Featured Organization: Human Rights Campaign

One thing I dragged my feet on was joining the Human Rights Campaign, something I rectified at Capital Pride a couple of weeks ago.

This organization, led by Joe Solmonese, is fighting for GLBT rights on several fronts. They are very active in the campaign for marriage equality, working toward ending the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy in the U. S. military, campaigning against the "ex-gay" advocate who has been nominated for Surgeon General. In his spare time, Solmonese hosts a weekly two-hour radio program on XM Radio titled, "The Agenda."

That's a brief overview of what they do, but what does the HRC believe? This from their website:

The Human Rights Campaign is America’s largest civil rights organization working to achieve gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender equality. By inspiring and engaging all Americans, HRC strives to end discrimination against GLBT citizens and realize a nation that achieves fundamental fairness and equality for all.

HRC seeks to improve the lives of GLBT Americans by advocating for equal rights and benefits in the workplace, ensuring families are treated equally under the law and increasing public support among all Americans through innovative advocacy, education and outreach programs. HRC works to secure equal rights for GLBT individuals and families at the federal and state levels by lobbying elected officials, mobilizing grassroots supporters, educating Americans, investing strategically to elect fair-minded officials and partnering with other GLBT organizations.

This is an organization with over 700,000 members, and this page on their website goes into detail about the different areas the HRC is active in. Of particular interest to me is their faith initiative, where they are working with clergy across different religions to bring GLBT people into full and equal standing in the church along with obtaining rights in society.

You can certainly make a difference working with an organization that focuses on one specific issue pertaining to GLBT rights, and I'll be featuring some of them in the near future. However, if you're like me and are working toward overall equality, joining the HRC is definately worth your consideration.