Subscribe to Breaking NewsWithers: NJ gay rights group closes its wallet
Garden State Equality has decided to play hardball. New Jersey’s largest gay rights organizations has suspended donating cash to political parties.
“No political party has a record good enough on LGBT civil rights that it can rightfully claim to be entitled to our money on a party-wide basis,” said Steven Goldstein, the group’s chairman. “No longer will we let any political party take our money and volunteers with one hand, and slap us in the face with the other when we seek full equality.”
Last year the Garden State was supposed to be the next state to get behind gay marriage, but the election of Republican Chris Christie, as the state’s governor, put the scared in the state house. In early January when a marriage bill was voted on in the Democratic controlled house, it was defeated with only 14 out of 40 senators saying yes.
The organization is also asking for its members to give their cash to more deserving groups. This stoppage does not apply to individual elected officials, which is a sensible loophole. Why not give directly to a pol who is good on our issues?
Hard to complain about this move. Pols are very good at asking for our cash, and we are decent at making our demands known. If they can’t deliver why give? Hopefully Garden State Equality will stick to its guns through the mid term election. A threat likes this has no bite if it ends next week.
finally one of the gay rights groups is showing some balls about this f***ed up situation. trannies need jobs, gays need equal marriage and dems need to show some guts if they want any support from us at all. scared little greed piggys. they may not care about us but they will care about having less money.
Kudos to Garden State Equality! It’s time we stood up for ourselves. If parties won’t deliver for us then we shouldn’t deliver for them. I am tired of chicken s*** democrats who don’t have the guts to do what is right. If they had just shown a little spine same sex marriage would’t even continue to be an issue. It’s only because they are afraid to deal with this issue that the republicans are still able to use it against them.
I really hope this tactic extends to other groups. Our money is not insignificant. I have never thought giving to a party was a good idea. It makes much more sense to target our money very tightly where it will make a difference.
Thank you Garden State Equality. We all need to take our money, time and energy from the whole party and only support those that support us.
It is about darn time. You don’t reward people for bad behavior. You don’t give money to people who aren’t productive. And you don’t vote for people who don’t come through on their promises.
Sounds like a great idea. That way you only give money to the people that are truly looking out for you. No more two-facing.
Finally – we need more LGBTQ groups to step up and do the same! Show some GLEE!!!
This is OK. But I don’t think it will be as powerful as successfully defeating a few of the Democrats who voted against marriage equality and replacing them with pro-equality Democrats.
>That way you only give money to the people that are truly looking out for you.
I actually think that we have to get off our butts and do something. Part of the problem is thinking that we can send a check to “someone who will truly look out after me.” Only we can truly look out after ourselves.
No money for the GOP discriminators and no money for the Democrats who are scaredy cats and/or don’t give a damn about us and/or take us for granted.
I’ve closed my wallet for 2010 and that includes closing it to the DNC. I’m glad to see at least one equality organization doing the right thing.
Defeating those who vote against us is one thing, but how do you achieve that if not enough of us live in their districts where we are outnumbered? 8 conservadems (wannabe republicans) in NYS where I live voted against us. How do we get all of them out where the odds are stacked against us?
I received my DNC Presidential Survey in November.
Under Section III – National Priorities it lists 14 national issues that they want you to number in order of importance for the DNC to pursue in 2010.
None of the 14 national priorities was equal rights !!! In fact nothing Gay related was included in the 4 page survey at all!
I didn’t return the survey and they aren’t getting my money. I’m done with them for now and it will take a lot to get me back.
“Show some GLEE!” Not an occasion for glee at all. This situation of not knowing who and what to count on with the political parties is sad, troubling and pathetic. Being on your own is a tough thing to adapt to. but if we don’t know who to count on in NJ etc. then there is not much choice. However, not giving to any political party means more money to do what needs to be done and also means not being beholden or tied to any one party. Political parties are bound to disappoint. We are a small minority here with a small voice and neither political party has to pay us any heed.
And there no “lion” rep or senator in the Senate these days standing up and loudly demanding equal rights for minorities.
Thank you Thomas Powers. When I get my next Democrat survey in the mail, I will run it through my shredding machine.
“New Jersey’s largest gay rights organizations has suspended donating cash to political parties.”
How much did they donate to them in the past?