Subscribe to Breaking NewsWithers: Making fun of the HRC
I try to keep any mocking of the Human Rights Campaign to a minimum. Not because I’m a fan (they sure do have a whole lot of parties), but mainly because it’s a crowded market. There is no dearth of people taking shots, well deserved, at the HRC and its penchant for fund raising over serious political work.
While this story is dated by two days hopefully it will cause you to pause a bit if you are thinking of sending the organization a late in the year donation. Last week, the organization sent a note to President-elect Barack Obama suggesting he choose Linda Sanchez as labor secretary.
Good choice really. She represents the 39th Congressional district in California, serves on the House Committee on Education and Labor and is a co-founder of the Labor and Working Families Caucus.
According to HRC, Obama couldn’t find a better person to head the Labor Department, until they suddenly heard of someone named Mary Beth Maxwell.
“While we remain supportive of Representative Sánchez’s candidacy, it has come to our attention that Mary Beth Maxwell is also being considered for this crucial position,” HRC president Joe Solmonese wrote to the president elect. “Given Ms. Maxwell’s long history of leadership on labor issues, HRC is pleased to also endorse Mary Beth Maxwell for Secretary of Labor.”
Mmmmmm. Aside from the group’s schizophrenia, a more troubling question is this. Why wasn’t a gay rights organization pushing for Maxwell in the first place? Her credentials are progressive/liberal perfect, she has the respect of people in the labor field, and she’s a lesbian raising a kid. Was she too gay?
My finances are very tight, but I have been a small contributor to HRC for a number of years. After this year’s campaign experience in California, however, I plan to make my donations to local LGBT initiatives and hope for better from the grassroots. (In my case, this means supporting Fair Wisconsin.) I just received a renewal notice from HRC. (Those seem to come more often than annually, or does it just seem that way to me?) I intend to let them know I will continue to support the struggle for full equality, but I am going to invest that support elsewhere.
Michael
I gave up on HRC a long time ago - for many of the faults mentioned in this article. They seem out of touch with the non-wealthy GLBT community. And not confrontational enough.
I finally cut them from my list of “charities” when, after I contributed, they continued to call me on the phone and beg for more. I asked them to stop calling - to solicit only by mail. My request was ignored. the harassing calls continued.
So, no more cash.
I’ve since found more appreciative outlets for my gay dollars.
The HRC’s mission is worthwhile, but the organization itself is not.
After they endorsed stripping transgender protections from ENDA, I stopped supporting them financially.
After they refused to endorse an otherwise qualified gay man for US Senate in North Carolina, I stopped supporting them totally.
After the ENDA fiasco last year I withdrew my support for HRC. As a transsexual I can no longer support an organization that treats me as a 2nd class queer. Lambda Legal has provided unwavering support for all LGBT people and has been instrumental in most, if not all, the major court cases. They get my support.
I just give mostly to Equality Maryland now. Maryland (MD)has been my state since 1966.
Gay marriage is not here yet in my state but is on the horizon for MD and I want to help make it happen more quickly here. So, I will give to an organization that has pushed hard to help make life better for Maryland’s GLBTs than it was 5 years ago. While we GLBTs in my state intend to rally and to push and push and push for gay marriage as we have done every year now, we do have a handful of very important state-sanctioned domestic partner benefits that just 5 years ago we had ZERO of. That is just a start and we intend to keep after full gay marriage until we get it.
And I intend to donate time and money to the campaign future opponent of Don Dwyer of Glen Burnie (Anne Arundel County) who got back in office in the Maryland statehouse in Annapolis by a razor-thin margin of 25 votes. This Dwyer fellow is one of our very worst antigay politicians in Maryland and I am very hungry for his defeat. Alex X. Mooney, another bigot is still electable in his district, but Dwyer’s defeat is almost a certainty the next time around and that is what I will focus on: Dwyers’ defeat. Dwyer, I believe, authored or co-authored or sponsored and pushed a move for an antigay marriage amendment to the Maryland constitution.
With the defeat of antigay Gov Ehlich, and the election of gay-friendlier Gov. O Malley, we have just gotten these domestic partner benefits passed.
Crumbs for now, but we are continuing to push for gay marriage equality. We lost the fight in 2007 in a gay marrige equality court battle, but we will not stop until that and all other equality is achieved in our state.
Meanwhile, I am not concerned with what HRC does re: Maryland or any other state. I support our own local struggle. I went to Boston and to San Fracisco to help them when they needed help and did so on a local level for those states. Not once did I give to HRC for those fights.
All my $$ goes to PFLAG, ACLU…and of course a lot went to EQCA…lot of good that did. They are the West Coast HRC…all they did was hold GALA FUND RAISERS…and the LA Center.Gal took a month vacation before the election!
HRC, are LOG CABIN Repug.–.non-activists!! But they have GALA TIMES!
This year I gave a lot to EQCA. I saw little to nothing spent in the OC against Prop 8. HRC is too conservative for the times. We need agressive leadership now. In the coming year I will put my dollars with the ACLU. I am counting on them to win the case in the CA supreme court overturning H8. After seeing all the help from out of state this last year, I will send my dollars to organizations in states involved in a fight. The US gay community must stand together now. I wish I helped out more in Florida this year to stop Q2, which was even worse than prop 8. I see a lot of need for things to start moving on the federal side of things. Lets all stay together and strong, we will win.
I’ve heard mention of HRC at dinner parties etc. over the years and have attended a few events. Otherwise HRC doesn’t exist in the Atlanta gay community. They do throw some great dinners though.
Let’s not be so quick to trash HRC. As the late Thomas Merton said, “blessed be the charity of the wealthy.” SOMEBODY has to collect those big checks from the A-Gays .
The explosion of grassroots organizing after the passage of Prop Hate was exhilarating; it remains to be seen to what it will translate in the long term.
Political advocacy is mostly thankless, boring scut-work, but it has to be done. The Internet makes it *easier*, to be SURE.
But enthusiasm doesn’t pay for mailing lists, signature gatherers, polls, phone banks and yes, focus groups. Those are ALL part of the modern political apparatus.
I don’t know if the handlers of the No On Hate campaign could have foreseen the last-minute avalanche of cash from the pagan fertility cult bigots in Salt Lake City or not. Certainly the last-minute avalanche of Yes On Hate TV ads and their dirty, low-down, LYING messages were probably what tipped the balance.
My first question when somebody trashes a LGBTQ org is this: “are you willing to do it, and can you do it BETTER?”
There’s a need for orgs like HRC *and* Join The Impact.
Cheers,
Bud Burgoon-Clark
wondering why he has to pay taxes
as a SECOND-class citizen
Ok Withers, I’ll take my shot at the HRC…
When I was on the steering committee for the March on Washington they played parlor games trying to get me, staunchly pro-life, to accept their abortion plank and they would accept my youth planks.
Trading protection of youth for abortion.
Yeah, they are so political they forgot about humanity.
Why would anyone withhold support of young LGTBQ’ers just so they could get a non-gay right? Gay men don’t need abortions. Trans-men don’t need abortions.
Well, we saw what they did with ENDA didn’t we when the chips were down.
HRC is a political action group, not a gay rights group.
When HRC waffled with their support for inclusion of transgenders in ENDA, I gave up on HRC.
Richard, HRC very much exists here in Georgia. (http://atlanta.hrc.org/) They are as effective here as they are in any part of the country. Please note that after the election the Atlanta HRC has no events or posts.
I tend to agree with Bud we do need HRC on one end and the grass roots efforts that have sprung up after prop hate was passed we gave to the fight for marriage equality in California and continue to be a small donator to HRC and will continue to be BUT we will also be fighting our own fight through join the impact here locally as well as giving some to equality pennsylvania to help fight the local fight for marriage equality. I was disappointed in HRC during and after prop hate and the representation that actual gays got in california i am of the opinion that if you want them to know we exist you need to let US do the talking and show our families to everyone
While I agree that we need “something like” HRC, that doesn’t mean we need HRC.
Their stance on stripping out transgender rights from ENDA showed their true stripes: take whatever you can get so that you don’t get nothing.
No courage there, esp. from Joe Salmonese, who swore he would not support a non-inclusive ENDA, then did.
What we need now is Larry Kramer and something more like Act Up. We have played the “we are just like you straight people card” as long as we can, or should. We’ve done innumerable campaigns fronted by straights lest the poor Evangelicals hear the hint of a lisp on TV ads or talk-shows.
Enough. This is not about “accepting us” or “tolerating us” any more. This is about getting equal civil rights, and HRC (not to mention those closet-driven poobahs at Equality California) is not the right vehicle for intense action to claim our Constitutional rights. For that, you need a barful of drag queens like the ones who drove Stonewall and pioneered the demand for gay civil rights.
Hey, Larry, what’re you doing these days? Wanna do a new Act-Up? If so, I’ll donate, I’ll join, I’ll demonstrate. I have had enough of those management types who want to go along to get along, and I’m ready to get in their faces, once and for all.
AAK
http://www.gayvolt.com