HRC Told Congress To Wait On DADT, Push For ENDA, Hate Crimes Instead

[keepCAblue]

From Joe. My. God ... http://joemygod.blogspot.com/2009/06/daily-beast-reports-hrc-told-obama.html

video at above link.

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In a video posted at The Daily Beast, reporter Jason Bellini claims that Sen. Chuck Schumer "let it slip" that the Human Rights Campaign told "Senators and members of the U.S. House" to put aside the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," and instead focus on ENDA and the hate crimes act.

UPDATE: Michael Cole, Senior Communications Manager of the HRC, wrote me with this statement: "This story is not only an outright lie, it is recklessly irresponsible. HRC never made such a deal and continues to work with congress and the administration on a full range of equality issues including a swift end to the military's shameful ban on gay servicemembers."

UPDATE II: Jason Bellini wrote to direct us to http://www.signorile.com/2009/06/joe-solmonese-interview-discusses-obama.html">this post from Michelangelo Signorile:

While Bellini had unnamed sources, I, however, have a named source saying exactly what Bellini reports, someone I interviewed several weeks ago on the show: Aaron Belkin of the Palm Center, the research institute that focuses on the military and sexuality, located at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Belkin writes often for The Huffington Post and interacts with members of Congress. (I have including a few-minute clip from that interview here as well). I didn't see or know about the Bellini piece when I interviewed Joe (it either had just posted or wasn't up yet), but I did ask him about what Belkin claimed. Belkin was relatively certain in what he told me:

AB: "...Our major national gay rights organizations -- it would be one thing to say nothing, but there is pro-active lobbying on the hill for Congress not to consider issue. And so the community has been appalling on this issue.
MS: Have you seen any response from any of those groups, and I guess we're talking about the Human Rights Campaign, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, other Washington groups?
AB:...We've heard from so many offices that not only are they not doing anything but they're pro-actively lobbying against consideration of the issue. I feel very confident in saying that.

NGLTF doesn't lobby on the hill, so the reference was clearly about HRC. Joe Solmonese denied this claim when I quoted it, though for accuracy's sake I should state that I asked him specifically about lobbying the White House on the issue and not Congress

[RufusH]

1. I am cancelling my monthly HRC contribution immediately.

This is not the first I've heard of this. I'm even more disappointed in their discouragement of the Olson/Boies case. They don't speak for me.

[bluedawg12]

2. "Solmonese - still not much of a fierce advocate. "

http://www.boxturtlebulletin.com/

It’s very clear that HRC sees that they are being left behind. The massive nationwide Join The Impact protests following passage of California’s Prop 8 caught everyone off guard. Since then, two prominent lawyers bypassed the traditional LGBT leaders and launched their own lawsuit against Prop 8. Others have called for a march on Washington to show their impatience. People are impatient and they are voting with their feet. The HRC is being being bypassed.

Joe Solmonese appeared later yesterday on MSNBC’s Hardball with Chris Matthews. While he’s definitely feels the need now to answer for the perception that HRC has given the White House a pass on DADT, he’s still not much of a fierce advocate. Consider this exchange, where Solmonese dutifully mouths the White House’s talking points.

SOLMONESE: Well I think on any measure of issues we are working on right now with the White House, whether it’s movement on the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes bill or the Employment Non-Discrimination Act or overturning “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” the White House is working on these issues. But Lorre Jean brings up an incredibly important point particularly with regard to “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” There’s overturning the policy which I believe the administration will do in the course of the year or so, and then there are good hard working people like Dan Choi, and Arab language interpreter who potentially could be thrown out of the military in the next few weeks, and the President has the opportunity to stop that from happening. We’ve asked him to do that and pressed him to do that and hope that he will.

MATTHEWS: But if he does that by executive order, what is he worried about? Why is he not doing it? Joe?

SOLMONESE: Well, we don’t know… he may do it and he has the opportunity to do it and it may be that… I don’t know why he wouldn’t do it, but I mean with regard to overturning the policy generally, I mean you brought up… I don’t think its the case he want to not necessarily upset these military leaders, but he understands there’s an implementation part of this policy that has to be worked through, and I think on any measure that he’s working on with us, and I see we’re working daily with them on getting the hate crimes bill to his desk right now, is that he approaches these things in a way that they will be sustainable and will work in a way that’s going to work for the community in opposed to an expeditious manner which I think you saw President Clinton undertaking the first days of his administration that actually got us “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”

The only difference between Solmonese answer and the near-nonanswers coming form White House Press secretary Robert Gibbs is that Solmonese is a bit more articulate. Maybe Solmonese should become Press Secretary instead.

Contrast that to Lorrie Jean, of the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center, who also appeared on Hardball:

Getting rid of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” doesn’t change what’s been happening. Gays and Lesbians have been serving in the military for decades, for hundreds of years and those kinds of problems don’t exist. While they figure out how they’re going to work out all those permutations, the President could take a very simple step. He could issue a Stop Loss Order and could say, hey look, right now our country is under attack by terrorists around the world. We need every able body that we can have, every valuable person. And so let’s stop drumming people out now while we figure this out.

[xultar]

3. People will think it is Hillary Clinton you're talking about rather than HRC...can you update

the thread title to reflect it?

Hillary is very GLBT friendly and I don't want people to get the wrong idea.

[dgibby]

4. Ditto.

That's exactly what I thought when I saw the headline.

What the hell is wrong with these people? Can't they multi-task?

[keepCAblue]

5. editing period has expired, unfortunately...

[Fran Kubelik]

6. In the GLBT forum, it seems obvious that HRC = Human Rights Campaign

[joeybee12]

8. Not to moi! n/t

[ShadowLiberal]

9. Nor to me, I asked myself "why would Hillary say that" when I saw the title

[RufusH]

10. wrong spot

[IndianaGreen]

11. That was my first thought, that it was Hillary

As to Human Rights Campaign, they sucked big time when they agreed to drop the transgender from ENDA. They can kiss my lesbian ass!

[joeybee12]

7. Signorile has it out for HRC...so I wouldn't necessarily believe this story...

...not a big fan of HRC, but other people are trying to push an agenda here as well.

[FreeState]

12. +1 I dont like HRC at all - however I dont believe this story either n/t

[keepCAblue]

15. It's not a matter of believing Signorile. It's a matter of who you believe...

...Schumer or the HRC. Schumer hasn't denied the claim and there is an independent third-party entity who verifies the allegations (Belkin). So forget Signorile -- it's a question of believing either Schumer or the HRC. Pick your poison...

[Toucano]

13. I don't believe this story, nor do I think it would be a big deal if it were true.

ENDA and hate crime legislation affect a lot of people and are important goals for equality.

DADT repeal is very important, but if ENDA is easier to get through, I'll take the low hanging fruit!

Momentum builds, success breeds success. Every victory counts makes the next victory easier.

[AntiFascist]

14. The momentum is there now with people like Lt. Dan Choi...

and others churning up grassroots support. If HRC is waiting for a better time, perhaps a time when they can raise more money for themselves, then they are not working in our best interests.

[Toasterlad]

17. Exactly. America Wants an End to DADT.

The "timing" isn't going to get much better.

And speaking of ENDA, when's the last time we heard about any progress on that front???

[Toasterlad]

16. Don't Know It It's True Or Not, But It Wouldn't Surprise Me

It's not like the HRC doesn't have a long history of foot-dragging and mismanagement. That's one of the reasons why I can't take their admonitions about taking the Prop 8 cases to the Supreme Court seriously. It's always wait...wait...wait... with them. They could give Democrats lessons in keeping powder dry.

I honestly sometimes don't wonder if they're purposely trying to STALL the advent of equality in an attempt to keep justifying their own existence...and salaries.

[FLAprogressive]

18. The HRC is a tool of the DLC/Dem establishment.