No, Roland, EqCA does not speak for all Gay Californians

With a new executive at the helm of “Equality California” (EqCA) we at GayPatriot have hoped (indeed still hope) that the largest gay and lesbian organization in the Golden State will become less partisan than it has been in the past and less prejudiced against Republicans.

Despite the organization’s statist ideology, seeking a legislative solution to problems facing gay and lesbian citizens, and its alliances with a variety of interest groups allied close to the state Democratic Party, including public employee unions, the organization’s new executive director, Roland Palenica, told San Francisco’s Bay Area Reporter that his group “represent[s] all LGBT Californians, whether they donate to us or not“.

No, Roland, no you don’t.  You don’t speak for the gay Republicans who bristle at EqCA’s alliance with state Democrats.  You don’t speak for gay libertarians who bristle at the statist “equality” ideology.  And you don’t even speak for all gay leftists who bristle as your alliance with corporate lobbyists.

Michael Petrelis, a man who bills himself as a socialist and who alerted me Palencia’s self-serving comment, has taken the new e.d. to task for assuming to speak for all of us:

My email invitation to the town hall meeting where the gay community was allowed to vote on permitting EQCA to speak for every one of us must have been sent to the wrong addy. When did we all get a say about EQCA being the entire community’s rep? Of course, we didn’t, just as we don’t see them holding regular public forums.

Recall EQCA’s board failed to organize any open sessions about the EDposition before Palencia was hired. . . .

EQCA does not represent me, and quite a few other LGBT people in California. We have major issues with the group and the elitists running it. . . .

And EqCA does not represent me either — and I would daresay the overwhelming majority of GayPatriot readers living in the Golden State.