Brody's Scribbles... Is GetEqual's Militancy Hurting LGBT Equality Legislative Efforts?

By Brody Levesque (Washington DC) Apr 21 | As Chairman George Miller (D-CA) called a hearing by the House Committee on Education and Labor into session this morning, he was interrupted by activists from GetEqual demanding action on the EDNA legislation which is currently languishing in the House. 

This is now the third day in a row that GetEqual has created a disturbance regarding DADT and ENDA with American political figures. On Monday, President Barack Obama was interrupted as he attempted to deliver a speech at a Democratic fundraiser in Los Angeles for California U. S. Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) followed by yesterday's protest, by 6 current and former service members led by Army Reservist Lt. Dan Choi, handcuffing themselves to the White House fence and being arrested.

All of the targets of GetEqual's militant protests have been politician's friendly to LGBT causes. Some LGBT Equality activists in Washington are displeased and claim that these protests are destroying good will that has been built up over many years of lobby efforts. One official with the Human Rights Campaign, on the condition of remaining anonymous said that these childish acts will only serve to hurt efforts by the LGBT community in seeking full equality and rights. 

A prominent proponent for the EDNA legislation and outspoken advocate Dr. Jillian Weiss, in an Op-Ed today on The Bilerico Project, signaled that she wasn't convinced that GetEqual's methods were helpful in advancing the bill through the Congress. Weiss wrote:

The activists of GetEqual interrupted a meeting of the House Committee on Education and Labor today, handing Chairman George Miller a magic marker labeled 'GetEqual: Markup ENDA.'

An activist told Miller:

"I don't know if it's because of the recession that you guys you can't afford markers, or whatever the issue is, but in our community there are people being fired because they are lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender."

Mitchell refused to take the marker but told the activists that the committee plans to consider ENDA soon.

"We're working on it as expeditiously as we can," Miller said.

Another unidentified committee member could be heard voicing opposition to ENDA.

"This is the problem with this. There's no end to it. You're never going to satisfy them all," the unidentified lawmaker said.

I am of two minds about whether this will be helpful in moving ENDA forward.

On the one hand, Chairman George Miller of the House Committee on Education and Labor is a friend of the LGBT community, and clearly wants to move ENDA. His good faith is clear.

On the other hand, here we are a week and a half after the Easter Recess, and nothing is even scheduled. We have stories in the press about Steny Hoyer and Barney Frank saying this will happen soon. But why didn't the Committee at least say something about when this markup is going to be scheduled? Why didn't we hear anything about the result of the whip count taking place? Why did we hear nothing about a scheduling of the floor vote?

Communication, people! It's what keeps a community working smoothly together.

While GetEqual may be pissing off our friends a bit, I don't fault them for wanting to get some information about what is going on. After all, we've been promised an ENDA vote every month since last summer, and not a darn thing has happened.

After being asked to leave the hearing by Congressional Staffers, the GetEqual activists cornered U. S. Representative Jared Polis of Colorado, in the hallway of a House office building. Congressman Polis, a democrat who is openly Gay, seemed uncomfortable with the adversarial stance of the activists who also appeared to not be listening to the Congressman's explanations and pleas for them to lobby members of the Democratic caucus who have not yet signed on as co-sponsors. The Congressman attempted to explain that ENDA wouldn't go to the floor for a vote unless the leadership was convinced that there were enough backing votes to withstand the opposition. This plea, however, seemed to be lost on the protesters.

Speaking on background, a spokesperson for House Majority leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD), stated that instead of focusing in on the real problems confronting friendly politicos in Congress in trying to gain passage of ENDA as well as move the process forward on DADT, the GetEqual protesters could be likened to small children throwing tantrums because they were denied a sweet. He noted that this doesn't help their cause at all as taking aim at friends was detrimental to the overall process. The source at HRC echoed that sentiment.

Nearly everyone is in agreement that levels of frustration have gone through the ceiling. The problem is that harassing those that are already working steadily for passage of important LGBT measures is counterproductive and as one Hill staffer put it; 

"Makes them [GetEqual] look as self serving and fringe as the Tea Party radicals."

A grass roots LGBT activist noted:

"If we are to rely on politics we need to enroll constituents. We need to put our time, money and energy into convincing people that equality is a basic human principle. Research indicates that if we frame the conversation in that manner - without bitching or demanding, but instead asking for help, two-thirds of our fellow citizens will support us."

The following is video shot by GetEqual of the protest today at the hearing and then the hallway confrontation with Congressman Polis: