On Saturday, the Human Rights Campaign hosted its 16th annual HRC National Dinner at the Washington Convention Center, where actress Sally Field was honored with the Ally for Equality Award for her support for the gay community (and her gay son, Sam). Other notable guests included new HRC honcho Chad Griffin, Newark Mayor Cory Booker , Jesse Tyler Ferguson and TK, screenwriter Dustin Lace Black and NAACP President Ben Jealous, who took home the National Equality Award.
âThe call to freedom is still loud and hard because we still live in a nation where some people want to deny the rights of others.â said Booker, âYou cannot deny the rights, freedom, and liberty of others without diminishing your own. This is what we must understand.â
Photos: B. Proud, Judy Rolfe/HRC
Cam
There they go defending our rights with dinners again. đ
Seriously, the new president seems better, first of all by not seeming to believe that his only job is to buy expensive suits and to ignore gay rights in favor of being on all the right invitation lists. Hopefully this group keeps remembering what their reason for exisitence is. They seem to be heading back to the right track.
gppm1103
@Cam: I agree. It’s great to give people awards who help the community, but all too often it turns out to be just another corporate money pit. Let’s hope they follow through and do what needs to be done.
I love Sally Field. But where are the everyday people who are fighting to change things, to make it a better place?
A dinner and award show for rich people isn’t really the answer.
Atomicrob
The HRC culture of the “gala” fundraiser dinners is not unique and they do make some money hosting these events. It’s what they actually DO with the money that needs to be addressed. Fact is, we need a single, vanguard, national leader. Every effective civil rights movement had one that spearheaded the cause and spoke as one voice for the collective good. Martin Luther King, Gandhi, Lech Walesa . . . they all were the “wow” factors that ultimately made the difference. Where’s ours? We need to find one . . .