Via Zero Hedge last week.

I’m just a li’l part-time blogger, but in the top 20, I count only one eeeeeevil corporation favoring the GOP…against twelve unions, strongly favoring Democrats. Which party is all about the “big money” again?

ZH has a longer list, wherein you’ll glean these tidbits:

• HRC comes in impressively (I mean it) at number 100, having given $11.9 million; 89% to Democrats.
• The much-pilloried Koch Industries only comes in at number 62, with $17.4 million.
• The much-pilloried NRA only comes in at number 52, with $20.2 million.
• Umm…did I miss Halliburton? Or are they not in the top 100?

Could this get more absurd?

QUEER OWS TO PROTEST HRC NYC GALA

QUEER OCCUPIERS DENOUNCE HUMAN RIGHTS CAMPAIGN FOR HONORING GOLDMAN SACHS & FAILING TO DEMAND FULL FEDERAL EQUALITY

New York, NY, February 1, 2012 – Queer/LGBTIQA2Z Occupy Wall Street, a caucus of the NYC based Occupy Wall Street movement, announced today that it will protest a Human Rights Campaign (HRC) Gala honoring Goldman Sachs on Saturday February 4, 2012 at the Waldorf Astoria.

In contrast to the $650 a plate Gala, the Queer/LGBTIQA2Z Caucus will host a “Guerrilla Potluck” on the sidewalk outside of the prestigious hotel at 50th Street & Park Avenue from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.

The Queer Caucus: 1. Condemns HRC for honoring Goldman Sachs, 2. Calls upon HRC to adopt a strategy of Full Equality by 2014, and 3. Demands that HRC create a transparent process that includes the grassroots.

1. The Queer Caucus condemns HRC’s decision to honor Goldman Sachs in a time of financial collapse caused by their unethical business practices and greed, and deplores the use of our cause and suffering for corporate public relations. HRC honoring Goldman Sachs at this time reveals all one needs to know about the corporate LGBT lobby, and its disconnect from the 99% and the LGBT people it purports to represent.

2. The Queer Caucus calls upon HRC to embrace the grassroots demand for Full Federal Equality by 2014 the 50th Anniversary of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

After 60 years of struggle, there is still not a single federal non-discrimination law protecting LGBT Americans from discrimination. More incredibly, HRC, the corporate entity that controls our strategy, is not even seeking equal protection for our community.

To address this, the Queer Caucus calls on HRC to take The Pledge for Full LGBT Equality to seek and secure full non-discrimination protections based on sexual orientation and gender identify for all people.

The right to be protected from discrimination secures a core liberty interest. And it is the duty of government to protect LGBT Americans from the harm caused by discrimination as a matter of public welfare, law and conscience, as it has for decades for all other oppressed groups.

There’s more to this press release, but if I read it again….my IQ would drop.

First of all, there is NO “right to be protected from discrimination”.  Do left-wing Progressives even understand what a “right” is?  *eyeroll*

When John Aravosis and I agree on something….. you know it’s bad.

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

Just over two years ago, the Human Rights Campaign issued a press release, faulting “the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints” for sending “a private e-mail to its members in Illinois urging them to contact state legislators and voice opposition to civil unions legislation currently under consideration.  Mormons,” HRC informed us

. . . have notably utilized private networks to torpedo pro-LGBT policies in the past, most recently in their home state of Utah, where a package of fair-minded legislation called the Common Ground Initiative was systematically killed in the state legislature. Most notoriously, Mormons funneled millions of dollars into California last year to pass Proposition 8, a ballot initiative that stripped lesbian and gay couples of the right to marry in the state.

This led Board of Director Bruce Bastian to accuse the Church of ”fighting an anti-gay crusade throughout the nation, targeting any form of equality for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community.”  This past week, the Democratic Speaker of the Maryland House of Delegates a bill recognizing same-sex marriages in his state because support had melted away:

One of its co-sponsors, Delegate Tiffany T. Alston, a freshman Democrat from Prince George’s County, had withdrawn her support, apparently bowing to pressure from her constituency, which contains a powerful religious community.

Two national groups that oppose same-sex marriage, the National Organization for Marriage and the Family Research Council, both highlighted African-American and religious opponents of the bill as central to its defeat.

“Particular thanks must go to the African-American pastors, church members and delegates who spoke out against the attempted hijacking of the concept of ‘civil rights,’ ” the Family Research Council said in a statement.

Disappointed “in the outcome,” Del. Doyle Niemann of Prince George’s County offered a similar assessment, “In my area, the power of the black churches was a big part of the problem. Those churches just haven’t come around on this.”  In its statement on the developments in the Maryland marriage debate, HRC did not mention those churches.

Wonder why HRC chooses to single out Mormons with such attacks.

Under normal circumstances, I would not blog on the silence of HRC when an angry activist at a protest aligned politically with the Democrats and ideologically with liberals hurls an anti-gay slur. It is not their job to police the rhetoric of everyone on their side of the partisan divide. That said, it would be nice if they did at least acknowledge that social conservatives do not have a monopoly on anti-gay animus; we often hear of narrow attitudes and nasty rhetoric from groups aligned with and individuals supportive of the “progressive” movement.

The only reason I brought up the issue, in an update to one post, a separate post and in two spoofing HRC’s own releases was those very overheated releases when they decided to use the occasion of a teenager’s use of said slur as a means to discredit her mother, a Mrs. Sarah Palin, an accomplished and charismatic conservative who, in her rise to political power and her short time as governor of the Last Frontier, effected real reform in her state while standing up to the entrenched interests in her own party and working across party lines.

You see, that Mrs. Palin has become a prominent celebrity on the right, well loved in certain conservative circles and bitterly hated on the left. She has replaced a Mr. George W. Bush as the person who must be vilified to show one’s adherence to the sacred creed of the progressive zealots of the hopeful movement for transformative change, i.e., the political left in the Obama era. HRC wanted to show its allegiance to this, to borrow and paraphrase an expression, vast left-wing conspiracy.

Now, we have no problem with people joining this “conspiracy.” In a free society, individuals have the right to adhere to lost causes and subscribe to discredited ideas for social progress and economic prosperity. But, our mockery here shows that while HRC may style itself as civil rights’ organization, it is, in reality, little more than the gay and lesbian auxiliary of the Democratic National Committee.

And we just wanted to remind our readers, that group’s posturing notwithstanding, that is really all that is is. I daresay you’ll find some people on the political left who share this assessment of that organization.

In the spirit of HRC’s 11/18/10 release:

Washington – The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) – the nation’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) civil rights organization – for the second day called on American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) President Gerald W. McEntee to come out against the kind of anti-LGBT bullying and harassment sadly typified by a union activist’s angry rhetoric and actions Tuesday in Rhode Island. The activist has not yet apologized and Gerald McEntee has said nothing.

“This union activist doessn’t know when an apology is in order, why doesn’t he?” said HRC Vice President of Communications Fred Sainz. “As a progressive union leader allied with the Democratic Party, McEntee should know to speak up when someone protesting as an activist at a union ‘solidarity” rally makes hateful remarks, particularly as we strive to promote more civil discourse. Anti-LGBT bullying needs to stop and Gerald McEntee should be a part of making that happen.”

According to media accounts, AFSCME sponsored a “solidarity” rally in Providence on Tuesday and a citizen journalist was taping the event for public access TV.  That prompted the union supporter to respond by threatening the cameraman, saying, “I’ll f**k you in the a**, you faggot!” [sic]

That language is unacceptable. Over the past year a number of union activists have harassed Americans seeking to peacefully assemble and express their grievances.  Gerald McAntee has a prime opportunity to give union activists a lesson in tolerance – to let them know it is wrong to bully other other people, but has so far remained silent.

Sainz added: “Don’t squander this opportunity. Apologize for the behavior and make it clear that you stand against hatred and bullying. Union activists of this country are listening. So are we.” (more…)

Last November, on two successive days, HRC issued press releases (one each day) asking Sarah Palin (while attempting to demean her by calling her a “reality TV star”) to “come out against . . . anti-LGBT bullying” because her teenage daughter had used the slur “faggot” on Facebook.  Even after the teen deleted the offensive comment and her older sister apologized, HRC still called on the accomplished former governor (i.e. not the individual who used the term) to speak out.

HRC Vice President of Communications Fred Sainz even called Mrs. Palin’s parenting skills into question, “As a mother, she should know to speak up when a child makes hateful remarks”.  Yet, he has no clue what the charismatic conservative said to her daughter in private, only whining that she didn’t speak out in public.  That she removed the post suggests that either her parents asked her to remove it because they didn’t want their child using such language or, perhaps they had raised her well enough to realize, when her emotions had cooled, that she had spoken too harshly.

Since originally posting on this, we could come up with no evidence that HRC had ever asked a prominent Democrat to speak out when her child used offensive language.

Now, we’ve got a union protester using the same slur, and in circumstances which make its use far more troublesome than that of a teenager posting on Facebook.  Let me remind you of the facts:

At AFSCME’s “solidarity” rally in Providence, Rhode Island on Tuesday, a cameraman was accosted by a fuming pro-union protester. The cameraman had his back to the goon, who appears to accost him unprovoked. The goon screams:

“I’ll f**k you in the ass, you faggot.

This borders on assault, with the adult using hateful words actually threatening an individual. HRC has not called on AFSCME President Gerald W. McEntee to speak out against such hurtful language, particularly given his minion’s obvious use of the term to demean, in a context clearly suggesting that homosexuality is an inferior status. And HRC is more ideologically in sync with AFSCME than it is with Mrs. Palin, having joined them in endorsing the One Nation, Working Together rally last October. (more…)

This just in:

The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) – the nation’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) civil rights organization – today called on American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) President Gerald W. McEntee to come out against the kind of anti-LGBT bullying sadly typified by a union activist protesting in Rhode Island.  According to media accounts, union activists participating in a AFSCME solidarity rally caught a cameraman reporting the protest’s lackluster attendance.  That prompted one activist to respond by saying, ““I’ll f**k you in the ass, you faggot!”” [sic]

“Anti-gay language by union activists often starts in the workplace – or at least, that’s where it should be stopped,” said HRC President Joe Solmonese.  “It is our sincere hope that Gerald McEntee will take this opportunity to speak out and condemn these kinds of insensitive remarks.  It’s time for union leaders to teach their members a lesson in decency and respect.”

(more…)

Remember, the American Left wants you to believe the GZM is good, nothing to worry about, and Islam is the “Religion of Peace”.

The new imam at the Ground Zero mosque and cultural center believes people who are gay were probably abused as children and that people who leave Islam and preach a new religion should be jailed.

Abdallah Adhami’s remarks on homosexuals, religious freedom and other topics have brought renewed criticism of the proposed community center and mosque near the World Trade Center site, which purports to be an inclusive organization.

Adhami, in a lecture on the Web site of his nonprofit, Sakeenah, says being gay is a “painful trial” caused by past trauma.

“An enormously overwhelming percentage of people struggle with homosexual feeling because of some form of violent emotional or sexual abuse at some point in their life,” he says. “A small, tiny percentage of people are born with a natural inclination that they cannot explain. You find this in the animal kingdom at some level as well.”

Charming.  The Gay Left would be taking to the streets if this Imam’s last name was “Palin”.

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

A reader alerts me to an e-mail HRC President Joe Solmonese sent out yesterday (January 6), the day after Republicans took control of the United States House of Representatives.

Entitled “Hateful leaders take over”, the missive warned of dark days ahead:

Remember all those anti-gay candidates who ran for office this year? As of yesterday, dozens of them are now members of Congress and the House of Representatives is under their control. . . .

2011 opens with a new, more conservative, more deeply anti-gay House leadership – helmed by right-wingers John Boehner and Eric Cantor. Together, they tried to stop us from repealing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”They’ve opposed legislation on hate crimes, employment non-discrimination, responsible HIV/AIDS policy, and relationship recognition. And they just became very powerful.

Emphasis in original.  Guess ol’ Joe has determined that anyone who disagrees with his agenda must needs be anti-gay.  Not really the right way to address the leaders of one part of the legislative branch, especially if you want to lobby them on issues of importance to the gay community.

I agree that we need to change many Republican minds on “relationship recognition.”   Hinting that Republicans are “hateful” and their leaders “anti-gay” is not the way to do that.

With e-mails like this, HRC reveals itself (again) for the partisan organization that it is.  Its business isn’t so much helping gay people as it is trashing the GOP.

Many on the left, including as we recently learned, the leadership of the supposedly non-partisan Human Rights Campaign (HRC), have called on former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin to lead by example and publicly rebuke her teenage daughter for using an offensive slur that teens today (alas!) regularly use when communicating with their peers.  HRC Vice President of Communications Fred Sainz wants proof that the charismatic reformer is doing the work that all parents should be doing

As a mother, she should know to speak up when a child makes hateful remarks, particularly in this cyber age. Anti-LGBT bullying needs to stop and Sarah Palin should be a part of making that happen.

As a mother, Mr. Sainz, isn’t that a bit sexist?  I mean, maybe in the Palin family, it’s the father who does the disciplining, instructing his children on how to conduct themselves in public fora and in private situations.

Okay, Mr. Sainz.  If you believe that parents in the public eye should publicly rebuke their children, first provide examples of similar requests your organization — or its allied left-of-center interest groups — made of your ideological confrères, that is, when you called on prominent Democrats to discipline their unruly or otherwise imperfect progeny.

—

I.e., in the public eye.

Ever since I was elected Vice President of the Capital Area Log Cabin Club, a number of gay people — and not just Republicans — have told me of their hope that Log Cabin would emerge as an alternative to the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) and offer a different perspective from the stale leftism and Democratic partisanship of the large gay rights organization.

Yet, while some members of Log Cabin, including club presidents like myself (when I helmed the Northern Virginia club), faulted HRC, the national officers of the organization seemed excessively wary of losing their standing with the organization (or perhaps just losing invites to HRC’s Christmas party).  They didn’t take on HRC despite its relentless shilling for the Democratic Party, that party’s candidates and its platform.

That is one reason we’re particularly grateful to have GOProud around.  In a piece yesterday in the Daily Caller, our pals Christopher Barron and Tammy Bruce, on behalf of this fledgling organization, take HRC to task for its eagerness to bash Sarah Palin.  Guess because Democrats and the Beltway media loathe that good woman, it’s the proper thing for a left-leaning organization to do.  (And the sure way to secure invitations to all the important Washington holiday parties).

For days now, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), which holds itself out as the “largest lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) civil rights organization,” has shamefully used the issue of anti-gay bullying as part of a cheap political smear against former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. HRC, never shy about doing the bidding of the Democratic Party, issued a November 18th release blaring, “HRC to Sarah Palin: Two Days of Silence, Will You Speak Up?” Is this a release demanding Palin speak out about an issue of substance affecting gay people? No, this childish call-to-arms is about trash talk issued by a 16-year-old in a flame war on a social networking site. (more…)

This is the kind of data I’ve been waiting to see…

According to CNN, 31% of self-identified gay voters supported Republican candidates for the U.S. House. This number is a dramatic increase from the 19% GOP House candidates won among gay voters in 2008. “Exit polling makes it clear gay voters played an important role in bringing conservative leadership to Congress,” said Jimmy LaSalvia, Executive Director of GOProud, the only national organization representing gay conservatives and their allies. “It also proves something we have been saying for months now – that the Tea Party’s message of limiting government is something that appeals to many gay Americans.”

That my friends, is a huge shift.  It also marks a high water mark of self-identified gays voting for GOP as I believe McCain got 27% in 2008 and Bush got 24% in 2004 (don’t quote me on those numbers, I’m using my memory).

How will the professional Gay Leftists handle the fact that one-third of the gays & lesbians in America vote conservative?   For example, will they back off of their position of abortions-for-all when genetic advances are leading to the days of selective aborting gays & lesbians before they are born?

And that’s just one issue where the Gay Progressive radicals are on the wrong side of 60% of America and 30% of gays & lesbian Americans.  What does this say about gay America’s eroding support of President Obama?

Will anything change among the Gay Street crowd?  Doubtful.  They are bought & paid for by the Democrats and George Soros-funded organizations.

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

Principled lefty blogger Michael Petrelis has read through HRC’s recently released 2010 IRS 990 filings so you and I don’t have to.  Among other things, he found that the Democratic front group gay advocacy organization saw a steep drop in its revenue:

The annual report shows that revenue for 2009 was at $45,792,310, and for 2010 it was $37,918,133. The difference comes to $7,874,177, which is a drop of 17%.

The lousy economy certainly played a role in that steep fall, but my gut also says a significant portion of the decline is due to more gays not donating to HRC.

Wonder if being White House lickspittles had anything to do with that drop-off in donations.  Read the whole thing to see what other tidbits Petrelis pulled out.

Building on Petrelis’ post, Ryan Tedder at Queerty quips, “Luckily, if you work at HRC you wouldn’t have noticed any budget problems in your paycheck“:

Digging through the forms that he’s been urging HRC to release, Michael Petrelis finds in salary and benefits, programming head David Smith is taking home $245k, (now former?) development director Cathy Nelson took home $272k, and president Joe Solmonese is still earning a cool $304k . . . . That’s roughly what they earned in the previous year, thanks to a two-year pay freeze mandated by the board of directors in 2008.

Maybe HRC’s fundraising prowess is just not what it’s cracked up to be.  Or, maybe gay conservatives and gay lefty bloggers are right that Solmonese’s leadership has been lacking.

When you find, in your in-box, two e-mails from individuals on opposite sides of the political spectrum offering an almost identical perspective on a particular issue, it’s probably something worth blogging about.

Both gay conservative Christopher Barron and gay socialist Michael Petrelis have reached the same conclusion about a recent fundraising appeal from the Human Rights Campaign (HRC).   In a statement, Barron, chairman of the board of GOProud, said

The nation’s largest LGBT group, the Human Rights Campaign, has stooped to a disgusting new low.  Today, in a last ditch effort to try to score political points for their Democratic bosses, HRC blasted out a fundraising letter that shamelessly uses the victims of anti-gay bullying as partisan election year props.

Anti-gay bullying is a serious issue and HRC’s crass partisan use of this issue in an effort to raise money for Democrats is an insult to the victims of bullying and dishonors the memory of those who we have lost.  Joe Solmonese should be embarrassed that he signed his name to this fundraising appeal and no one in the LGBT community should give one dime to this organization.

Over on his blog, Petrelis finds one of HRC’s fundraising gimmicks similarly crass:

Always on the prowl for ways to dupe naive gays into parting with their money, in the ludicrous belief that doing so abets solving any of the problems facing gay people, the Human Rights Campaign is offering a plastic bracelet for $3, ostensibly to do something about bullying and gay kids committing suicide. . . .

Yep, you can waste a few bucks supporting healthy six-figure salaries at this Democratic org, because buying this piece of plastic isn’t going to do a damn worthy thing to help at-risk gay and questioning teens.

Guess for HRC, it’s all about raking in a buck here and a buck there to keep their staff in lucre and Democrats in office.

… BIG OIL!

Aiming to blunt a regulatory and political backlash as oil continues to gush into the Gulf of Mexico, BP PLC has revved up its influence machine, relying on heavy hitters with deep Democratic roots.

BP is one of the biggest spenders on lobbying in the oil and gas industry, which as a whole has spent a total of $625 million since 2004 to represent its interests in Washington. After the Obama administration took office in 2009, BP’s annual spending grew by half, to $16 million.

During the first quarter of 2010, it spent $3.5 million on lobbying, second to ConocoPhillips, according to figures compiled by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics.

Since the April 20 oil rig explosion that started the Gulf spill, BP’s lobbyists and crisis communications experts have helped to shore up congressional opposition to measures punishing oil companies, and moved to position BP as an ally with the government to manage the crisis.

After the spill, the company brought on crisis communicator Hilary Rosen, former Democratic congressional staffer, former chief executive of the Recording Industry Association of America, and a current editor-at-large for HuffingtonPost.com. Ms. Rosen heads the Washington-based office of U.K. communications firm the Brunswick Group.

If Hilary Rosen’s name sounds familiar to you gays & lesbians out there – well it should.  She lead the “leading gay rights organization” for many years.  None other than the Human Rights Campaign!

On January 22, 2003, Rosen announced that she would resign as head of the RIAA at the end of 2003, in order to spend more time with her partner, Elizabeth Birch, and the couple’s twins (a boy and a girl). She began a television commentator career first with CNBC and then with MSNBC. She signed with CNN in April 2008. Rosen and Birch separated in 2006.

On November 30, 2004, Rosen became the interim director for the Human Rights Campaign, a leading GLBT lobbyist organization, following the ouster of Cheryl Jacques. Hilary’s partner, Elizabeth, was the executive director of HRC for eight years prior to Jacques’ assumption of the post. Since May 2005 she’s been a contributing blogger at The Huffington Post and a consultant to companies in the media industry such as XM Radio, Viacom and Snocap.

Wow.  Rosen sure knows how to work it, huh?  She found that Nepotism is the Best Strategy for the HRC.  Unreal.

Now answer me this:  Since when does taking money from Big Oil constitute a gay rights issue?  Just curious!!!  Do liberals really have no shame?  There are so many “progressives” in the pocket of BP, one might believe abortion was somehow involved with oil exploration.

Despite this history of safety problems, BP has made allies of some Democrats and environmentalists with its support for climate-change legislation, which company lobbyists helped write. It is a key member of the United States Climate Action Partnership, which aims to convince businesses that renewable energy and putting a price on industry emissions of heat-trapping gases can be profitable.

Among BP’s lobbyists is Tony Podesta, who heads the Podesta Group, a lobbying powerhouse founded by Mr. Podesta and his brother, former Clinton chief of staff John Podesta, who headed President Barack Obama’s transition team. John Podesta now leads the Center for American Progress, the liberal think tank whose scholars have presented the White House with ideas like forcing BP to devote its first-quarter profits, or some $5 billion, to a fund for Gulf cleanup. It also has criticized potential BP-related conflicts of interest within the government.

Tony Podesta confirmed Podesta Group was working for BP on the Deepwater Horizon issue, but responded by email that “they have asked us not to talk to press.” BP paid the Podesta Group $320,000 a year in 2008 and 2009, and $60,000 this year through March 31, said the Center for Responsive Politics.

… that it is amazing that Obama even knows there is an oil spill from his Corporate ATM.

American Progressives — Where Hypocrisy Doesn’t Cost Much To Buy.

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

As I was driving to the airport today (another hellish travel week ahead), I wondered why the Obamacare health legislation was ignoring gay-related issues.  After all, this healthcare legislation has devolved into a series of identity-politics buy-offs.

For example, unions are getting a multi-year break from the “Cadillac” healthcare tax.   And we all know about the Nebraska bribe that Senator Nelson secured.

So what’s missing?  You got it!  The most liberal Congress and Administration in a generation is completely ignoring the impact of healthcare reform on the LGBT community — one of its most loyal identity -politics shills.

With the passage of Obamacare to be decided on less than a handful of House votes, where is Tammy Baldwin or Barney Frank?  Why the hell aren’t they standing up and demanding the same kind of treatment for gays and lesbians under Obamacare that union members are getting?

What do I mean?  Well, one example is the individual mandate.  My health insurance covers my partner, John.  But he, like millions of others like him, will be forced to buy health insurance under Obamacare even though he doesn’t need it.  This individual mandate is the “Gay Health Tax” as it punishes domestic partners more than any other group in America.  Funny how the media hasn’t reported this and Reps. Baldwin & Frank aren’t standing up for us.

If that idea isn’t good enough for LGBT-friendly Democrats, how about exempting HIV drugs from whatever formularies are mandated by the “health exchanges”?  Or providing subsidies for HIV drugs regardless of income.

I could go on and on.

The question that American gays and lesbians need to ask:  Where were your Democrat friends when the goodies were being handed out in the Healthcare Reform Legislation?

We already know the answer:  AWOL.

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

So late today the Senate in New Jersey, one of the blueist of blue states (based on recent Prez elections), defeated a gay marriage proposal.

Gay rights advocates were confident of a legislative win and they pushed for passage while defeated Gov. Corzine was still holding his bill-signing pen.

So WTF? What has happened to the gay marriage movement? If you lose in CA and NJ, where do you go now?

I think it is a dead issue. Dead.

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

Looks like there’s something to our contention that the supposedly non-partisan Human Rights Campaign (HRC) is really just a gay auxiliary for the Democratic National Committee.

Checking out “HRC PAC records at OpenSecrets.org for the 2010 election cycle,” principled left-wing blogger Michael Petrelis finds that the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) “is the largest recipient of HRC PAC money so far this year“.  Scanning the HRC’s donations, I founds lot of donations to Democrats.  Well, they did donate to one Republican, but practically the first thing that DIABLO did after dropping out of her special election contest in Upstate New York was to endorse a Democrat.

And HRC seems heavily invested in Ma’am’s re-election, donating $4,000 to “Friends of Barbara Boxer.”  HRC and Ma’am do have a lot in common.  They can raise a lot of sound and fury (and a huge chunk of change to boot), but don’t seem able to accomplish much.  For her 17 years in the Senate, Ma’am has only seen three of her bills become law, while HRC has little to show for their bowing, scraping and fundraising for the Democratic Party.

The Human Rights Campaign’s (HRC) best efforts notwithstanding, criticizing the organization does not mean you harbor anti-gay attitudes. If such were the standard, gay bloggers of all different stripes, from Trig truthers (& Obama apologists) to principled leftists to yours truly would all be anti-gay. And while I have not minced my words when talking about the gay auxiliary of the Democratic National Committee the liberal gay rights organization, left-of-center bloggers have used language far more choice than mine to describe HRC.

But, it seems the Advocate editors have drunk the HRC Kool-aid, having headlined their report on the Maine journalist fired for sending an intemperate e-mail to the liberal organization, “Reporter Fired for Antigay E-mail to HRC“.  Here’s the text of that e-mail:

Who are the hateful, venom-spewing ones? Hint: Not the yes on 1 crowd. You hateful people have been spreading nothing but vitriol since this campaign began. Good riddance!’”

Hmmm.. . .  doesn’t sound anti-gay to me.  I’ve heard gay friends (not all Republicans) use equally harsh language (albeit with different words) to describe HRC.

Now, maybe the good folks at HRC think that when Larry Grard (the journalist in question) modified the epithet “hateful people” with the pronoun you, he was referring not to just the recipient of the e-mail, but to all gay people.  That would then be mighty presumptuous of HRC to assume they speak for all gay people.  They certainly don’t speak for me nor for most readers of this blog nor for countless others American gays, including a good number of left-wing bloggers. (more…)

In a private e-mail to the Human Rights Campaign, a tired reporter in the Pine Tree State responded to their assertion that those who supported Question 1 on the state’s ballot month were haters, echoing something we have said on this blog.

“They said the Yes-on-1 people were haters. I’m a Christian. I take offense at that,” [Larry Grard, that aforementioned sleep-deprived journalist] said. “I e-mailed them back and said basically, ‘We’re not the ones doing the hating. You’re the ones doing the hating.’

He may have been weary, but he did have a point. A lot of the gay marriage activists have been doing a lot of hating.

Shortly after sending this e-mail, Grard, a “reporter for thirty-five years, the last eighteen of them at the Morning Sentinel in Waterville [Maine]” was summoned to the office of Bill Thompson, editor of the Sentinel:

He was told that Trevor Thomas, deputy communications director of the Human Rights Campaign, had Googled his name, discovered he was a reporter, and was demanding Grard be fired. According to Grard, Thompson said, “There’s no wiggle room.”

He was immediately dismissed.

Wow, just wow. HRC gets an intemperate e-mail and instead of asking for an apology demands the writer be fired. And heck, the reporter didn’t even cover “the marriage issue or other gay-rights controversies for the Sentinel.”  But, to HRC, if you don’t have the politically correct mind-set, well, then you shouldn’t have a job in journalism.  Maybe it’s because of tactics like theirs that mainstream reporters don’t cover the hateful rhetoric spewing from some segments the gay left.

Has any mainstream reporter ever covered the thuggish tactics of HRC? (more…)