Today I had a conference call with several other clowns from around the country. We were talking about ideas to make our clowns and our medical clown team leadership more aware of racial and LGBTQ diversity.

This is a difficult subject to discuss. Many of us in the arts and performing community assume that we already have a good understanding of these types of issues. My experience has taught me that's not always the case. I did find some comfort in a few people at the American Circus Educators conference here in Decatur this past October. It was refreshing to hear the issue of diversity brought up by so many white people. There was an effort to understand the problem in a way that I haven't seen in other places. I hope that our conversation today will be the first step in bringing this up in a productive way.