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Our History
The Normal Heart (TNH) started out as an informational sheet for the SGMA (Southwest Gay Men’s Association – though it had other names along the way, such as the Las Cruces Gay and Bisexual Men’s Support Group). After about a year, Kevin Olson and his partner took over as editors, gave the newsletter a name and started adding lots of additional informational articles – reviews of movies, political information, etc., as well as upcoming men’s group meetings. At that time, the newsletter was supported by passing the hat at each men’s group meeting. After some time, members complained that it was too costly, that it was too political, etc. The editors decided to solve that problem by soliciting advertising, which they did with some success. When they gave up the paper, it began to be handled by a collective of sorts, consisting of the editor, a layout person, and an advertising person. It was decided at that point, that to improve the position of the paper with respect to advertisers, that the newspaper would go public – deleting some personal information, adding information about women’s groups, offering free subscriptions to any who wanted, and leaving free copies around town. From there it was a short step to deciding that the GLBT community it now served should have representation in its management. |
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So, Normal Heart Community Ventures, a non-profit corporation in the state of New Mexico was formed. The lawyer who did the corporation papers suggested that we make the purpose broad enough to encompass more than just the newspaper, but the newspaper remained the sole focus of the corporation and its board until Richard Scramstad and David Stocum came on the scene. Further expansion into El Paso resulted from collaboration with Rio Grande Adelante, an El Paso-based social group. They provided their mailing list and in return used TNH as their advertising methodology. Ultimately, we were not able to take advantage of the El Paso base. Financial and personnel difficulties led to the plan to hire not an editor, but publishers. Richard and David stepped up for that role and that has brought us to where we are today.
In May of 2006 Normal Heart Community Ventures was granted 501c3 status by the IRS. During the summer of 2007 the Board of Directors completed a strategic planning process. The outcome of this process was an updated Mission Statement (at the top of this page), a plan to redesign the newspaper and a wish list of new projects. View Our Wish List. |
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Normal Heart Community Ventures seeks to collaborate with other LGBT organizations to better serve the LGBT community in New Mexico and surrounding areas. |
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