November 20, 2007

Anger Still Festering Against HRC

Even though this is a quiet period in regards to the ENDA (Employer Non-Discrimination Act), the anger against the Human Rights Campaign in general and organization president Joe Solmonese for supporting the exclusion of gender identity protection in the version that was passed by the House of Representatives is still on the front burner.

From the New York Blade:

In the recent debate over the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, HRC failed to take a principled position to oppose a stripped-down version of the legislation out of fear that the organization would lose its “special relationships” on Capitol Hill. HRC President Joe Solmonese routinely cited this as the chief excuse for their inaction. It was then that HRC showed its true colors and what our $30 million was actually buying.

LET US BE CLEAR. HRC had previously committed itself to the passage of an ENDA, which provided protections on the basis of both sexual orientation and gender identity. Yet, it has become clear that HRC told our community that they maintained a strategy to ensure the passage of this legislation when they clearly did not and never had any intention of doing so.

HRC has devoted a large amount of time during the past month to forwarding the argument that the debate over ENDA was about incremental tactics, which get us something, versus moral absolutes, which achieve nothing. This was a false argument, and as stewards of our community’s treasure, we shouldn’t let the leadership of HRC get away with this. Promoting this lie might have suited the nuanced position of HRC but it did not serve its members or the community it claims to represent. $30 million should buy strategy and strength not subterfuge and spin.

This writer, Jon Winkleman, represents a group that calls themselves JOE MUST GO. They were scheduled to rally tonight and protest the HRC actions as part of the National Transgender Day of Rememberance. Their timing rubs me the wrong way but does serve as an illustration of just how deep and bitter the split among LGBT activists runs over this issue.

Someone is going to need to reach across to the other side and begin some healing, and the sooner that happens the better. There is much more to lose by working seperately than there is to gain by doing so.

2 comments:

  1. Joe Must Go! I think most of the HRC staff would agree. . . because of the betrayal to the transgender community, lying about the organization's policies, and general douchebagery.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I think what I was told by HRC leadership pretty well sums it up:

    "In fact, the leaders of HRC told me the trans people were nothing more then a “political calculation”'

    It is the highest form of inhospitality to tell an entire group of people tehy are being used as a "political calculation".

    I am not saying Joe must go, but if he still wants to claim the HRC the leaders of the "gay free world" then he must recognize leaving anyone out of the equality equation makes him and the HRC no better then the people we struggle with for our rights and dignity daily.

    ReplyDelete