HRC And The Log Cabin Republicans - Ugh!

I've always been leery of accomodationists and assimilationists within the gay community - those people who feel that the best way to make progress on gay rights is to try to get along with our enemies or become like them. That's why I don't support the Human Rights Campaign with my contributions, and why I think the Log Cabin Republicans are seriously deluded. Richard Rothstein, who is never shy about expressing himself and is no fan of HRC, The Log Cabin Republicans, and the Clintons, puts it this way on his "Proceed at Your own Risk" blog:

Joining forces for a worthy cause, no matter how worthy a cause is still lending credibility to those who stand against us. What's next, a partnership between hen house manufacturers and the National Association of Hungry Foxes? Hillary, whose husband is responsible for Don't Ask, Don't Tell,
dances with Rupert Murdoch and Joe Solmonese sleeps with The Log Cabin
Republicans. Politics surely does make for strange bedfellows.
And yes, I know, many of you will say that at the time this DADT policy seemed
progressive. That's horse shit. At the time Hillary's vote to invade Iraq
seemed right to her as well. I remember that in both circumstances, many
Americans, including myself, looked at this new "progressive" DADT policy and
the call to war against Iraq in response to 9/11 and said "what the
fuck?"HRC and the Log Cabin Republicans in partnership? What the
fuck?

PHOTO: The newly reconstructed steep walkway that leads from the Schuylkill Banks path to the Art Museum's rear plaza.

Jim

The Latest ENDA Maneuver

The Dragon Fly and sea shell motif of this Tiffany style chandelier really suits the beach house well. This fixture hangs over the dining table at our Cherry Grove home.

The Democrats are going to move forward with a vote on the "T"-less version of the Employment Non Discrimination Act. To soothe all the groups that oppose this strategy, Speaker Of The House Pelosi is promising a vote on a full version "when the votes are there to pass it." This is noting but another ploy. Of course, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) has endorsed this approach. What do you expect from a group that is so much identified with mainstream Democratic Party politics?

Dropping transgendered protections from ENDA in order to get it passed is ethically wrong. No one should be left behind in a rush to get something passed so that one political party can crow about a "success." Would Martin Luther King have accepted a civil rights bill that didn't cover all African-Americans in the country? The answer is no. Nor should we agree to a bill that does not protect all members of sexual minorities.

Jim

HRC Pandering?

I've always been a bit leery of the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), probably the most prominent gay rights organization in the country. They have always struck me as being a bit too mainstream, too conservative, and too willing to settle for less than full gay equality in exchange for supporting politicians. This year the group came under fire from activists and bloggers who claimed that HRC was more about fund raising and their own survival than about fighting for gay rights. Some observers have accused HRC of being too closely associated with the Democratic Party, and some have suggested that HRC has already decided to endorse Hillary Clinton for president, even though there are serious concerns on the part of some gay activists about her positions on gay rights. The latest flap has to so with the presidential debate that HRC and LOGO, the gay TV channel, will be sponsoring later this summer. HRC has declined to invite Senator Mike Gravel, a candidate who has a strong gay rights position, stronger than most of the other candidates. This seems to me like HRC is pandering to the mainstream candidates. HRC ought to invite all of the candidates, but especially those with the strongest gay rights positions. What are they afraid of?

Photo: a beachfront view in the Pines.

Jim