Sorry, but religion is evil, in all of its manifestations ALL OF THEM. I can’t give any money to an organization that uses it to say religion is ok, it just needs to be educated.

The only education religion needs is simply reason and humanity. If “they” employed their brains, there would be no religion, because its premise is false.

By the way, in case people haven’t figured it out, HRC is not a gay organization. It is a fundraiser for the DNC set up to raise funds FROM gay people.

The abortion issue discussed in this thread proves that out. I’m pro choice (there is no pro-life by the way, that is a made up term, it means nothing. You either support a woman’s right to choose or you are against it. Both positions have positive and negative life impace, so “pro-life” or “anti-life” are in fact meaningless)…..but I certainly don’t want my gay dollars having anything to do with that argument. It clearly was needed to fit into the DNCs goals.

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

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.

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