Brody's Scribbles... Activists Target Human Rights Campaign Complaining That HRC Is Ineffective

By Brody Levesque (Washington DC) Feb 18 | I need to state for the record, that I am a supporter of the tremendous efforts that the Human Rights Campaign puts into lobbying for full equality for LGBT Americans. Accordingly, I will also acknowledge that for some activists, bloggers, even my colleagues in the Press Corps, there does seem to be a studied indifference and lack of proactive, forceful, and meaningful efforts by the HRC to push Congress and the administration into passage of key legislation to further advance full equality and civil rights. [ie; ENDA-DADT]

I had reported Tuesday on the call to arms by prominent LGBT Bloggers & Activists to call on HRC to push the Obama Administration on a speedy and timely passage of the repeal of DADT. LGBT Media Outlet, QueerTY.com published this commentary regarding HRC and the Blogosphere's actions:

"Homosexual and heterosexual websites published by independent creators are banding together, in a "blog swarm," to take on the evil Human Rights Campaign because it is a farce of an organization with laughable effectiveness and a leader less concerned about transparency than window glass. This is beautiful! It is also ridiculous.

Not ridiculous in the "What a stupid idea" sense. But ridiculous in a "Has LGBT equality legislation failed so bad that we must now target our efforts on Gay Inc. rather than on the legislators responsible for actually making decisions?" sense.

And the answer — say bloggers like Pam Spaulding, Joe Jervis, John Aravosis, Andy Towle, and Dan Savage — is yes.

Yes, HRC must. be. targeted! These blogs are asking you to email or call HRC (at their front desk, where a low-level receptionist paid by the hour will answer) and let your frustration be known. Amusing, because these are the very same tactics HRC tells its "citizen lobbyists" (that's you, BTW) to utilize when contacting legislators.

This effort to pressure HRC, of course, assumes that the organization exhibits any real power in Washington. And if the past thirty years have told us anything, it's that such an assumption could very well be a giant leap.This website has, since its inception in 2005, been critical of HRC, which bills itself as the largest LGBT advocacy organization in the nation. Five years later, reports The Advocate's Kerry Eleveld, we're in the same place with better circumstances."

Hosted by Thomas Roberts, here is that report by the Advocate.com's Senior White House Correspondent Kerry Eleveld: