THE SHOT — No, this advertisement — soon to appear in the nation’s leading failing newspapers like the Boston Herald and Indianapolis Star — is not actually an instance of the Human Rights Campaign taking some responsibility for the state of DADT’s repeal in the Senate (like it being held “hostage”). You know, because of HRC’s numerous mishaps, like attacking congresswomen for not supporting repeal when they do; lying to donors about the chances for repeal; having its military mouthpieces rally against Obama’s involvement in letting gay troops serve openly; misleading the public about behind-the-scenes dealings; giving blowjobs to Democrats when they sat idly by; wasting time on targets other than lawmakers; attacking repeal advocates instead of elected officials; and generally operating as nothing more than a place to burn money. But at first glance, I totally thought it might be a spoof! Instead it’s just another of the organization’s useless bon mots, which we’ve seen before. But I guess this all makes sense, given HRC spent merely 3.2 percent of its $45.7 million budget last year on lobbying lawmakers last year, and 4.6 percent of its (smaller) budget this year. These ads are HRC’s way of getting The Gays to do its work for them.
Kathy G
That’s it? Just some Advertisements? Who’s in charge over there, Dan Choi? The LGBTQ community has nothing. We’re totally screwed. No Senator is going to change their vote because of an Ad in the paper. What a mess.
Andrew
Frankly, besides DADT and taking care of our troops, — I’d WANT this bill to fail. While perhaps not a gay issue our defense budget is out of control.
Greg
What’s ironic is Queerty listing “attacking repeal advocates instead of elected officials” as one of HRC’s failings when, in fact, that is exactly what Queerty does daily in attacking HRC.
I am curious how much Queerty has donated to gay causes. That, after all, is one of the criteria it recently set for travel-related businesses who claim to be gay-friendly.
So, since it’s not sufficient to just talk the talk, where does Queerty’s revenue go?
Hmm???
Daez
@Andrew: We just elected a slew of Repugs that will throw their own grandmother out on the street in order to fund the purchase of a new case of ammo. Don’t expect our defense funding to go down anytime soon (2 years or more).
Kieran
Nice to see the HRC finally making a push for Americans to support funding for the cash starved US Military Industrial Complex.
AndrewW
HRC is totally useless. This is just grandstanding. They want us to believe they have a strategy and they have influence – they have neither. Anyone who supports them financially has to be a complete idiot.
reason
It is a strong message and one that the democrats have failed to articulate. The point of putting it in the defense appropriations bill was to force congresses hand. There is no need to convince a liberal constitutionally of why we need to repeal DADT, the message needs to be shaped toward conservatives. They care about military funding etc. so frame the message in that manner. Keep the focus on military funding not equality and gay rights because those people don’t care about that.
“These ads are HRC’s way of getting The gays to do its work for them.” That is the most ill thought out statement that I have heard in a while. The point of HRC is supposed to be to create a cogent argument and organize the GBLT community into an effective force that works for change. The gays are supposed to be out there doing the work, a hundred or so people working for HRC don’t have the man power to do much on the ground work beyond ads, meetings here and there, fundraisers and the such. I don’t know how to get the message home, HRC is not going to save this community, all of us have to get out there and work for it. Where HRC has failed is that they have not articulated to this community that donating money is just the beginning, and have been unable to motivate GBLT citizens to actually get involved. Paying a man 200,000 and thinking that he is going to solve a national problem is ludicrous. It takes an army. It is no different than a citizen that thinks his job ends at the ballot box. We need a coherent message, citizens organization in every district in the country, an advocacy group that can get the community national attentions, and an advocacy group that can articulate that message to the political bigwigs. If HRC was organized they would have had people like you and I setup ten or twelve meetings in our districts with 40-100 constitutes with our U.S. Reps and Senators long before this December report comes out. They would have had individuals going out in every neighbored across the country getting support and getting these people to contact their representatives or sign a pledge. They would have had members of our community at every single congressional fundraiser that took place this year. This is just the start of things that they should have done and still can do going forward. We are a community of 15-30 million not counting our allies, their are more than enough people that can get the work done and probably would have gotten involved if someone showed up at their door and told them how.
reason
There is to many advocacy groups that are looking to get a photo shoot with the president or dine with the first lady. We need a group that is not worried about showing up on Maddow but getting all of us to show up to the fight.
the crustybastard
@Kieran:
Oh my god, that was full of stars!
AndrewW
We only have 55 votes in the US Senate and all the calls, emails or protests won’t change that. It’s over. What’s next?
JusticeontheRocks
@Reason. One little flaw in your analysis: they can sever the “repeal” from the appropriations bill.
Once again, HRC screws up AND avoids doing what they are paid far too much to do.