Yesterday we said that GLAAD should dump Troup Coronado from their Board of Directors. Not because GLAAD apparently fobbed off some pre-written letter from AT&T against Net Neutrality during his tenure, but rather because he has helped get anti-gay judicial apointees onto the bench and has worked for the “virulently anti-gay” Heritage Foundation which has fought queer equality for about two decades now.
Well Coronado just quit GLAAD and good riddance. But what about the other queer boards he’s on?
Cornado still sits on the board of Equality California, AIDS Project Los Angeles, and the Richmond Ermet AIDS Foundation, just to name a few. He should resign from those boards instead of continuing to tarnish their good names with his odious presence.
That being said, while we abhor AT&T anti-New Neutrality stance and their deliberate PR push to use liberal and queer groups to support for their T-Mobile merger, we recognize that AT&T has done good work with the LGBT community in the past. Our focus now is on Coronado’s anti-gay work, not his association with AT&T.
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
Cam
The question should be, why somebody with history was ever allowed on the board in the first place.
Gavin
He’s a conservative, and belongs to conservative groups that have taken anti-gay positions. That is not the same thing as being “anti-gay” and doing “anti-gay work”. I’m not defending him, just pointing out that you’re making claims about a real person that go beyond the actual evidence.
fredo777
I’m going to found the next GLAAD-like organization + actually get something accomplished with it. We’ll put a somewhat younger, more laid-back face on the pro-gay movement, though. One of our go-to weapons in the arsenal will be snarky parody videos of anti-gay politicians + haters, in general.
E-mail me if you’re interested in contributing. For realsies.
*No fats, no femmes!1!
Doug
I read that the Heritage Foundation work and Orrin Hatch work were around 15 years ago. It seems like that since then he has done quite a lot of pro-gay work. Couldn’t this be a case where someone’s belief system and identity has evolved over almost two decades? His recent work shows that he seems to be quite “out” and doing more to support the gay community than most are.
SteveC
These other groups that this scumbag Coronado is on the board of, must really be useless organisations if they think that a self-hating bigot like Coronado is a suitable board member. They are destroying their reputations by allowing this reptile (no offence intended to reptiles) to remain on their boards!
robert in NYC
He’s probaby bosom pals with Chris Barron of GOProud, another one who endorses republican gay haters. His group rejected repeal of DADT and doesn’t believe in marriage equality as an issue to support, yet he himself married his partner last year in DC. Go figure. To me, gay and republican = oxymoron. Voting for a party that doesn’t want you to have your equality is beyond sick and despicable. The dems could do a hell of a lot better on that one too, but they don’t run campaigns trying to ban rights for one group of people.
TMikel
What can we do to encourage those organizations to drop this toxic creature?
Doug
Has anyone researched what his recent record is or what his views are today?
jkrupiarz
Troup? Is he a long-lost Palin?
Gavin
@Doug: We don’t even know what his views were before. All we know (with respect to judges) is that, at some point in time, he was on the board of an org, HAPI, whose executive director signed a pro-“nuclear option” letter. We have no idea of his role, whether the board was consulted, or whether he was even on the board at the same time the letter was sent. And based on this, a half dozen gay blogs are running with the story that he “helped get anti-gay judges on the bench.”
jkrupiarz
These professional gays make me sick. What does this guy actually do other than be a professional board member? He’s part of the mutual admiration society that is so prevalent in local gay communities and nationally, and particularly in places like LA. They do NOTHING to further the interests of the gay community, know NOTHING about the needs or interests of the gay community, and exist just to hobnob and suck up to each other, to politicians, to corporations, and see this as their route to celebrity and easy living without having to actually work for a living. Once the professional gays get involved it’s over for whatever the original intentions of the organization are. GLAAD needs to stop the stupid awards shows (another gay obsession – giving each other awards or giving awards to politicians of all people) and tend to the business of the community. Who cares if some ditzy starlet or dimwitted actor walks out on stage to read glorified tweet off a teleprompter about how they love the gays – they love us because they love the money we spend and that’s about it. I’ve seen this same activity over the past 20 years in the microcosm of my local community and it’s the same BS only on a bigger stage.
Gavin
@jkrupiarz: You realize it’s “professional gays” who are organizing the push for marriage equality in New York, who are behind Lawrence v Texas, Perry, and just about every other piece of impact litigation, who are out there making sure portrayals of gay people in the media are positive and not stereotypes, who organize outreach to faith communities, who fund and run organizations like the Williams Institute, etc., no?
Doug
Gavin… thanks. If the organizations lose or turn away corporate funding and discontinue fundraising galas then who will be putting up the funds to replace the lost revenue? Do the bloggers, who are so quick to crucify, have a Plan B?
RomanHans
@Gavin: Oh, okay. The “professional gays” siphon money off their rich friends and use it to pay politicians in hope of them enacting equality. Got it. You’ve convinced me: no BS here!
Mitch
I am concerned that GLAAD has lost so much talent on the Board because of Coronado, and yet its remaining Board is still chaired by a Conservative with long-standing ties to Coronado.
Ellen
@Doug: Right on. No comment on this particular case, but everybody grows and changes, and I surely wouldn’t exclude these people from our leadership as they may well provide valuable insight on how to shift the ideology of their former colleagues.
Ellen
@Ellen: by “these people,” I am referring to those who’ve once worked for anti-gay organizations.
manfred
I often wondered who had a hold on GLAAD’s balls lo these many years.
jkrupiarz
@Gavin: Gavin, I agree with all this and it’s what I mean about doing the business of the community. I honor and support the activists who are achieving these results. I don’t support or honor those who publicize their good works to justify or offset their damaging actions, or those who use the community for self aggrandizement or their own enrichment. Those are the professional gays who I’m talking about – I’ve seen them and you’ve seen them.
Altman
Seven people resigned positions they wanted to have because the board would not adhere to ethics and conflict of interest standards. I assume those who left could not in good faith continue asking for donations (a requirement). That is not professional gayness. It is integrity. This is a well worded statement on the matter to ALL board members: http://www.baywindows.com/index.php?ch=opinion&sc=editorial&sc2=news&sc3=&id=121330
Cam
@Gavin: said…
“You realize it’s “professional gays” who are organizing the push for marriage equality in New York, who are behind Lawrence v Texas, Perry, and just about every other piece of impact litigation,”
_______________________-
You are a liar. It was “Professional Gays” that told the litigants in the Marriage cases to NOT go forward with their suits in multiple states because the time wasn’t right. They told the litigants in Hawaii to not go forward because the time wasn’t right.
HRC Came out against Perry v. Schwartzeneger origionally, saying again, it wasn’t the time and we shouldn’t push, when the grass roots went crazy over that they THEN attempted to associate themselves with that case but the lawyers in charge of it told them to go to hell.
GLAAD has shown that a simple check is enough to take gay rights out of any equasion as far as their board was concerned. These groups have internalized the worst aspects of lobbying…l.e. don’t be concerned with the subject you are lobbying just make sure your lunch calendar is always full.
Cam
@Gavin:
Oh, and Gavin, just in case you want to try to claim that your lie was correct and I am wrong about the “Professional Gays” being against Perry V. Scwarzenegger origionally, and are supposedly behind this case…here is a nice link for you. Pay special attention to the following section…
“HRC joined Freedom to Marry, ACLU, Lamda Legal, GLAAD, Log Cabin Republicans, and PFLAG in denouncing the Perry v. Schwarzenegger lawsuit, saying in an open letter, “Rather than filing premature lawsuits, we need to talk to our friends, family and neighbors, and help them understand why denial of the freedom to marry is wrong.”
http://www.queerty.com/remember-when-hrc-aclu-bashed-the-perry-prop-8-lawsuit-20100804/
Gee, thats a whole bunch of “Professional Gays”…funny, they don’t seem to be behind that lawsuit like you claim they were.
Gavin
@Cam: Um, have you looked at who’s behind the scenes at AFER, and who their major funders are? Professional gays (and straights). Lots of people had strategic disagreements with the timing of Perry, and for good reason — GLAD (one A) is counting its blessings that their DOMA case is almost certainly going to get to SCOTUS before Perry does.