SOUNDBITES — “As for ‘the nation’s largest gay rights group,’ we are definitely not getting what we pay for. Despite an astronomical budget, we get backroom deals and snail’s pace progress. Then again, what do we expect from a civil rights group that recently bought a building with a 30-year mortgage? The Beltway tuxedo crowd is in no hurry, especially if actual activism might risk their coveted access and cocktail invites. All this nonsense reminds me, unfortunately, of why I burned out on gay politics earlier this year. We can only hope that independent voices bypass the Solmonese/Smith crowd and demand change directly from the Democrats in power — in the White House and on Capitol Hill. Count me in for another March on Washington — let’s just make sure the HRC building is included on the protest route.” —Former Washington Blade editor and blogger Chris Crain on the scandal involving HRC and Don’t Ask Don’t Tell [Citizen Chris]
Chris Crain
‘Count me in for another March on Washington – let’s just make sure the HRC building is included on the protest route’
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Geoff
Amen
kademonster
agreed.
Alec
*IF* the statement by Belkin on HRC and DADT is true, and IF HRC doesn’t turn around and use its resources to pull for a repeal and undo the damage they may have caused, then screw the protest: Defund and replace them. A group that operates with that level of duplicity cannot be trusted to lobby on behalf of the LGBT community at the national level.
Members also need to demand transparency. I would be horrified if I discovered my money was going to a group that was *actively* opposing legislative repeal efforts.
The Gay Numbers
@Alec: Am I missing something? Isn’t what HRC was doing horse trading to get Obama committed on two bills? I don’t get your comment because you often say you are a political reaslist right?
InExile
Agree Chris! We need to cut the cash and support grassroots organizations that get results.
Alec
@The Gay Numbers: No. According to Belkin they were actively opposing the legislative repeal efforts. Or at least, one organization was (Belkin’s statement was a bit ambiguous). In other words, they were coming in and actively opposing activists who were working on the MREA with the lead sponsor. You can read about it here, or listen to Signorile’s interviews on his site, and come to whatever conclusions you like. Solomnese flatly denied that was what was happening.
TANK
Grassroots orgs? There’s brain drain in both mainstream advocacy groups and at the grassroots level.
The Gay Numbers
@Alec: Okay, I misunderstood the situation. I thought they were prioritizing ENDA and hate crimes over DADT. To me, that’s a fair trade off as one is trying to apply strategy to a situation. Decide which priority to attack first.
InExile
@TANK:I agree with that. My poit is HRC receives lots of cash and in return we get no results. If we were a corporation HRC would have been fired for no results.
InExile
@The Gay Numbers: Relationship recognition.
Alec
@The Gay Numbers: Perhaps this is how they define “prioritization.” Belkin distinguishes between inactivity and proactive efforts to prevent consideration of the bill:
“There has been almost no pressure and our major national gay rights organizations – I mean it would be one thing to say nothing, but there is proactive lobbying on the Hill for Congress not to consider this issue, and so the community has been just appalling on this issue. … The groups obviously are not going to admit in public that they’re doing nothing, but we’ve heard from so many offices that not only are they not doing anything but they’re proactively lobbying against consideration of the issue that I feel very confident in saying that.”
http://www.baywindows.com/index.php?ch=news&sc=blog&sc2=news&sc3=&id=92180
The Gay Numbers
@InExile: I don’t understand your point. Can you re-explain what you want me to understand from your post?
The Gay Numbers
@Alec: Okay, that’s very different from my understanding. Thanks. Now I see the source of the anger. It seems, the very least, like a waste of resources. Why would you focus on stopping one bill when you can be focused on building up support for another? Frank is about to reintroduce ENDA in the next few weeks. Why are they not focused on that battle or the hate crimes bill in the Senate? So, I agree, this is not good.
Wolf
Also we need to take back alot of the power. The time for ADVOCACY is over and its time for ACTIVISM.
OUT OF THE BOARDROOMS AND INTO THE STREETS!
Captain Freedom
HRC and Joe Solmonese have done more harm to LGBT equality in 2009 than Focus on the Family!
TANK
@Captain Freedom:
Really? In 2009? That’s crazy talk.
DeWayne
Should we even Discuss what HRC did to FUCK UP Prop 8 in California with their nimby namby milquetoast campaign?
The Mormons shredded them!
and how did they react? After the passage of Prop 8 they are going around begging people to take HATE off their PropH8 signs “The Mormons dont really HATE us” they said (Yes they DO!)
Bullshit
HRC will NEVER get another dollar from ME!
InExile
@The Gay Numbers: My point is DADT and ENDA are very important but the fact that my partner of 14 years is legally a stranger to me legally is also important. I think the focus should be on DADT, ENDA, Hare Crimes, and Legal recognition of our relationships all at the same time. Recognition of our relationships can really do a lot of good for our lives in so many legal ways besides just a piece of paper that says we are married or in a civil union. If we pick and choose which rights are important, so can the politicians. We should push for all!
They can do it all if they are pushed hard, they are just not being pushed hard enough. Our President, the Congress, and the Senate will do nothing unless they are forced to act, we are low on the priority list.
InExile
@InExile: Should say “Hate Crimes”, sorry big hands and fingers sometimes hit the wrong key.
Donald
I wish these marches still had the impact they used to. The last gay one was on was almost like a circuit party. And yet, I will alway support them.
ChristopherM
I’m hesitant to jump into bed with Chris Crain considering the hateful horrible article he wrote advocating dumping trans folks from ENDA, but he is dead-on with this commentary.
The Gay Numbers
@InExile: I am not advocating ignoring an issue. I am advocating understanding how these issues are inter-related to one another with regard to strategy. That if you get ENDA, that makes the likelihood of DADT repeal by legislature or overturn by the courts more likely. That if you get marriage equality, it makes people perception of the euqality of gays in other areas more likely. Etc.
Now, that I understand from Alec what HRC is doing- I am not advocating that. What they are doing is counter productive. What is not counter productive is focusing on the immediate gets to apply pressure on one or two issues, and then using those sucesses to build momentum. Much like we are doing with marriage equality. My only point is to say I can see some value in utilizing this sort of strategy legislatively and legally while pursuing as much public pressure for all right now.
InExile
@The Gay Numbers: Yes, I guess the most important thing is to get the ball moving on any legislation.
The Gay Numbers
@InExile: I am glad you understand where I am coming from. I just want to restate that based on what Alec provided- I don’t agree with HRC. Then, again, I have not agreed with them before now because I don’t think that even as lobbying org they do their job well.
Paul
HRC needs to be boycotted by the GLBTQ community and these important dollars and investments of time need to be going to other deserving GLBTQ rights groups.
HRC has bee squandering our cash and time for years and they need to be punished, now, and hard.
ENDA, DADT, and the repleal of DOMA, etc. all need to be passed and now. There is no reason to lobby anyone not to pass any of these and it is sickening to think that this is what HRC has been up to. Does anyone have proof that this is what HRC has done? No matter though, I stopped giving them money years ago when I finally saw the light. There are many worthy GLBTQ groups who deserve our support as they do great work and spend our money and use our talents wisely. Keep giving, just choose to whom very wisely.
InExile
@The Gay Numbers: I also do not think HRC does a good job. I hate to say this but Joe Solmonese reminds me of the character Pee-Wee Herman. My intention of this comparison is I just do not think Joe Solmonese comes across as a serious individual when I see him in the media. This is a big problem because our issues are of a very serious nature and the message our “leaders” convey needs to be seen as serious. We do not need smiley, friendly people to represent us, we need individuals that come across as being dead serious in the public eye.
anokie
Does anyone know where I can get a voodoo doll of the HRC? lol
Seriously, I’ve never seen such an impotent advocacy group. They send me donation requests and I shred them, waste of money.
ggreen
There is a guy in the Castro out nearly everyday trying to raise money for HRC based on the marriage equity fight. He has a clipboard and talks a mile a minute. The people he talks AT can’t get a word in edgewise. I have listened to his spiel several times, it appears he gets daily talking points from someone that’s over opinionated and under educated about marriage equity (HRC).
Alex
@Paul: Could you please list some of these worthy orgs so the readers here could check them out and possibly funnel them the dollars they would give to the incompetent hrc?
Jeffrey
@Alex
Lambda Legal is the only organization that has had significant results and makes good use of your donations, imho.
michael
I would also like to know of grassroots organizations that work for gay rights. I was over the HRC yrs ago. I was friends with a very active member in the city I used to live in. I knew a lot of very wealthy people in the city and he was always on my back to get them to buy tickets to their “dinners”. One friend of mine was on the board of a local Aids organization and gave huge donations to this organization. One week the HRC was having a “dinner” one the same night as her organization was having a fundraiser. I was asked by my stupid “friend” and his friends for HRC to convince her to come to the HRC. I asked her she said she had the other obligation, of course and when I reported back they were all “livid”. Of course they wanted her to come with her fat checkbook. I told them that she and her husband give huge gifts to help people living with HIV and that was important and to find somebody else. I am not friends anymore with any of them. They were all social climbing wannabes anyway. Thats what the HRC attracts.
schlukitz
@InExile:
The picture of Joe Salmonese that will live in my mind forever, is the one of him dancing with a woman and laughing it up at a black tie gala (election day I believe it was), while our rights were being voted away at the polling places in California.
Any possible regrets I may have had about not renewing my HRC membership a couple of years ago, were extinguished forever that night.
Best decision I ever made.
TANK
@schlukitz:
Yeah, I’ve stopped supporting it as well. They’ve been around for far too long to justify no substantive results. I think my money is better spent at lambda legal, TP, and aclu.
There’s incentive to maintain the status quo. The only way it will change is with the abating influence of the older HRC assimilationism generation, supplanted by those who will not continue to atrophy the activist/advocacy community. (And no, antiassimilitionism doesn’t mean crafting a life that revolves around having an orgasm and being anti-monogamy..outlaws, none). So it will require time for them to…die out. But it’s not just them. It’s The non profit, NGO, advocacy group bubble nationwide. Zero accountability is the inevitable period to self monitoring and reporting, greed and brain drain. It’s not hard to make a name for yourself in the corporatized non profit world given just how many…well, stupid and ineffective people are in top level positions, and are more concerned with protecting their salaries and benefits than doing their job.
Captain Freedom
I believe HRC wanted Prop 8 to pass. Why else did HRC run such a shitty campaign? Same reason they told Obama to hold off on DADT. Same reason they are opposed to an omnibus LGBT rights bill. Same reason they are working with EQCA to push Prop 8 repeal to 2012…….
THEY WANT OUR MONEY SO THEY CAN THROW MORE BLACK TIE AFFAIRS AND THEN SEND US EMAILS ABOUT IT AND ACT AS IF THEY’VE DONE SOMETHING FOR US WHEN THEY HAVEN’T DONE SHIT!
The HRC is like the NAACP in that they want to continually see us being oppressed so they can be our Equality Pimps and continue keeping gays in a state of victimhood so they can profit off it!
FUCK HRC AND FUCK JOE SOLMONESE!
InExile
@schlukitz: He needs to go away, far far away!
Steve
I hate HRC. I no longer give them money.
Any chance we can start an internet campaign for Joe Solmonese’s resignation?
mb00
Hmmm…this HRC situation is starting to remind me of another organization that got too big for their britches. In Los Angeles, APLA (Aids Project LA) was far more concerned with throwing great huge celebrity filled “fund-raisers” that they started ignoring the reasons why they were there in the first place. I had a friend that worked there at the time all that was happening and he would tell all these crazy things like 2 hour lunches at expensive restaurants paid for by APLA almost always on a daily basis, and he was just an office assistant, I can only imagine what the big wigs were doing with the rest of the donations.
Now it seems like HRC is heading down that same stoney path.
Let’s demand an audit.
Dennis
Look, I’m no huge fan of HRC, and I find them only mildly effective at best…we should be vocal in our criticism, and stingy with our money to them, reminding them who they work for, US, and that talk is cheap, delivering on our rights insn’t.
At the same time, something that few people, acknowledge on this blog is that politics in Washington D.C. is all about TEAM SPORTS and who you know/who you have access to…outsiders can be all angry and pissed off, but unless you are well-connected, you have NO POWER to get ANYTHING done in D.C. So schmoozing, black-tie bullshit, and other glad-handing crap is neccessary, it’s just that HRC has tipped the balance with too much ass kissing, and not enough ass kicking.
timncguy
It’s frustrating to keep reading posters opinions that propose we MUST prioritize Hate Crimes and ENDA ahead of DADT for legislation and not recognizing that you can priortize “congressional legislation” for repeal of DADT after thos eother mentioned while STILL DEMANDING that Obama issue an executive stop loss order stopping the DADT firings.
These are NOT mutually exclusive goals. Stop DADT enforcement NOW and prioritize the legislative repeal anywhere you want to.
Although I fail to see why congress wouldn’t want to move on DADT right now anyway because of the overwhelming public support for repeal. There is no political danger in repeal at all.
Bill Perdue
Why does the threat of a series of mass marches in DC, regionally and locally, frighten Democrats so much?
Because they get out of hand, unleashing the pent up anger of our communities and directing it at the Congress and the White House, which are controlled by bigots of both parties.
Because they create new political formations independent of and opposed to the two parties of bigotry.
Because they allow the movement to raise a serious program of militant forward-looking demands that lobbyists would never have the guts to raise with Congressbigots. Lobbyists value their ‘power’ relationships with movers and shakers like Reid, Kennedy, Pelosi and Barney Frankenstein who’ve all demonstrated that far from being our friends they can be our bitter enemies.
Examples of this independent, cutting edge program are:
1) Passage of an omnibus anti-discrimination bill that would make it easy to win awards from bigots who discriminate in housing, education, employment and access to social services and medical care. (The current laws are restrictive and make it hard to sue. ENDA would have changed that which is why Frankenstein and the Republicans shredded ENDA.)
2) Passage of a law mandating harsh prison terms for bigots who discriminate or who call for or endorse violence.
These laws should apply equally to our LGBT communities, the pro-choice and women’s movements, African Americans, Latinos, Asians and Pacific Islanders, immigrant workers and trade unionists.
3) Demanding that the White House order the dismissal and courts marshal of any military officers guilty of bigotry.
4) Demanding that the White House and State Department open US Embassies and Consulates to GLBT folks fleeing death, torture or imprisonment at the hands of homobigoted governments like the US puppet governments in Iraq, Afghanistan and Central America.
5) A Manhattan Project to fund research, treatment and social services for those affected by HIV/AIDS and other killer diseases.
6) An end to bailouts and welfare for the looter rich until every American has a good job, good housing, good nutrition, good medical care and good education.
Can you imagine Joe Solmonese buttonholing Nancy Pelosi (one of the richest members of Congress with a fortune estimated at $131 million) and demanding that welfare for the rich be ended to pay for needle exchanges and condoms to help addicts, faggots and people in minority communities? Nah.
In the long run a combination of persistent mass marches featuring cutting edge, “won’t take no for an answer” demands is what will bring us victory while continued reliance on bigots in Congress and the White House will just add to our string of defeats.
schlukitz
@Bill Perdue:
Hear. Hear.
As my father used to say, “Sittin on your ass, isn’t gonna get the job done.”