NYT: Groups Debate Slower Strategy on Gay Rights

[kskiska]

LOS ANGELES, Dec. 8 - Leaders of the gay rights movement are embroiled in a bitter and increasingly public debate over whether they should moderate their goals in the wake of bruising losses in November when 11 states approved constitutional amendments prohibiting same-sex marriages.

In the past week alone, the Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest gay and lesbian advocacy group, has accepted the resignation of its executive director, appointed its first non-gay board co-chairman and adopted a new, more moderate strategy, with less emphasis on legalizing same-sex marriages and more on strengthening personal relationships.

The leadership of the Human Rights Campaign, at a meeting last weekend in Las Vegas, concluded that the group must bow to political reality and moderate its message and its goals. One official said the group would consider supporting President Bush's efforts to privatize Social Security partly in exchange for the right of gay partners to receive benefits under the program.

"The feeling this weekend in Las Vegas was that we had to get beyond the political and return to the personal," said Michael Berman, a Democratic lobbyist and consultant who was elected the first non-gay co-chairman of the Human Rights Campaign's board last week. "We need to reintroduce ourselves to America with the stories of our lives."

But others involved in the drive for gay and lesbian equality say the Human Rights Campaign's approach smacks of pre-emptive surrender and wrong-headed political calculation.

more…
http://nytimes.com/2004/12/09/national/09gays.html?hp&ex=1102568400&en=eb98fb148fb10f1a&ei=5094&partner=homepage

[Newsjock]

1. Just what we need

... more Republican-lite. My outrage overload is already in full effect tonight, though, so I'm just comfortably numb at this sad news.

Any gay person who supports anything from this administration ... well, words simply fail me.

[private_ryan]

5. I don't think we have a choice

otherwise we'll get a fed constitutional amendment and the other 37 states will join in too. Good luck once that happens.

Seems to me that the fight is now over a word, "marriage" or "civil union".

[AP]

6. Many people think the HRC was already Republican light before this...

...and believe that they are way too entwined with business. And those people probably think that this "shift" really isn't a shift.

[AP]

2. None of that is going to help. They need to read The Twilight of Equality.

And no group fighting for progress should be conceding privatizing Social Security regarldless of what the Republicans are dangling.

[Rowdyboy]

3. True equality is not coming anytime soon...

I wish equal rights were an attainable goal but in today's climate it is unrealistic. I only hope we can keep from losing major ground, and I'm highly pessimistic about that..

[Quetzal]

4. Give me a fucking break

We should be pushing ourselves to the hilt - not retreating into some dank corner.

[Liberal Chad from WI]

7. PLEASE LISTEN TO ME

homosexuality is not a choice it is something you are born with. Why woudl someone chose to be discriminated against? How can we look someone in the eyes and tell them they dont deserve as many rights because they dont apply to waht the bible says.......COME ON!!!...... thats absurd. We need to give gays more rights and the ones who bash gays are just waiting to come out of the closet.

[private_ryan]

8. who's arguing with you on those points?

the problem is this: try getting the equal rights!!!

[Liberal Chad from WI]

15. ur right

ya your right the problem is getting them those rights. you ask whos arguing w/ me? EVERYONE.......many many times ive been called out about my support of gay rights.

[David Dunham]

9. Bush will never let gay partners get SS benefits.

[Thurston Howell IV]

10. Supporting privatization of SS is the wrong approach

While reevaluating goals in light of the recent string of losses on referenda makes sense, supporting right-wing policies which are thinly-veiled attempts to dismantle social programs is very wrong-headed and ass-backwards.

[Laughing Mirror]

12. It is a horrible approach, unthinkable. Ain't no way, brother.

The Human Rights (human rights for the weak, but justice for the powerful) people can bend over for the bullies all they want. They can keep their 30 fucking million dollar a year budget. For doing nothing.

Gay people should consider supporting real underfunded GLBT groups that actually see gay equality as a civil rights issue for all Americans. The National Black Justice Coalition is one such group. It is "an ad hoc coalition of black lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered leaders who have come together to fight against discrimination in our communities.

The goal of the organization in 2004 is to build black support for marriage equality and to educate the community on the dangers of the proposal to amend the U.S. Constitution to discriminate against gays and lesbians."

http://www.nbjcoalition.org/

[xchrom]

11. eating our own...

isn't that what the donner party did?

i love the appeal to corporate culture that's underscored in this article.
revealing, once again, the face of america's true masters.

[customerserviceguy]

13. I disagree with most on this thread

I saw a lot of emailings from HRC during the last election campaign. No doubt, they've been as speechless as the rest of us in seeing the margins by which antigay legislation has been approved. I'm sure they're shellshocked by losing by such a wide margin in Oregon, where there was a fighting chance to stop the wave of hate. I know I'm still surprised by it, everybody I knew in that state was voting against the ban.

Clearly, this is an issue that will motivate the fundies to get out of their churches and head to the polls. It seems that the Massachusetts SJC woke up some sort of sleeping giant, we might have made more progress without the ruling. If civil unions could have taken hold in a goodly number of states, we might have had five or ten years where the sky did not fall, and the SCOTUS would have given a "no separate but equal" ruling that would have allowed gay marriage. Now, we have nearly a quarter of the states with an ironclad antigay marriage amendment in their constitutions, and the politicians are running for cover on this issue.

Please remember that it sometimes takes a long time for civil rights to be realized in this country. It was about a decade between Brown vs. Board of Education, and the civil rights acts of the Johnson Administration era. Even then, George Wallace was able to capitalize on racism to grab five states in the 1968 Presidential election. And all this occurred a century after the 13th Amendment that should have been the final word on racial equality. All civil rights struggles have been long and hard, and take generations to finally influence the hearts and minds of the general population. Why would it be any easier this time around?

[Laughing Mirror]

14. Just because it is no easier this time around

Doesn't mean to give up the fight. That's what this so-called Human Rights group is doing in fact. In no way do they represent us or our struggle. There are other groups with backbone who will not give up. Support them instead.

[private_ryan]

17. ever heard of strategy?

like in a war...if you you see 50,000 soldiers coming after 2000 of you, you have no chance so hiding and retreating for a while is much, much smarter. You can of course choose to die.

[Laughing Mirror]

18. Hide and retreat all you want

All you do is make it harder for us who lack the will to hide and retreat and choose instead to turn around and fight. The more people I have on my side, the right side, means I can defeat those 50,000 fighting for the wrong side, and crunch their numbers down to zero. That's my strategy.

[w4rma]

16. Darn straight they better slow up, but supporting BS like that

isn't going to get them anywhere. It will be a long hard slog and anyone who says otherwise is either naive or lying.