The Democratic Party has scheduled a fundraiser from the LGBT community on June 25th at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel. This seems a bit rich to ask for our financial support given the lack of action on any important LGBT related civil rights, and the recent DOJ brief comparing our marriages to incest and pedophilia. There are better causes and better uses of our money.
The "LGBT Leadership Council" is hosting a dinner with Joe Biden. How fancy, I never knew we had a "Leadership Council". It sounds vaguely military, and kind of sexy. I like Joe Biden, he's intelligent, and he has a clumsy but endearing sense of humor. However, it is grossly inappropriate for the Obama political team to expect financial support from the LGBT community that they have just thrown under the bus -- again.
Do we need to catalog this:
- Rick Warren delivers the invocation at the inauguration on national TV, while mysteriously Bishop Gene Robinson's prayer at the start of the inaugural weekend is not televised.
- The President's only comment even acknowledging our victories on marriage equality, was to propose running off to Iowa with David Axelrod because, you know, they are both........
- Repeated refusal to use the available legal authorities (executive order) to end "Don't Ask Don't Tell", because apparently, the administration is afraid of the 25% of the population that still thinks it is a good idea to throw out good soldiers in the middle of fighting two wars. The administration shows no sign of any support for legislation to repeal DADT that as been introduced into the House of Representatives.
- The DOJ brief, filed on Friday to defend a federal challenge to the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) that compares same sex marriages to incest and pedophilia. I've seen arguments back and forth as to whether or not the administration had to defend DOMA - but I don't think the gratutiously homophobic insults were an essential part of a motion to dismiss the suit.
I could list other items (late support of hate crimes legislation, no signs of life on employment non-discrimination), but why piss myself off! Why does an unresponsive party deserve our financial support, especially now, in these tought economic times?
Here are some more worthy causes to consider supporting. This is by no means an exhaustive list and NOT a specific endorsement on my part -- just some suggested alternatives to a Democratic fundraiser in DC:
Equality Maine: http://www.equalitymaine.org/
Equality Maine led the fight to win marriage equality in that state, showing real talent in mobilizing grassroots political support for equality. Unfortunately, the equality legislation is likely to be challenged by referendum, known as a "People's Veto" in Maine. Opponents, led by the usual bigots (NOM, conservative churches) have 90 days to gather 55,000 signatures to place this on the ballot. But we can actually WIN this fight -- did you know that during the election last November, Equality Maine was able to identify 33,000 supporters of marriage equality! Let's make sure they have the resources to win any potential referendum fight.
Equal Rights Washington: http://equalrightswashington.org/
Similar story to Maine. Washington State enacted "everything but marriage" domestic partnership laws. The usual suspects again are trying to put it to a referendum. (do they have anything else to do other than gay-bash?)
California here we come:
There seems to be a lot of criticism that we spent too much in California and then lost anyway, while ignoring "fly-over" country. Maybe if we had spent more in Florida or Arizona, we could have held on there. Its a valid argument, but I am withholding my own judgement.
That being said, there are a lot of groups fighting for equality in California. I am not clear that there actually will be a referendum fight over Prop 8, because there is now a viable, but very controversial, challenge to Prop 8 in the Federal courts (courtesy of the American Foundation for Equal Rights). But if we go back to the ballot box in 2010 or 2012, you may want to check out Courage Campaign (http://www.couragecampaign.org/) or Equality California (www.eqca.org) for starters
Servicemembers Legal Defense Network: http://www.sldn.org/
They are doing good work to try and repeal DADT. Let's support those who protect us all.