You're really milking this HRC thing, Power Glutes.

Easy target, indeed.

Well, it's a bit different for the Israel lobby. They can play the DNC and the GOP against each other, I mean, there are prominent national politicians in both parties who bend over backwards to show their support for Israel. A Republican, however, always has to give a blowjob to the religious right (or, barring that, a decent handjob while it's feeling them up), and that means barely acknowledging that gays are even human.

So, since the gay rights orgs can't endorse the GOP, they're generally inclined to be dragged around by the DNC.

A more apt approach, perhaps, would be to be more active in less homophobic states where even a Republican (presuming that Republican had no ambition to seek a national election, as for President) could be a viable ally. That means, for example, watching the New York governor's race.

HRC needs to be milked out of existence.

But the HRC holds those expensive fundraiser dinner's here in Seattle that every freaking "professional" gay man in town shits themselves silly to attend. I can name about 10 right off the top of my head and they aren't the over 50 crowd either; they're the 30-40 something crowd.

Pathetic....

"AIPAC—the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. They raise shitloads of money and leverage it with a cold-blooded brutality against any candidate of either party who strays from within an inch of the Israeli government's line of the day. "

I'd say AIPAC doesn't always follow the Israeli government, they're often more hard-line than that.

Very well said, it's a shame this week's I, Anonymous will get ten times as many comments.

I stopped reading at the author's name.

Excellent observations by Andrew.

If you ever wonder why Canada had rights and marriages decades before America, it's because in Canada women and gays play hardball, and aren't afraid to do it.

This is one of his hobby-horses, and so we find him assuming bad faith and criticising them for doing more than he was capable...which is not to say that he's wrong in all particulars.

I find it interesting that Sullivan's lead is how he would be singularly incompetent as a politician in his first paragraph and then explains how he knows literally nothing about anything in the rest of the article.

AIPAC kind of has an ace up their sleeve when a 1/3 of the country on the right depend on Israel to exist to bring about the end of times, and 1/3 on the left are actual Jews. Maybe if Gays could command 66% of the country, THEY WOULD BE MORE LIKE AIPAC!

Also, Sullivan goes to WAY more cocktail parties than Solmonese.

"There was a cloying leftist smugness"

As opposed to Sullivan's cloying right-wing smugness? At least the HRC is fairly sincere to their causes.

Sullivan's a bog-standard right-winger, constantly making excuses for the politicians that pay him lip service and drop him when it's politically convenient.

I think he makes some very good points, but they could hardly be limited to just GLBT people and groups.

In all levels of society - and especially corporations - glitz is valued over substance or ability. CEO's who have only the vaguest idea of what their company does, and even less interest, keep it going long enough to get the stock options that will allow them to retire.

Look at Pacific Northwest Bell/US West/Qwest/ Centurylink. That's four names in just over twenty years, yet service has not improved, technology has only grudginly been embraced, innovation is nil, and the customer base keeps eroding.

Or look at the Intiman theatre - again, the victim of a leadership culture that has no idea of the bottom line, no concept of organizational sustainability.

TV and pop culture is the same way: Where once you had to have at least some sort of talent, we have people now who are famous for being famous, or having appeared on some dumb reality show.

Believe me, I am no fan of the HRC (I got those dinner invites for years before they finally gave up on me) but the problem is much more widespread than just the lack of GLBT leadership.

I'm not much of a fan of Andrew Sullivan, but in this case he's right. HRC has a long history of raising tons and tons of money and getting absolutely nothing accomplished with it. HRC is by far the most useless LGBT org in the country. I stopped donating money to them about 10 years ago.

&8: your loss. Maybe you'd learn something if you didn't have such closed mind.

Sullivan is full of shit and always has been. Anyone else remember when he was out urging everyone to vote for fucking George W. Bush in 2000? Ya, he doesn't like to talk about that so much anymore. Andrew now says "How could I have known?"

I dunno Andrew, I'm not a fucking Harvard/Oxford educated "genius" like you, so I voted for Al Gore just like every other gay person with half a brain. You on the other hand were duped because George W. Bush once said something nice about a gay interior decorator, and yes, Sullivan once cited this story as a reason to believe in Bush's BS about compassionate conservatism.

So yes, HRC has problems, but guess what Andrew: THEY DIDN"T TELL PEOPLE TO VOTE FOR GEORGE W. BUSH. Which for me, puts them about 1000x ahead of you when it comes to furthering gay rights.

I'll never forget when HRC endorsed Alfonse D'Amato, a corrupt Republican candidate going down to defeat over Chuck Schumer, a rising star in the Democratic Party.

I shouldn't be surprised, though. HRC is just one big mess and always has been.

damn, it's frustrating just trying to post a comment. thank God for dummy email accounts.

I'll never forget when HRC endorsed Alfonse D'Amato, a corrupt republican senator pandering to the gay community and destined to defeat instead of Chuck Schumer, a rising democratic star.

How'd that work for ya, HRC?

20 years of idiot decision-making.

btw, Larry Kramer has been saying the same thing about HRC for 20 years. If you don't believe Andrew, would you believe Larry?

HRC sucks, pure and simple and you are an IDIOT if you donate a penny to this vapid, barren organization.

The current issue of HRC's membership rag, which is named "Equality," has a full-page ad for British Fucking Petroleum. So you can destroy the Gulf of Mexico as long as you're a bud to Joe Solmonese!

Good to know about HRC's "multistory complex." Now I know where the money that I gave them (before I stopped giving them money) went, although I'd already suspected that Solmonese has been living high on the hog at our expense. Literally and figuratively.

The current issue of HRC's membership rag, which is named "Equality," has a full-page ad for British Fucking Petroleum. So you can destroy the Gulf of Mexico as long as you're a bud to Joe Solmonese (who indeed seems to be in it only in order to meet the likes of Billary Clinton and Cyndi Lauper)!

Good to know about HRC's "multistory complex." Now I know where the money that I gave them (before I wised up and stopped giving them money) went, although I'd already suspected that Solmonese has been living high on the hog at our expense -- literally and figuratively.

HRC is basically a sticker manufacturer which throws fabulous cocktail parties and gives awards to celebrities. Who needs them?

@20: There are plenty of things to criticize HRC for, but endorsing Al D'Amato isn't one of them. What issues separated D'Amato and Schumer in 1998? Was Schumer out campaigning for gay marriage? No. They both favored ENDA, and the both favored repealing DADT. In fact, if HRC had endorsed Schumer just because he was a Democrat, it's people like Sullivan who would have been bitching about it the loudest.

Take a look at Sullivan's coverage of the gay marriage debate in NY. Plenty of posts hailing the 2 Republican marriage supporters, but nary a peep about the 29 Democrats that provide nearly all of the votes for the bill. In fact, Sullivan finds time to complain about the ONE Democrat who is against it!

HRC is a Country Club where privileged white gay men write checks to other privileged white gay men in imaginary group catharsis to atone for being the sin of living-out a self-serving, socially unconscious life that never serves the greater good. It's a narcissistic wank-fest.

A few years ago, one of MSFT's first LGBT employees, Rick Weiland, died. He bequeathed $65M to 10 LGBT charities. It's no accident that HRC was *not* a recipient. In reading between the lines of Rick's bio, I was impressed to learn how he put himself out and proud with a "YEP I AM" vanity license plate all the way back in 1978. Can you imagine the professional risk it was to be an out professional in the 70s, working beside Bill Gates? It was not a disco: being out was an enormous personal risk back then. When Rick started giving his fortune to LGBT charities, he did so quietly and with forethought, the way giving out to be. I felt like sharing this info because it's worth spreading that there have been LGBT champs who lived out when it was dangerous to be out, and who donated their wealth to better causes than HRC.

Wow, this was actually interesting. Yeah, where's our political hardball group?

wow wow and WOW. Thank you for saying what I have been knowing for too long. Go Andrew

I also stopped reading at the authors name. I have seen Andrew many times on tv and have never been impressed. He is such an oxymoron - he screams gay but it so conservative he would vote himself out of existance. What a joke.

As soon as I saw that he once edited TNR I took it all with a grain of salt. BUT I have to say that I definitely agree with everything he has to say about the HRC, except the whole AIPAC business. I wouldn't want to dirty the movement with their tactics. Hard-ball good, employing tactics that are successfully supporting repressive regimes bad.

good anti-HRC song by Adhamh Roland of Riot Folk:

http://thefeedbackloop.org/2011/06/28/qu…

As soon as I saw that he once edited TNR I took it all with a grain of salt. BUT I have to say that I definitely agree with everything he has to say about the HRC, except the whole AIPAC business. I wouldn't want to dirty the movement with their tactics. Hard-ball good, employing tactics that are successfully supporting repressive regimes bad.

good anti-HRC song by Adhamh Roland of Riot Folk:

http://thefeedbackloop.org/2011/06/28/qu…

Could I get from some of you a few suggestions for worthy LGBT groups to donate to, in place of HRC?

I'd like names of groups who are doing what HRC claims to be doing, but doing it better--so that I can give them my money instead of HRC. Or even just a link to an unbiased site that evaluates and compares groups would be helpful.

I want to support the most effective group(s) who are successfuly furthering the idea of equality, and who are furthering the goal of penalizing abuse.

@22: Isn't that true of all "civil rights" groups? Charlatans and crooks, all of them.