With just a few days before the National Equality March on Sunday, organizers are busy fighting back against, uh, the gays. Oh, and gay politicians! None other than Rep. Barney Frank thinks the NEM is a lost cause.
Of course, Frank is also Congress’ biggest Debbie Downer, so his poo-pooing the march was almost expected. He tells Michelangelo Signorile the march is “useless.”.
![natleqmarch[1]](https://queerty-prodweb.s3.amazonaws.com/2009/10/natleqmarch1-200x177.jpg "natleqmarch[1]")
“I literally don’t understand how this will do anything,” he says. “People are kidding themselves. I don’t want people patting themselves on the back for doing something that is useless.” Particularly because “Barack Obama does not need pressure” from the gays. It would be more effective to act like lobbyists for “the National Rifle Association” and stay home to lobby their representatives. “Nobody in Congress even knows they’re there, he says, and [Obama] is not attending the March: He is going to California to raise money for himself and other Democrats.”
To be sure, it’s not like Frank is going out on a limb here; plenty of other poilticos, including those in the Senate, think the march is a waste of time.
How about we take this to the next level?
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Lady Ga-Gasp
Barney Frank has become a caricature of himself. Whereas the march has become a symbol for something aspirational. I vote for the march. See you there.
YellowRanger
…What?
……Is he wrong?
Queer Liberactions
Barney is on an ego trip. We have group going from Dallas and we understand the only way to get ours Rights is to demand them. We will keep demanding until they give in – then you can all thanks us. Direct Action is the only way to get what we deserve.
hardmannyc
Unfortunately, he nailed it. This is nothing but Mixner and Jones’ ego trip down the mall.
Screw the HRC
Marching for what? To convince the democrats to repeal DOMA and DADT by the time of the 2010 midterm elections? They probably have permission from all the “gay leaders” to wait on the repeal of those laws. They are “working with him,” right? — but in an unknown space-time continuum. The march should be against the HRC, GLAAD, LAMBDA LEGAL and all the other gay elitists in New York and Washington, drunk with their own celebrity, and Obama’s. Without time frames, goals don’t mean shit.
Cam
No, truthfully, Barney doesn’t want ANYTHING that shows that gays aren’t sitting quietly and listening to what he says. remember he suddenly started moving on gay issues when we threatened to boycott his DNC fundraise. The thing is, he and HRC have promised the White House that they can keep “The Gays” under control. This march…whether you support it or not, shows the White House that Barney and HRC aren’t doing as good a job of keeping “The Gays” quiet and out of the way.
I was iffy on going before, but honestly, if Barney is against it I’ll be there marching my ass off this weekend.
I'mJustDemandin'
Barney says this without even reading the signs we’ll be carrying. That’s just arrogant.
Topher
Barney should be careful with his logic. If gays shouldn’t waste their time on things that don’t produce tangible results toward greater equality for GLBT citizens, his re-election campaign is in deep trouble.
Lis
Oh Rep. Frank, self-loathing much? It’s disgusting to see an out politician so against his fellow GLBTs. I wish he’d shut up, he isn’t doing us any favors.
schlukitz
@ Topher and Lis:
Touché and co-sign!
Raymond Miller
I don’t see how staying at home is not even MORE useless, Mr. Frank.
let’s say 100 people showed up. no one would care, right? what if a few million showed up? people would notice, right?
enough with the intellectually dishonest apologetics. if you can make it, GO to DC.
if you can’t, for the love of us all, do SOMETHING productuve and VISIBLE for the LGBT communty in your city or town.
make no mistake, sitting on your ass at home doing nothing is the most useless thing of all. actions like that are what have kept us oppressed.
Frank
Barney, thank-you for being “frank.” The March is a huge waste of time and resources. It won’t accomplish anything. The rest of us are not sitting at home – we’re working on efforts in our town, city and state. We are also getting results.
Marching is so 1970s.
sydneyfamous
Adding on to what Raymond said —
I’ve already asked MANY of my friends to tag along with me at the march and they’ve all said yes. IT IS DOING SOMETHING! It WILL be helping the LGBT movement, and we NEED this march to help others see it our way. We have to try. We really do.
Cam
Barney Frank says “”Nobody in Congress even knows they’re there,”
Gee, Nice to know that Barney thinks of other gays as “They/Them”, not “We/Us”. I think that pretty much says it all.
Bob
The march is a waste of time and energy. It will accomplish nothing.
rudy
CAM, he is referring to the NRA.
Without a march or any publicity, the NRA has gotten this Democratic majority Senate to allow guns first in national parks and now on Amtrak which has next to no security.
Gun-owners can be on the losing side of an election, and they still win. They know how to put dollars to work and lobby.
Jeffrey
Barney needs to get voted out and we need new blood in there — people who actually support those who want change and those who stand to make a difference. Barney is an embarassment to us gays.
Cam
No. 16 · rudy
CAM, he is referring to the NRA.
________________________________________
No he isn’t, the continuation of that quote is…
“Nobody in Congress even knows they’re there, he says, and [Obama] is not attending the March:
Old Timer
I think Barney Frank is right. Congress is inured to demonstrations. Very few of them will even notice that anyone was there.
Jim
When did Barney Frank become a self loating, fatalistic Log Cabin Republican?
It’s time for an “Act Up” style protest within the Democratic Party! Picket The National Democratic Headquarters after the March in DC.
No more PINK dollars with out PINK votes for the DNC.
Cam
No. 19 · Old Timer said
I think Barney Frank is right. Congress is inured to demonstrations. Very few of them will even notice that anyone was there.
__________________________________
We threatened to boycott his DNC fundraiser, as soon as that was reported and people started dropping out, he comes out and says he’s going to introduce gay friendly legislation and Obama annouces a few small improvements for gay federal employees. Trust me, they notice.
QL Dallas
Ole Barney is going to be very embarrassed when 500,000 people March on Sunday. The only way to get equal rights is to demand them. We don’t see Barney demanding anything.
Old Timer
QL Dallas, there won’t be anywhere close to 500,000 people there, and let’s hope the organizers don’t repeat the 1993 fiasco, which I attended. They drew about a quarter-million, which was pretty impressive in my view, especially in view of the piss-poor job they did in the execution of the event.
Disorganized “march” with HUGE gaps in the parade. Foul-mouthed lesbian “comedian” screeching about how she wanted to fuck Hillary Clinton. Whining when the Park Service gave an accurate crowd count that was less than the 1 million they wanted to claim.
That one was my first gay demonstration, and I swore it’d be the last. And it was.
QL Dallas
“That one was my first gay demonstration, and I swore it’d be the last. And it was.”
Maybe that’s why we still don’t have our rights – quitters.
Cam
No. 23 · Old Timer said…
QL Dallas, there won’t be anywhere close to 500,000 people there, and let’s hope the organizers don’t repeat the 1993 fiasco, which I attended.
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Or, they could repeat the 1987 march where nearly 700,000 people attended. Part of what I think some people are missing is that gatherings like this force the media to pay attenion and they even have unforseen fallout. Here are two anecdotes about the previous march.
An executive president of a bank in Miami who was in the closet came to the march, and he went home and became a gay-rights leader in Florida. Two AT&T employees who were there formed a lesbian and gay employees’ union.
QL Dallas
The organizers told us to prepare for 500,000. They said a lot of people have decided in the last few days that we NEED to MARCH. I bet 25,000 are coming from Dallas and Fort Worth. Plus, 1 million gays live within a 2 hour drive to DC. I think most of them will be going because it’s so easy.
I know this much – the huge crowd on Sunday won’t have any “lazy” people in it.
Charles Merrill
I heard Barney on the Signorile show. He said the march was not responsible for President Obama speaking at the HRC dinner as it was planned well before the march. Signorile said differently, that the march forced Obama to attend the dinner. Still, the President is not speaking at the march. Success of marches depend on alot of buzz from the media. I haven’t heard much about it on FOX, CNN or MSNBC. Last night on O’Reilly, Wayne Besen said there would be protests outside the HRC dinner, but did not mention the march. I remember the Million Man march put together by Farrakhan. It was non stop news for a week before the march and after.
faunce
At least the march is an excuse for people to get together and do something…geez, aside from berating televsion sets and computer screens..If you’re lucky some co-workers over drinks.
Cam
No. 27 · Charles Merrill said
I heard Barney on the Signorile show. He said the march was not responsible for President Obama speaking at the HRC dinner as it was planned well before the march. Signorile said differently,
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They tried to lie and say that Obama had planned to give federal employees those small concessions for a while also, however Obama announced them right after a boycott was called for Barney Franks DNC fundraiser and several high profile people dropped off. Hillary Clinton had given these same concessions to State Dept Employees much earlier and there was no scheduled announcement of this. So his speaking to HRC is the same, he thinks that that little bit of tokenism will shut the gays up. Hell HRC is much of the problem.
schlukitz
@ Old Timer:
Wow. Your name sure does fit you well…crotchety, ornery, old reprobate that you come across as.
Bet you say bah humbug at Christmastime, piss on people’s petunia patches and snatch lolly pops from little babies too.
Why don’t you just did a hole, crawl in it and pull the earth in behind you to put an end to all of your gay disappointments in life.
Sheeesh! Whatta grump!
bruce
Barney just wants us to be Democrats first and gay second.
transmit
These capitol fiends annoy me.
Tom
Representative Frank is right. The money and time could be better spent. Marches are from before the internet. You can make yourself and your views known to your representative from your home.
Kropotkin
“Whereas the march has become a symbol for something aspirational.”
Aspirational to what? I haven’t been able to discern yet since the statements made by organizers seem to be all over the place. It’s a waste of time and money. For once I agree with Frank though i dislike him personally.
Forrest
I am conflicted over the march. Like Barney I wonder what will be accomplished. OTOH, I do think it will inspire unity and a sense of purpose. Either way, attacking and ridiculing the marchers makes no sense and is hurtful.
Barney Frank desperately wants a high level appt in the Obama admin. So, he will only be more of a sycophant to the President.
schlukitz
Barney Frank desperately wants a high level appt in the Obama admin. So, he will only be more of a sycophant to the President.
BINGO! ;o)
GeoffM
If nothing else, it will energize those who attend and maybe invigorate those who hear about it.
Bill Perdue
Barney’s wrong.
As usual.
He’s useless. Democrats are a waste of time. Republicans are hopeless.
A movement that can organize an unending series of national, regional and local marches, strikes, general strikes and what ever else it takes to win our rights is useful.
Charles
Some of these comments are saying that the march is a waste of time. How can that be true? Anything that gets people out there and visible and active cannot be a waste of time. no way.
Cinci Chris
Representative Frank is right. The money and time could be better spent. Marches are from before the internet. You can make yourself and your views known to your representative from your home.
_____________
It’s back to basics strategy. Any truly well rounded campaign is going to hit the issue from all sides. Online representation does not qualify for national media coverage and has become so commonplace it’s easily ignored.
QL Dallas
All you lazy naysayers will see 500,000 people on the News this Sunday. We are the ones changing history – for YOUR benefit. Make sure you acknowledge us then. Maybe thank us for doing the dirty work of civil rights.
QueerToday
Barney Frank was a part of the back room bailout deals that resulted in poor people losing their homes. He also failed to support a transgender inclusive ENDA when the time was pivotal. I’m not a huge fan of this march, but I’m certainly not a fan of Barney Frank’s corporate politics either.
schlukitz
There are the doers and then there are the poo pooers.
Barney is definitely not among the doers!
Steve
Barney seems to think that attending a one-day event on Sunday will prevent most people from doing anything at all for the next two years. The reality is just the opposite. A one-day pep rally can energize people to do other things.
He is right that gay people should lobby their senators and representative. Regular letters on paper, with a postage stamp, are more effective than emails. They have a way of sitting on a desk in a pile and demanding actual human attention. Emails and web-form submissions can be counted and deleted automatically with no human attention at all.
After the march, we should each write three letters each week, until all of the bills are passed. People who don’t have $2 a week to spend on postage and paper can send emails instead.
Here is the contact information:
http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml
Charles Merrill
What pisses me off about NEM is the selection of speakers. The executive committee specifically decided they didn’t want Rep. Nadler, …but they do want the Socialists. Alana Smith is the latest addition. (I asked who?). She is a writer with the Socialist Worker and sidekick to Sherry Wolf, also a speaker.
The two twinkie Cleve-groupies organizing this are naieve and lack experience. The New Alliance Party (also Socialist) tried to co-opt the 87 march. Every socialist group tried to co-opt ACT UP in it’s heyday.
If they allowed other veteran organizers to actually make decisions or at least listened to other people with experience instead of just Cleve, they would have known the socialists always show up (not terrible into itself, Bayard Rustin was a Marxist) and will try and co-opt if you let them…which they inadvertently are.
I am just worried that we will get branded as socialists, a mark we don’t need.
.
Cam
No. 45 · Charles Merrill
What pisses me off about NEM is the selection of speakers. The executive committee specifically decided they didn’t want Rep. Nadler, …but they do want the Socialists.
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AS for me, I’m of the “who gives a shit about the speakers” mindset. I think the March will be energizing and good, as for the speakers, I don’t need some “Professional Gay” to tell me about what being gay is about and what gays need. My main hope for the speakers is that they won’t be so boring that they’ll scare the news media away, and maybe that they will be interesting enough to pull some of the cameras off the groups dressed like pregnant nun’s on rollerskates for more than 2 seconds.
Jim B.
Now that real activists have decided to protest Obama and crash Cleve’s sweet little Birthday Party, we will see some results and helpful media coverage. Being nice doesn’t work. Everyone should be outside the HRC cocktail party and let Obama know that we have had enough. We demand our rights – right now.
Old Timer
The executive committee specifically decided they didn’t want Rep. Nadler, …but they do want the Socialists. Alana Smith is the latest addition. (I asked who?). She is a writer with the Socialist Worker and sidekick to Sherry Wolf, also a speaker.
Holy cow, the organizers must either be stupid or just desperate for bodies. Socialist speakers? I rest my case.
dsdrane
I’d like to ask how many people who think Frank is full of shit have actually marched on D.C. for anything.
As someone who has marched plenty (for gay and reproductive rights), I can tell you that they serve one purpose: emboldening the faithful. This is not negligible. BUT…I question whether the cost/benefit ratio still exists in our current ability to communicate on the “intertubes”. 1992 was one thing…but that was 17 years ago; we’ve moved on.
I agree with those who argue the time for marching has past. Our time and money is better spent lobbying our local people, who, in the end, will allow Obama and the military some “cover” when they inevitably make the bold stroke.
Old Timer
I question the timing. Why now? Back in ’93, it was timed because a new administration was coming in that had promised to end the ban on gays in the military, which ran into a steamroller in Congress, but which at the time seemed like it might happen. So there was a peg.
What’s the peg now? There’s no precipitating event. It’s as if a few hundred people decided, “Oh hell, this is as good a time as any.” If this march gets 50,000 people I will be surprised.
Back to the ’93 situation, which ultimately concluded with “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” That happened because the Joint Chiefs of Staff colluded with members of Congress who chaired the Armed Services Committees, and with the Religious Right. The gay lobby was caught totally flat footed.
Get this: The gay organizations wouldn’t even allow any gay veterans to testify at congressional hearings on the issue back then. I’m not kidding, folks. There were a bunch of gay vets who approached the gay lobbying organizations, including HRC, with offers to testify, and they were turned down.
This march doesn’t look like it’s any better organized, if the “Socialist” speakers are any indication. I hope that anyone who goes already has a reason to be in Washington, because this thing is going to be a big flop. Correction: A small flop. Correction: An unnoticeable flop.
QL Dallas
I agree with much of what you said Old Timer, except this statement:
“I hope that anyone who goes already has a reason to be in Washington, because this thing is going to be a big flop. Correction: A small flop. Correction: An unnoticeable flop.”
We don’t do “unnoticeable.” We will get some coverage and that will force Obama to honor his promises – plus, don’t forget – it’s the right thing to do. The “insiders” can have their fancy dinners and blowhard speeches – only our method – loudly demanding our rights will ever work. We need to embarrass Obama. Direct action is the real face of “change,” not black-ties and bogus speeches.
Look for us on CNN.
Old Timer
Embarrassing Obama at that dinner is the very dumbest thing anyone could do. They should take him to task, but they should do it with respect for the office he holds.
rudy
Who cares if some gays are socialists?
It’s like nazis in WWII.
They hated Jews supposedly for being capitalist bankers, and they hated Jews for being supposedly being communists.
That’s what bigotry is: we are hated for promiscuity, and we are hated for marriage.
It’s hatred we have to fight – not each other.
Old Timer
Rudy, the socialists try to hijack just about every demonstration about anything, anywhere. There is no commonality between what gay people as a group want, and what socialists as a group want. Yeah, there are some gay socialists, just as there are some gay right-wingers.
But to put either group on the speaker’s platform dilutes the focus, and allows outsiders to claim that to be gay is to be this other thing. I’m not a socialist, and I’m not a right-winger. I don’t want either group hijacking the event. To the extent that gay people are mixed in with a “socialist” platform, it discredits us with the people who this march is supposedly trying to influence.
mulletkitty
To hell with Frank. As if Congresspeople would be paying more attention if they were locked up in session that day.. (A Sunday, no less — just like every other major march.)
Not every march needs a million people to be successful. Not every march has to be a top-down hierarchy.
This is a youth-driven march expressing frustration as much with the old school gay leadership, HRCF, and others, spread by FB, Twitter. Our university filled busloads from Florida.
What does this march provide? Visibility, press, scrutiny of Obama’s promises and pressure to enact them, and opportunities for all who attend to energize, build coalitions, and strategize for the future. What’s the problem?
Good for them. I applaud this march and all the young activists who are making it happen.
schlukitz
The Mormans want us to respect them.
The Christians want us to respect them.
The Fundamentalists want us to respect them.
The straight homophobes want us to respect them.
HRC wants us to respect them.
And the President wants us to respect him…along with he many gay Obama apologists on this site.
And while these people “demand” respect, they refer to us as wrong, sinners and deviants. They claim that we all pedophiles and that we engage in sex with animals…all this while they call us faggots, perverts, deviants, homos, queers and any and all pejoratives that let us know how much they hate us.
I’ve said it before and I will say it again. Respect must be earned and so far, none of the above mentioned groups of people have lifted a finger to earn that respect. Nor, can we expect that to change any time soon.
So how come is it, that so may gays keep reprimanding those of us who speak out against lies, discrimination, bigotry and hatred, that we must show respect in return?
Sorry, Old Timer. Your comment smacks too much of Uncle Tomism!
And that’s a little hard to swallow, especially coming from a gay person.
Old Timer
I guess it boils down to the purpose of this event. Is it so the participants can talk to each other and feel good, or is it so non-participants can be persuaded?
All demonstrations are a mixture of the two, but when all you’re doing is the first — talking to yourselves — then you’re on the wrong track. Like I say, this one has every earmark of being very sparsely attended.
In that event, it won’t just be a flop but it could be counterproductive by exposing weakness. “What if they gave a march and nobody came?”
schlukitz
the socialists try to hijack just about every demonstration about anything, anywhere.
Gosh, Jedgar, I didn’t realize that there were so many pinko commies in the pansy patch! Better keep a close watch on my neighbors. You just never know.
What if they gave a march and nobody came?
And what if they gave a war and nobody came? Remember that one from the 70’s?
Fact is, that just hasn’t happened, has it? We’ve attended every single war that has been thrown since.
Why should the march be any different?
rudy
I haven’t lived in NYC for ten years now, but I do remember there usually being a few Socialist Worker Party members handing out fliers at Pride events, but I never once saw them get even a mention in the media.
On the other hand, TV and news photographers always seem to head for the most outrageous drag queens, half-naked leather types, and the obligatory shot of right-wing Christian counter=protesters with their stupid “God didn’t make Adam and Steve” signs.