Reply #112: Question [View All]

[Tolerance]

Speaking of other DU posters, is this about the JulieRB who posts here and speaks out against discrimination? I saw this on another board. I wonder if a jealous Republican wrote this!

"No Kidding" is an all-volunteer, non-profit social club for adult couples and singles who, for whatever reason, have never had children.The headquarters site advises that membership is open to any childfree adult--regardless of gender, age, color, race, ethnicity, cultural or linguistic background, marital,social or economic status, political, sexual or religious orientation, or physical or mental ability. The worldwide group is headed by Jerry Steinberg, a very self-assured man who enjoys media attention.

Seattle No Kidding was a new chapter, less than a year old, but showing promise thanks to its own active publicity efforts (very few of its members were referred by the headquarters' site). Seattle No Kidding learned on the worldwide No Kidding e-mail list that there would be another No Kidding chapter in the
same city, started by an unknown woman named Julie Revell Benjamin who had never tried a Seattle No Kidding activity or been on the list. Steinberg did not even have the courtesy to tell Seattle No Kidding about the new Eastside Seattle No Kidding. He admitted he never even asked Julie why she was starting a new chapter in an area that already had one, and already held events throughout Western Washington, including the Seattle Eastside. One factor that seemed to impress Steinberg was Julie's alleged Democratic political connections. When asked about the potential logistical problems two new chapters would have in a small area, Steinberg then took a
convenient "I'll let you kids work it out" approach and wouldn't even address the issue of Eastside Seattle No Kidding's very similar name to Seattle No Kidding, which caused confusion from the beginning and still does.

Eastside Seattle No Kidding was around for about a year but had little luck attracting their own members because it relied mostly on referral from the headquarters' site, so Julie began to hang out on Seattle No Kidding's list and privately e-mail members. She sent out private invitations to parties that she claimed were joint Seattle-Eastside events, but were actually recruiting events
for Eastside NK and the leaders of Seattle NK were strangely uninvited. Julie began to appeal to the wealthier members of Seattle NK regarding Seattle's handicapped leader who was on public assistance at that time, and a "butch" lesbian Seattle member. Eastside Seattle was promoted by Julie as the elite
group for the professional set without such "riff-raff" (actual quote!). Eastside Seattle's leaders, appointed by Julie, continued their divisive tactics for months, even making foul finger gestures at Seattle No Kidding's leaders when they coincidentally attended the same event on at least two occasions. New people introducing themselves on Seattle NK's list would receive negative, false e-mails about Seattle No Kidding from hotmail addresses that weren't on the Seattle No Kidding list. The mail encouraged the members to try Eastside Seattle No Kidding to avoid the "riff-raff". It was difficult for Seattle No Kidding to pinpoint who was behind the e-mail relay since there were over 100 list-members. Seattle No Kidding spent hours and hours on publicity efforts to publicize their chapter, only to face sabotage from Julie and Eastside Seattle No Kidding. Julie pressured members who were in both groups to relinquish their Seattle No Kidding ties and joint events were strictly forbidden by Julie. Some new and established members decided not to be in either group upon seeing Eastside's dirty politics.

At least 6 members of Seattle No Kidding appealed to Steinberg for help, but he literally said "Why can't you KIDS just get along?" or even ignored their e-mails. Meanwhile, complaints were posted on various childfree forums about Eastside Seattle by people who weren't even in Seattle No Kidding. Julie required potential list-members to fill out a rather lengthy and personal membership application. The EZBoard Childfree group had a post from a 20-year-old who wasn't allowed to join Eastside Seattle No Kidding due to being under 21 even though NK membership is supposed to be open to anyone over 18. A 50-year-old woman was very cruelly denied membership forwarded to Steinberg the age-related slurs to which she was subjected by Julie's appointed notorious sharp-tongued Eastside Seattle No Kidding gate-keeper, Gaby Kaplan (who was also an active participant in the aforementioned finger gestures). There were tales of unemployed people, a foreign-born agricultural worker, single men with retail jobs and a Wiccan vegan who were denied membership because they didn't fit the image that Julie Revell Benjamin wanted to maintain. The discrimination complaints continued for a year and half. Meanwhile, Julie was in countless articles discussing the discrimination against childfrees, in outlets including The Seattle Times.

When asked from outsiders why there were two groups in that one city,
Steinberg's standby explanation was "Julie felt there weren't enough events in her part of town." This was false and he knew it and Julie knew it. Seattle No Kidding even showed Steinberg the numerous events held on the Eastside. He dismissed the tension between the groups as jealousy on Seattle No Kidding's part, even though Seattle
No Kidding had over triple the membership. Steinberg and Julie ignored e-mails that asked the question: "Why didn't the people in that area plan more events in their area if they felt there weren't enough?" Eastside Seattle No Kidding had plenty of events outside of their Eastside "part of town", so the geographic excuse is a false one. Seattle is not even in the Top Twenty in population size according to the most recent US Census, so the "part of town" argument is a weak one. Much larger cities have only one chapter.

Last year, a gay man who was told several months before by Eastside Seattle they were denying his membership for that reason posted his story on the worldwide No Kidding message board. Steinberg finally had to speak up. His defense? That Julie and Gaby had broken off to form an unaffiliated group called PS Childfrees, so it was out of his hands. Does Julie Revell Benjamin keep PS (Puget Sound) Childfrees as elitist and discriminatory? It's difficult to know, as Julie has chosen to keep this group even more exclusive and secretive. Time may tell.