For almost the past two years Joe Solmonese and the Human Rights Campaign have been telling the LGBT Community that that they had a plan, the White House had a plan, and that they were working together and the plan was going perfectly in the fight for our Equal Rights. But we were lied to. Lied to by our largest, best funded, most influential group. A group that has been in existence for over 30 years whose mission according to their webpage “advocates on behalf of LGBT Americans, mobilizes grassroots actions in diverse communities, invests strategically to elect fair-minded individuals to office and educates the public about LGBT issues. And envision an America where lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people are ensured equality and embraced as full members of the American family at home, at work and in every community. And how did they try to do this? By 18 months of brown-nosing, sucking up and “secret White House meetings “instead of fighting for our rights and because of that we now have jack shit thanks to the HRC. And when “we” saw this coming. When “we” knew that Solmonese and HRC were taking the wrong path for well over the past year as John Avarois of AmericaBlogGay writes “(we were) routinely dismissed by HRC, which has preferred to focus on the Congress while at the same time covering the President’s ass. Don’t protest at the White House, don’t criticize the President, don’t be mean to Jim Messina. What do those crazy bloggers know? They just hate HRC and aren’t as sophisticated at politics as the brilliant folks over at the Human Rights Campaign.
Well good fucking work there Einstein’s.
This was our best chance. And probably the only good one that we would have for a very long time, And Joe Solmonese and The Human Rights Campaign blew it. And then not only to add to their incompetence they blatantly lied to us to keep their donations coming in and to cover their cushy jobs and reputation.
Over a year ago Joe Solmonese assured us, after meeting with Jim Messina, that “They have a vision, they have a plan.” And as little as two months ago Joe Solmonese told an audience of HRC donors, that DADT would be repealed this year, just as everything was beginning to come out and fall apart. And during this all. Joe Solmonese still found the time to gadfly to Sundance and London while any hopes what we had for even something that should have been as simple as the DADT repeal crumbled.
We have been lied to and bamboozled by our own organization, Even “if”, (and that’s a VERY BIG “if”) Joe Solmonese and the HRC claim that they were “played” by the White house and the Obama Administration after 30 years of lobbying then they well betond repair and have no business representing us in Washington any longer.
Is the Human Rights Campaign beyond repair? Perhaps. But after this fiasco, with all it’s covering up, lies, non-transparency, and ineptitude it has been dealt a very serious blow and if it ever is to recover in the eyes of the LGBT Community it must start now.
The Board of Director’s of the Human Rights Campaign MUST remove Joe Solmonese as President of the organization immediately. (If Joe had any self-respect knowing what he did and how loathe the LGBT Community is of him he would resign)
Will removing Solmonese magically fix the HRC? No. But it’s a start. And the Human Rights campaign will need to make a massive overall of the organization and it’s strategy if it’s ever to be trusted by the LGBT Community again. But to keep a man who either blatantly lied to the LGBT Community about our “supposed” progress or was either too stupid to actually realize that that it was all a sham is not only insulting to the Community but as has been proven over the past few years ineffectual, wasteful and dangerous to the fight for our rights.
Joe must go!