Q&A

The go-to gay in Somerville

by Susan Ryan-Vollmar

TALK to me! Dorrie Clark hopes to bring the concerns of queer Somerville to City Hall.

Somerville recently joined Boston in appointing a City Hall liaison to the gay and lesbian community. Dorrie Clark, who's lived in Somerville for two years, is the first person to fill the post since 1991. Last Thursday, Mayor Dorothy Kelly Gay hosted a reception for Clark at Somerville High School. About 80 people turned out to welcome her to the job, including singer-songwriter Melissa Ferrick, State Representative Jarrett Barrios of Cambridge, State Representative Pat Jehlen of Somerville, and former state representative and Eighth Congressional District candidate Susan Tracy.

The Phoenix spoke with Clark about the job and how she managed to get Melissa Ferrick to set foot in Somerville High.

Q: This is unpaid, right? What's the point of the job?

A: It is unpaid. The basic mission is to make sure that gay and lesbian and bisexual and transgendered people in Somerville feel represented and feel connected to their government. I want to be there as a point person to let them know that city services are accessible to them, just as they are to every other taxpaying citizen.

Q: What else do you do besides the liaison job?

A: I have an internship at Boston magazine, because I couldn't get an internship at the Boston Phoenix.

Q: We turned you down?

A: You couldn't accept me because I was a college graduate.

Q: Are you in graduate school?

A: I graduated from Harvard Divinity in June '99.

Q: So now you want to be a writer?

A: It's something that I'm definitely interested in. I'm not sure that I would like it as a career, but knowing how to write well and how to convey ideas forcefully and effectively would be useful to me no matter what I do. It's good to be persuasive in presentation.

Q: Have any political aspirations?

A: I'm keeping my options open at this point, but in the meantime I'm not smoking any marijuana.

Q: Do you want to be a minister?

A: I can give a definite no. The degree I got was a master of theological studies.

Q: So what do you do with a master of theological studies?

A: I give rousing speeches.

Q: Sorry to ask these rude questions. It's really none of my business.

A: No, no, no, I get them from my parents all the time.

Q: What are your top three priorities for the liaison job?

A: Our first priority really is the Somerville schools. To make sure that gay students there feel supported, to know that they have the mayor and the city behind them and it's okay to be who they are. The second priority is to try to lobby on Beacon Hill to get the domestic-partnership bill passed so that Somerville can get started with the Board of Aldermen, which is willing, I suppose, to offer domestic-partnership benefits. Because that's an issue of fairness and justice that's important to me and the mayor.

Q: The mayor supports domestic-partnership benefits for the city?

A: Yes.

Q: And what's the third thing?

A: To just really saturate the community with the knowledge that this position exists and that I want very much to be helpful and to let people know there's someone in city government on their side.

Q: How did you get 80 people, including Jarrett Barrios and Melissa Ferrick, to trudge out to Somerville High School for your reception?

A: They were all people who are concerned about the future of Somerville. Actually, I did a legislative internship for Jarrett Barrios, and he's a good friend of mine.

Q: How do you know Melissa Ferrick?

A: I don't. I just adore her and sent her an e-mail and asked her to come.

Q: She was the only person there wearing leather pants.

A: It was a spiffy reception. I think that brought a nice touch to it.

Dorrie Clark and Dorothy Kelly Gay will hold office hours at the Diesel Café in Davis Square on March 15 from 6 to 8 p.m. To reach Clark, call the Somerville Office of Human Services at (617) 625-6600, ext. 2400.