2000 $21.04 million
2001 $21.36 million
2002 $28.98 million
2003 $29.62 million
2004 $34.17 million
2005 $35.87 million
2006 $39.03 million
2007 $42.00 million
2008 $43.95 million
2009 $45.79 million
====================
10Y $341.81 million

In the previous 18 years HRC received another $172 million.

In 28 years HRC has received $513 million. Half a billion dollars.

What, besides those “cruising stickers” do we have to show for it? What exactly has HRC accomplished?

I despise capitalism as much as the man who said “These Capitalists generally act harmoniously, and in concert, to fleece the people.” Since you’re uncommonly ignorant, in all your guises, I’ll provide you a hint.
http://www.brainyquote.com/quo.....lists.html

But just this once. No more hints. I make it a practice to refrain from educating pigs. It’s a waste of time and as we’ve seen, it annoys the pig.

You said: “Why should we sit around begging people to love us when no other group waited for acceptance?”

Who said anything about sitting around or begging?

Incidentally, you just gave evidence that “civil rights laws” and Court rulings did not change opinions in Alabama. Laws don’t change minds – they never have. Understanding changes minds. Of course, if you’re just going to “sit around” nothing will change.

Politics hasn’t worked and we’ve spent billions. The Courts may help, we’ll see. But, that’s all we’ve ever tried. We can’t buy our equality – we must create it.

The people in our community promoting a “political solution” are part of the political process. They are preserving their jobs/income – at our expense.

I imagine that his psychiatric advice will help us just as much as his “kill anyone who stands in our way” LGBT equality advice.

But when the disorder is multiple trolling (by the same troll) using different Noms de guerre we treat it, especially in this case, with a hearty dose of dismissive laughter and pity at the ineptness of our favorite troll.

You GO girl!

Seriously, where is the only place where they discriminate against us and get away with it? The federal government. Meanwhile so-called “Big Business” bends over backwards to get our cash. The Southern Baptist boycott of Disney had no effect on Mickey and Co.’s pro-gay policies. And Pepsi didn’t exactly cave into the American Fascist Association.

And did you ever notice how communist countries’ environmental records are piss-poor compared to those of non-communist countries? Look at Beijing at its best and compare it to Los Angeles at its worst. Remember where Chernobyl occurred.

Or was 100 million corpses in the name of The Revolution™ not enough for Bile Killajew (who I’m starting to think is an anti-gay plant or mole of some kind)?

HRC has had +$35 million a year, for several years. Since HRC’s founding they have received $347 million. Add the millions the NGLTF, Stonewall Democrats and Log Cabin Republicans across the US. Special fundraising efforts for Congress and last years Hillary and Obama campaigns. State Legislatures. Prop 8 efforts, along with Maine and Washington State. Local races. And on and on and on.

My suggestion that our community has spent $2 billion in 40 years trying to buy a “political solution” is actually low. We have spent more than $1 billion in just the last 8 years. So, the number is likely much more than $2 billion.

But, the point remains political solutions are a waste of money. Ask everyone that got excited and contributed to Bill Clinton. 1992 feels a lot like 2009 for the LGBT Community, doesnt it?

It will be fabulous!!

You can’t count money spent on AIDS drugs and prevention as evidence that LGBT political lobbying, organizing and lawsuits don’t work. Likewise money spent on things like community centers, health clinics, etc. Paying for a place to hold gay AA meetings doesn’t help us get our rights.

You originally said “if our equality was being held hostage for $1 billion, we would figure out how to pay the ransom.” Then you claim we’ve spent “$2 billion” on trying to get equality and “have little to show for it.” We’ve spent NOWHERE near that amount on gaining LGBT equality, and inflating that number by including money that was (wisely) spent on AIDS and other non-equality efforts is disingenuous at best.

HRC is only a part of Gay, Inc. The average is $50 million a year combined. During the Aids crisis some funds went to treatment and education programs, but we have averaged $50 million year. During the last 10 years it has exceeded $100 million a year (and more during election years). (In 2008 Gay Inc. received over $200 million).

So, the truth is we have spent “billions” seeking a solution. My complain is that almost ALL of it has been for a “political solution.” There isn’t one. That money was mostly wasted.

You say you were making $120K/year at a “non-profit.” If that’s what you were making, you were in the same general neighborhood as the EDs of GLAD, SLDN, PFLAG and Equality California. That would have to make you pretty senior if you worked for an LGBT org. (Unless you worked for a non-LGBT org and are comparing apples to oranges…)

Were YOU going to work everyday thinking “hmmmm…I wonder how I can sabotage LGBT equality today so I can keep taking home this fat paycheck?” (Substitute your org’s mission, if you were doing something else.) Because most of the people I worked with when I was in non-profit (including a stint at one of the orgs on this list) put in long hours doing hard work trying to win our rights (or accomplish whatever the mission was).

Finally, I don’t know what bozos you worked with, but a lot of us move on to better paying for-profit jobs once we get too old to live on chump change. So thanks for bashing people who give years of their lives working hard for very little money trying to make the world a better place, but I ain’t buying the bullshit you’re selling.

Please avail yourself of the polling data and research. Most of us don’t live in Alabama – thank God.

But, the research is clear: In the past 40 years the “acceptance” of homosexuality has tripled. Alabama is a very “religious” State, so the progress has been much slower.
_________________________

That incident was on people in Alabama’s acceptance of INTERACCIAL marriage…not gay marriage. The point was that, even now they are still opposed to it. Why should we sit around begging people to love us when no other group waited for acceptance? The civil rights of a group have never been up for vote by the majority, they’ve come from the Supreme court or from the legislature.

Wow, I was wondering what rock this creature of many aliases was hiding under.

And when he’d pop up to extol the virtues of capitalism, child labor, union busting, degradation of the environment, economic failure, wars for oil and all the other ‘gifts’ of capitalism.

Auntie Vladie is on the same team as the Clintons who were trained at Wal-Mart. Is Wal-Mart, the largest corporation in the world where Hillary Clinton spent five years on the board of directors a prime example of what Numb-nuts means when he says that “the private sector was treating us better than our elected officials”? No doubt. Wal-Mart, Numb-nuts, the Clintons and capitalism are all despicable.

But at least the Clintons and Wal-Mart use their own names. Numb-nuts, aka Auntie Vladie Lenin is too cowardly to identify himself. Is it any wonder.

With all the corporate money suddenly coming in to the coffers of Gay, Inc. over the last decade, it’s hard to remember that HRC’s budget when Elizabeth Birch took over in 1995 was just $6 million a year. I don’t think they’re doing a very good job either, but backing up your argument with wildly inflated, patently incorrect “statistics” isn’t going to help.

We’ve been outspent for years (and still are – Focus on the Family, just ONE anti-gay group, has an annual budget of $140 million), which doesn’t mean that these groups couldn’t be doing things differently and getting better results. I’m just saying that getting marriage in five states, anti-discrimination laws in over 20 states, overturning sodomy laws and being on the cusp of passing ENDA isn’t the most HORRIBLE result in the world, given what LGBT groups as a whole are up against.

Hey Mary Marxist, you and what army? There aren’t exactly THAT many unemployed lgbt hipsters wearing Che t-shirts ready to storm the Winter Palace.

Love how Mary Marxist wants to declare war on corporations (and the entire capitalist system, elsewhere on this and other blogs). Gee, last time I looked around, the private sector was treating us better than our elected officials.

I think our community (and the World) is a lot smarter than that. The only thing I fear are people “stuck in the past,” with outdated ideas, useless weapons and the ability to type.

Please avail yourself of the polling data and research. Most of us don’t live in Alabama – thank God.

But, the research is clear: In the past 40 years the “acceptance” of homosexuality has tripled. Alabama is a very “religious” State, so the progress has been much slower.

The “minds” of voters have changed a lot more than the “votes” of our Congress – in fact at a 3:1 rate. Congress is old, religious and mostly white – America is not. Wake up.

Hint number one: Concord and Lexington, April 18th, 1775. HRH George the Third gets his royal ass kicked. The first American Revolution.

Hint number two: The Confederacy, aka, a sewer full of christian slave owning thugs get their faces shoved into the dirt by the blue clad army of farmers, workers and freedmen: April 9, 1865 The second American Revolution.

Our next turn at bat doesn’t have to be in April. Any month will do as long as begin the fight for fundamental change. Then we can deal with the “religion, business and political parties” who terrify people like AndrewW so much.

We and our allies in unions, the antiwar movement, feminists and in minority communities will change the rules, form our own government and create our equality. Nobody’s going to grant it – we have to take it.

Enough “spin.” Please.

You cannot “lobby” politicians regarding LGBT issues. You just can’t. If we could lobby-away-their-beliefs, wouldn’t we have done that during the last 40 years?

The truth is we cannot pass anything LGBT-related in the 111th Congress because of our US Senators. 45 US Senators are anti-LGBT regarding “discrimination,” (ENDA) and 55 US Senators are anti-LGBT regarding “equality” (DOMA, DADT). That is the reality.

We have wasted $2 billion in 40 years “lobbying” with the false promise of “changing votes.” We should have spent that money on “changing minds.” THAT would have made a difference.

Our equality will not come as a result of sum elusive “political solution,” it will be the result of changing the “cultural conversation.” Naghanenu is correct – you have to change the “people,” change their minds. As a community we have never tried that. We keep putting all our eggs in the Democrat’s basket. It has never worked and it’s not working now.

We will be equal when people believe we are.
___________________________________________

Oh Please, Politicians vote for issues and change their minds ALL THE TIME! THIS is the only issue they seem to be getting a pass on with the bullshit religious excuse. Again, until I see those same politicians voting to make divorce illegal and adultery a crime I don’t want to hear about a religious excuse. Right now, politicians like Barney Frank’s job is to keep us quiet because they’ve determined that they don’t have a chance of losing the gay vote if they DON’T help us. Frank has backed up this line of thought. If the Dems thought that they may lose an election or their money got cut trust me, they would vote for us in a second.

As for equality coming when minds change. In the year 2000 40% of the state of Alabama still wanted interacial marriage to be illegal. Minds haven’t changed that much even after all this time. Time to stop excusing Congress by attempting to say it’s our fault. Thats like saying that the rape victim deserved it because her skirt was too short.

“That may take 50 to 100 years, as other Civil Rights movements have taken that long.”

You ignore the fact that we live in a new world. This isn’t your Grandfather’s America. Everything has changed – except us.

That kind of organization can aim it’s fire at our real enemies: the cults who promote hate, the businesses who make money off discrimination and the politicians who pander to both. Then we can launch a 50 state /federal battle win full equality.”

So, after we attack everyone: religion, business and political parties, who’s left? Who will grant our “full equality” in this “50 state federal battle” you suggest? Who haven’t you pissed off in the process?

I appreciate your political analysis and how we’ve been damaged by religion, deceived by politics and mislead by Gay Inc. (and others). But, the “angry” approach is tried-and-untrue. It hasn’t worked, in fact it only fuels the flame of disagreement. Sooner or later we have to put out the fire. We have to take a stand for equality. We have to enroll supporters by asking for help.

I would rather ask for help. People will help. Well, unless you’re still yelling at them.

Gay, Inc. can’t use the same strategy.

• It needs to be accompanied by a ban on hiring bigots by governments, the cults and business.

• It lacks the kind of legal and administrative remedies that would make it easy to file grievances and lawsuits with a high likelihood of winning.

• And finally it ignores discrimination in housing, access to public services and accommodation and most critically, access to medical services.

In other words it’s so lame that even Democrats and Republicans, who make a habit of catering to bigots, can pass it and a bigot like Obama can sign it. Even that is far from assured.

We’ll have to watch the debate and the amendment process to see if those infamously spineless Democrats accept all the Republicans gutting amendments like they did last time. We know Barney Frank will betray us out of habit if nothing else. What we don’t know is how many Reuben Diaz’s are lurking in the Democrat Congressional caucus.

If it doesn’t pass soon and we get close to another election the Democrats will probably just try to quietly table it as they’ve done for decades.

Here’s why. It’s clear that anti-incumbency is going to hurt Congressional Democrats more than usual for an off year election. And it’s clear that the Obama years won’t be compared to his immediate predecessors Clinton and Bush, in spite of their similarities, but to Hoover and Nixon.

The latest CNN/Opinion Research poll says that 48% approve what and 50% disapprove. The 48% approval is a 7 point drop from November and down a whopping 20 points from February-March.

“The poll indicates that the biggest drop in approval comes from non college educated white voters. That’s one indication among many that Obama’s growing unpopularity may be more related to unemployment and the poor economy.”

Just last Friday one time DNC Chair Terry McAuliffe said:

“I have been in this business of politics for 30 years now, I have never seen such angst that you see across the country. People are angry and they’re going to take it out on incumbents… People are angry, and rightfully so, that we bailed out Wall Street and they’re getting huge bonuses.”

What’s urgently needed is the creation of a national activist group independent of the Democrats and their front groups like HRC and SLDN. It’ll need internal democracy with binding votes on strategy and tactic with a firm refusal to pay anything but stipends to full time staff.

That kind of organization can aim it’s fire at our real enemies: the cults who promote hate, the businesses who make money off discrimination and the politicians who pander to both. Then we can launch a 50 state /federal battle win full equality.

Don’t put up with those who impose religious superiority over you, because of who you are, or who you chose to love. Kindly remind them that they are equally destined for Hell as they are passing Judgment that only Our Lord can pass. And do not talk, support, or coddle them, ever, unless and until they unconditionally accept you for who you are. This may mean friction in your immediate family or circle of friends. Fuck’em. You want to make an omelet; you have to crack a few eggs.

Stop whining about Christian persecution. Islam is about DEATH to homosexuals. So you like vacationing in Dubai? You and your fag boyfriend get the death penalty in the UAE. That’s a lot worse than what the Christians are saying. Yet too many become obsessed with Christianity, while ignoring the other Enemies Within. All the more reason to ignore completely the religious arguments surrounding queer rights – and focus on the non-secular, Constitutional pursuit of such rights, responsibilities, and freedoms.

When the shit bags put out commercials, or other vile filth, scaring people that their kids will be turned queer if gay marriage, domestic partnerships, or any right is afforded to the LGT’s – Return Fire with “Damn right your kids are going to be exposed to gay issues. Why? Because even if you stripped the right to respiration from gays – your str-hate kids will still harass kids of gay parents… simply because gay parents exist, regardless if they can marry (or whatever). The gays will *never* go away. So why not just grant the rights and get this the fuck over with?”

About “broadening our movement” … it’s been broad for 40 fucking years. Simply keep fighting for full equality under the law, and no compromises. There is no such thing as a compromise on Civil Rights. As Ben Franklin said: “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.” We should make the sacrifices today, not settling for “temporary safety”, so that those who come after us will know what true freedom is. That may take 50 to 100 years, as other Civil Rights movements have taken that long.

…and finally… kindly remind those that only real men know how to take a dick up the ass. It takes MANLY skill. That alone is reason enough to end DADT.

The idea of reaching out to the religious community has merit (especially since they are the ones backing all the inequality), but that very fact makes me want to have NOTHING to do with them, especially when I am confronted by smiling and otherwise-compassionate Christians who will tell me to my face that I am somehow ‘wrong’ or ‘deceived’ – and my own testimony is, quite frankly, not effective with these folks who will simply dismiss my story by saying ‘Well, regardless of what you say, it is a choice. Somehow you CHOSE to be Gay – even if it was subconscious.’ Even telling my story of suffering through ‘conversion therapy’ and all the emotional wounds it caused just makes them say ‘Well if you had more faith, you’d be delivered.’ Watching them do everything they can to spin homosexuality into ‘a choice’ or ‘an abomination to God, blah blah blah’ is damned hard, and has left me emotionally exhausted on more than one occasion trying to talk to these people.

I remember seeing a YouTube video of someone who supported Prop 8 and still considered themselves ‘tolerant’ – the whole video pissed me off to no end, particularly when the author said he would still be happy to visit a Gay couple’s picnic and everything would be just fine – even after voting to strip that Gay couple of their rights. My response was ‘WTF?? I’d slam the fucking door in their FACES if they showed up at my house!’ Is it a knee-jerk reaction? Sure – but it’s also a simple truth; I would NEVER want to welcome someone into my home, take advantage of my (and my partner’s) hospitality, and then turn around and strip me of my right to marry, or otherwise support discrimination against me. And there’s no WAY I’d let them get away with saying they were tolerant – that’s just a way for these people to salve whatever guilt they might feel when they come face to face with me or anyone in the LGBT community. Yet I also know that these Christians would then turn right around and become the aggrieved victim, bemoaning those ‘militant Gay activists who can’t accept a different viewpoint or opinion.’ My pain and outrage becomes meaningless at best, and at worst extra ammunition to be used against me and mine.

I’m very thankful for the Christian friends that I have that are supportive of Equality (in whatever area – military service, employment, marriage, etc.) but even their voices seem drowned out by all their fellow Christians who keep repeating the same sound-bytes about God carpet-bombing Sodom and Gomorrah ’cause of the Gays, or how it was Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve ad nauseum.

It seems to me that our approach should use this sort of formula:

* Continue pushing for legislative action on ENDA, DOMA Repeal, DADT Repeal. Abandoning that push would be disastrous, since lobbying groups for the Religious Right certainly wouldn’t abandon their efforts!

* Continue pushing for judicial review of anti-Gay policies, wherever we can. I’d say the Judiciary has certainly swung in our favor over the past ten years, and by continuing to push in this area, more judges will come to see the inherent inequality we face (or I certainly hope).

* Expanded community outreach, particularly among the younger generation and supportive religious groups. It’s in this demographic that we have our biggest support, and I believe we must continue making a concerted effort to show these folks that there *is* a disconnect between being against Equality, and still considering themselves ‘tolerant’ – that the Civil Rights movement and the Gay Rights movement are more similar than they are different – and that granting the LGBT community equality in civil matters would not impact on religious freedoms, or freedom of speech.

* Call anti-Equality legislators on the carpet. The HRC (yes, I know, I know) has an excellent kit called “No Excuses” which basically shows folks how to request a legislator’s presence at an informal meeting where they (or a rep of theirs) can be grilled on their stands. I think those anti-Equality Democrats in NY should be hauled in front of a group of angry Gays and forced to explain their rationale.

* For heaven’s sakes, we have to get off our Gay asses and get out there! I don’t even want to know how many LGBT folks in California and Maine didn’t vote – the idea that even ONE Gay man in those states could just shrug and say ‘I don’t care about that’ just makes me see red. Between MySpace, Facebook and Twitter, we have extremely powerful networking tools at our disposal, and we’ve seen them work in the post-H8 protests… but these are just tools, and they’re useless if not used.

Just my opinion on the matter…

I don’t think naghanenu wants to wait “fifty years,” as you suggest. He was correct in identifying the real problem:

“The people are the problem. You need to convince the people. They are the ones that make a difference.”

We have to stop attacking and start talking. We have to stop fighting and start creating. Blaming everyone but ourselves doesn’t advance our cause.

Regarding marriage… a very small, angry MINORITY is dictating the way for all others. You see… in Maine… the majority of the population of that state DID NOT endorse the raping of one group of its rights. If you really hated the idea of gay marriage up there… you would have VOTED. Only 1/2 of the eligible voters in Maine voted. Of that 1/2 that voted… about 1/2 voted to oppress. That’s ~25% of the population of that state (~1/2 of ~1/2 = ~25%). The other 75 fucking percent of the population of that state either didn’t care (because they didn’t vote) OR believed in equality for all and voted to endorse marriage equality, and actually voted. Same story in CA. And everywhere else were these kinds of issues get voted on. The majority IS NOT SPEAKING. That is why only a Court of Law can adequately resolve this issue.

NY was a fucking joke. As has been said by others, it is basically two states: NYC, which is represented in the Assembly (by population density) and the rest of the state represented in the Senate (as a function of geography). Period. Beyond dysfunctional. Damn them to hell.

NOM is a sack of shit organization that launders money to promote lies. They aren’t helping the cause, by any means. You coddle your enemies. Perhaps Maggie Gallagher can strap one on and school Brian Brown as to what sodomy actually is. As God as my Witness, these anti-sodomites and the organization the represent will be nothing but a footnote in the history books in about 50 years. And those after us will ask: what the fuck was all the fuss about?

I agree with the poster who said that we have failed to convince a majority of straights to support our issues on a national level. State by state (other than marriage), we have done reasonably well. Which is not surprising, since state legislators are closer to their constituents than the DC crowd.

We need to drop marriage as the end-all.

It took me a while to get behind repeal of DADT, as I hate to give up the easy way to avoid the draft if they ever bring it back, and I am not a big fan of the military, and have no interest in joining. So I thought I had no personal stake in changing this law until I realized how it directly affects me by teaching new generations as well as sending a message to the rest of the world, that gay people should be punished because they are gay. While we can and should condemn Uganda for their outrageous punishment of gay people, it is difficult as a nation to tell them they are wrong to punish, when we set the same example through DADT.

I hope this helps to persuade anyone who doesn’t see repeal of DADT as a priority, of why it should be.

Enough “spin.” Please.

You cannot “lobby” politicians regarding LGBT issues. You just can’t. If we could lobby-away-their-beliefs, wouldn’t we have done that during the last 40 years?

The truth is we cannot pass anything LGBT-related in the 111th Congress because of our US Senators. 45 US Senators are anti-LGBT regarding “discrimination,” (ENDA) and 55 US Senators are anti-LGBT regarding “equality” (DOMA, DADT). That is the reality.

We have wasted $2 billion in 40 years “lobbying” with the false promise of “changing votes.” We should have spent that money on “changing minds.” THAT would have made a difference.

Our equality will not come as a result of sum elusive “political solution,” it will be the result of changing the “cultural conversation.” Naghanenu is correct – you have to change the “people,” change their minds. As a community we have never tried that. We keep putting all our eggs in the Democrat’s basket. It has never worked and it’s not working now.

We will be equal when people believe we are.