Gay Orgs Roll Over On Gillibrand’s Lackluster Gay Record

23gillibrand2_600Here’s why we’re frustrated with a lot of mainstream gay organizations. All it took was a hurried late-night phone call between Senator-Elect Kirsten Gillibrand and the Empire State Pride Agenda for that group to get on board with her appointment. And the Human Rights Campaign called her up too and she said to them, (“Oh, yeah, I totally support repealing Don’t Ask-Don’t Tell” (paraphrasing here), which was all it took for that group to get on board, despite their own study of her voting record indicating that when asked to co-sponsor legislation that would repeal Don’t Ask-Don’t Tell, she refused.

Gillibrand’s positions may have evolved. She may yet be a defender of LGBT rights, but what’s she’s saying today doesn’t square with her voting record. Why are these groups coming to her defense instead of asking the Senator-Elect why she didn’t support legislation that would help the gay community previously? HRC says that Gillibrand “supports repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”, but by their own accounting, she doesn’t. She also claims to be in support of full marriage equality, a position she seems to have developed, literally, overnight. Can we get some skepticism instead of capitulation? If we don’t hold politicians responsible for their LGBT-rights votes (or lack thereof), who will?

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