The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) identifies itself as “America’s largest civil rights organization working to achieve gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender equality.” In reality, it is an organization devoted to the Democratic party and one that fails to provide needed leadership on gay issues while soaking up huge amounts of money to perpetuate its own existence.
Nationally, the gay and lesbian community needs strong voices speaking out on behalf of our humanity and desire to be allowed to live peaceably and equally in this great nation. No one voice can represent all gays and lesbians. But those who declare themselves our representatives must use their resources and political capital wisely. It should not be squandered and it should not be used to bolster one political party at the expense of our issues.
Despite Nashville being home to five members of the national HRC Board of Governors and one member of its national Board of Directors, Tennessee received exactly zero dollars from HRC in support of its Vote No on One campaign which attempted to defeat the anti-gay marriage amendment in this state. Each year, HRC soaks up hundreds of thousands of dollars out of this state and returns precious little. Recently, leaders of the Tennessee Equality Project were delighted to be able to announce that the organization had received $7,000 from HRC to support lobbying efforts in the Tennessee legislature. All of us should be grateful that HRC will contribute .02% of its budget to fight for equality in Tennessee.
According to HRC’s annual report, it brought in over $30 million dollars in fiscal year 2006. If past behavior is an indicator, HRC can be expected to spend $10 million or more this year on fund-raising and management expenses.
On a local level, the single largest and most important GLBT event is the annual Pride festival. Over the last few years the amount of sponsorship support that HRC has committed to Nashville Pride is exactly zero dollars.
On two occasions prior to the 2004 election in nationally televised interviews, President Bush expressed support for civil unions for same-sex partners. Vice-president Dick Cheney publically split with his boss on the issue of gay marriage. Despite these expressions of support for gay rights by the Bush administration, HRC has said nothing. No effort has been put into seeking common ground with this administration. George Bush, who has appointed more openly gay people to high level positions than Bill Clinton, has served as a convenient target of left wing hatred and HRC opprobrium.
At no point has HRC recognized the opportunity Bush’s statements offered. “I don’t think we should deny people rights to a civil union, a legal arrangement, if that’s what a state chooses to do so,” Bush said in an ABC interview. Yet that organization has not applauded the President’s willingness to go against his conservative base even this much. But, that is consistent with their overall absence from the gay marriage fight.
In May of 2006, HRC issued a press release quoting organization President Joe Solmonese as saying that the real challenges that face our nation are “the high cost of gas, the war in Iraq or the prohibitive price tag on health care” and not the anti-gay marriage amendment. How sad that the head of the nations gay rights group finds our fight for marriage equality to be a distraction.
HRC’s partisanship is sometimes embarrassing. For example, on October 2, 2006 after Republican Congressman Mark Foley resigned after having been caught sending inappropriate emails and instant messages to congressional pages, HRC said: “Congressman Foley brought shame on himself and this Congress by his horrible behavior and complete lack of judgment. We strongly condemn his behavior.” But, 12 days later when former Democratic congressman Gary Studds died, HRC hailed him saying, “As the first openly gay member of Congress, Gerry Studds was a pioneer. And one of the many lessons he left is that one can lead an open and authentic life and do good.” Studds had publically admitted to committing statutory rape of a congressional page.
In his State of the Union address in January of 2006, President Bush called on Congress to reform and reauthorize the Ryan White Act. It was not until December that the Act was passed. During that delay, HRC was unable to bring itself to name the four senators who had placed a hold on the Act. That is no surprise considering all four were Democrats, including Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Just a few months ago, HRC committed itself to proving that it is not a serious organization focused on the genuine issues that confront us. It started this past July when Lance Bass, boy band blond and astronaut wannabe, was outed by numerous bloggers and gossip pages after he and boyfriend Reichen Lehmkuhl were spotted partying in several gay bars in Provencetown. Rather than deny the obvious, Bass admitted his homosexuality on the cover of People magazine. Just over two months later, Bass was given the Human Right’s Campaign’s Visibility Award at its national dinner. In his acceptance speech, he acknowledged that he had not really done anything to deserve the award.
Worse than not having done anything to deserve it, Bass said in his People interview: “I think the gay community is going to hop on my back because I’m not going to lead the parades and be this crazy activist. I don’t want to be a poster child.” Being famous, rich, cute and outed while rejecting a role in furthering gay rights is apparently the necessary qualification for a major HRC award.
We need a national voice that speaks out on the issues that prevent gays and lesbians from sharing in all aspects of what this country and basic human rights have to offer. We need that voice to come from an organization that is able to look at the issues and not see the political labels. We need an organization that will work with whoever is in office to bring us closer to our goals. Unfortunately, the Human Rights Campaign is not that organization.
