Why we aren't winning (any faster)

[kweerwolf]

If you want to know why, more than 35 years since Stonewall, gay and lesbian Americans still lack basic federal civil rights protections, an important part of the answer can be found in two stories about the Human Rights Campaign in this week's Washington Blade.

HRC is the nation's biggest gay rights group, with an annual budget of $31 million and a staff of almost 150. HRC claims some 650,000 members, although Blade readers learned earlier this year that this number includes every single person who has ever donated at least $1 and provided an address, minus a few who've died or written the group canceling their membership. Still, HRC is the biggest fish in the gay pond, and has led the way for efforts to win federal gay rights laws.

A quarter-century after HRC's founding, there's still no federal legislation protecting gay Americans from bias in the workplace, housing or public accommodations, or enhancing punishment for anti-gay hate crimes. This despite strong public support in the polls and — at various times — supposedly friendly Democratic control of the White House and both houses of Congress. But two landmark anti-gay laws — "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" and the Defense of Marriage Act — were both signed into law by Bill Clinton, an HRC endorsee.


For years under Elizabeth Birch, HRC focused far too much on growing the organization and not enough on its mission, including millions and millions to purchase and renovate an upscale headquarters in Washington, D.C.

http://www.nyblade.com/blog/index.cfm?type=blog&start=10/28/05&end=11/4/05#3285

[William769]

1. Because John Q America doesn't have good fashion sense.

[TallahasseeGrannie]

2. Please define HRC

sorry...I don't know that one.

[kweerwolf]

3. Human Rights Campaign

www.hrc.org

It's a group that lobbies for LGBT issues. However, as the original post points out, it's been drawing criticism from its own community lately for spending money on lavish parties instead of lobbying and playing the part of an inside-the-Beltway inside rather than representing the community.

[indigo32]

4. It is a very difficult issue

but I've come to believe we've been far too easily bullied. YES the other side may use our voices as a rally cry of their own, but damnit, we are in the right, and we don't do our side any favors by acting ashamed.

[foreigncorrespondent]

5. This is what jumped out at me...

First, we reported that HRC hired as its media relations director Brad Luna, the former spokesperson for a Democratic congressman who aggressively supported amending the U.S. Constitution to ban gay marriage.

Why do they continue to hire people who actually work against us? And further, why does the queer community continue to support an organization that doesn't have our interest at heart, but rather the republican and centrist Dem's interest?

I have been saying it for years now, the HRC moved to far to the right. The sooner the queer community wakes up and realizes that, the sooner we sponsor an organization that does have our best interest at heart.

[Dark]

6. No, it was the AIDS scare.

Frightened a lot of people who would have otherwise been on our side.

Also allowed people to demonize us very easily.