated — we are not doing anything that might put us at risk so we would have to be protected by this legal concept. Nothing is lost by becoming more informal, giving up the warehouse room, and our titles. We do not want to become a self-preserving bureaucracy where the structure has power over the individual. And we do not really need directors.
What we need are good, inspiring, unconventional contributions to the website. The real work of the Center is not the maintainance of a structure, it is the research and the writing. The website is the main forum for the people who are interested in Paul's ideas.
I am grateful for everybody who ever contributed to the Ninth Street Center. (Hopefully, one day, I will have a coffee with you and interview you about the good old days, and what you are doing now. You better look good that day because I will bring my camera.)
For those who prefer to do administrative work — there is no shortage of socializing opportunities in New York, and certainly a huge demand for volunteers for all kinds of causes, non-profits and self-help groups.
Everybody is welcome to contribute to the new Paul Rosenfels Community website; we are looking forward to interesting essays. This does not mean there can not be any meetings in the future. Everything that is important about the Center will stay here. And I will keep running the online discussion groups.