I am a fan of Dustin Lance Black.
He represents what is right with the LGBT community. He is talented, smart, easy on the eyes, and fights for equality.
That said, I take issue with his attack today on the Human Rights Campaign. The award-winning screen-writer of Milk inexplicably teamed up with the Log Cabin Republicans to berate HRC for its plan to turn the late Harvey Milk’s camera shop into a retail store and Action Center. According to Black in a joint statement with the (gag) Log Cabin Republicans:
“Harvey Milk spent the last years of his life fighting not only for rights for gays and lesbians across the nation, but also against the idea that the only way to achieve those rights is to lobby the government and financially support so-called ‘straight allies’. Harvey believed the best way to secure our rights was through grassroots action, coalition building and the election of LGBT people to office at all levels of government. He encouraged people to come out of the closet and be vocal about who they were and why they deserved full equality, not partial equality or crumbs. For the HRC leadership, which still advocates a piecemeal, wait-and-see approach to try and co-opt and profit from Harvey’s legacy is an outrage.”
It is disappointing to watch Black throw a petty little tantrum that is unworthy of his honorable reputation. If he does not like HRC that is his prerogative. However, the answer is to start an organization of his own, not take underhanded swipes at our nation’s largest LGBT group.
As Black must know, real estate is quite pricey on San Francisco’s Castro Street. The alternative to HRC running this store is to have a bland chain outlet take over the space that offers no value to the LGBT community. At least HRC has an action center, where people can make a difference by reaching out to their elected officials.
Black’s cheap shot was made worse by his teaming up with the Log Cabin Republicans. Here is what the Log Cabinites said in a press release:
“HRC has proven time and again that its main goal is not to advance rights for LGBT Americans but to raise funds amongst the LGBT community for Democratic candidates,” stated LCRSF president Dan Brown. ”Harvey Milk supported both Republican and Democratic candidates throughout his life, and continually sought to reach consensus on both sides of the aisle for the benefit of us all. He tried to get everyone involved in fighting for their rights, whether by volunteering, lobbying, protesting, running for office, talking to friends, coworkers and family, and yes, even fundraising. If HRC, as the largest LGBT rights organization by funding, took a page from Harvey’s book rather than relying on empty promises from elected officials that rarely materialize, then we would be much closer to full equality than we currently are.”
This statement is offensive and factually inaccurate. The Human Rights Campaign has endorsed many Republicans over the years, even at the price of alienating much of its liberal base. The only reason that HRC has not embraced more members of the GOP is that they are so crappy on LGBT rights that they are not worthy of support. Since the Log Cabin Republicans were formed, the GOP has lurched right and embraced extremists from Pat Buchanan to Sarah Palin. What the hell has this group done to shift the overall direction of the Republican Party so its candidates can be supported by HRC?
Wake up call: The leading Republican presidential candidates so far are Newt Gingrich, Tim Pawlenty, Mike Huckabee, Sarah Palin and Mitt Romney. I would love the Log Cabin Republicans to explain exactly how their wonderful party came to support such wing-nuts and exactly how a sane group like HRC is expected to endorse these “conservative” clowns.
Indeed, the biggest problem the LGBT movement currently has is that we have absolutely no leverage with Democrats. Why are we in this conundrum? Clearly, it is because the Republican Party is so abominable that we rarely have but one choice on the ballot — the Democrat.
Before I hear the Log Cabin Republicans whine about HRC, I want to see these Uncle Marys pave the way by making the Republican Party more friendly towards LGBT Equality. When Log Cabin recruits and puts forth viable candidates that can actually be endorsed, we can begin an honest discussion. Until then, they are just blowing smoke where the sun don’t shine.
As for Black, he ought to pick his fights and friends more carefully. Right now he is a hero. I would hate to see his moral authority erode by getting bogged down in community infighting when he ought to keep his eye on the ball by battling our real enemies — most of whom happen to be Republicans.
HRC should be applauded for their brilliant marketing move, as well as keeping the Harvey Milk store in the hands of LGBT activists.
I have no patience with HRC’s commercialization of LGBT civil rights activism, but the point about who else would take over the space that housed Milk’s camera shop is an important point. Presumably anyone who has won an Oscar has access to the money to create some other, viable alternative, instead of creeping into bed with LCR to take potshots at HRC, which has undoubtedly endorsed Reflublicans in the past, sometimes foolishly so (am I the only person on the planet who is old enough to remember the infamous Alfonse D’Amato endorsement?) and is not to blame for the manifest unendorsability of nearly all Reflublicans.
I like Dustin too and while I have some problems with HRC’s approach, it is doing a good thing here. The biggest problem I have here, though, is with him lining up with LCR. What has that group ever really done to help rank and file LGBT people? The only reason I suspect they’re in on this is to stick it to HRC, and that’s just stupid. Shame on Dustin for letting them attach themselves to this and for not looking at the big picture.
You’re 100% right. Black’s statement is petty and annoying, but it’s his opinion; his doing it in conjunction with the LCRs and allowing them to openly attack HCR from a partisan perspective is infuriating.
I must say I barely back DLB’s disdain for HRC, but tag teaming with the LCR is a risky practice, to say the least.
If the HRC Action center would actually take some sort of action, rather than being the lap dog that provides cover for the inaction of the Obama Administration, then the move into Harvey’s Camera shop location would be a good thing. I have been a member of HRC for many years. I stopped contributing this year out of pure disgust for their unwillingness to take this administration on.
I am also no real fan of the LRC, but at least they can point to their court victory against the Obama Administration on Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, which may in the end be our only way of overturning the policy that Obama continues to fight for in the courts, and does little to repeal in the Congress.
If HRC is going to survive, they are going to have to establish themselves as independent of the Obama Administration. I don’t think the current leadership is capable of that.
I wish people could stop the name-calling and assess HRC objectively. We don’t need to judge the people who work there or try to impugn their intentions. It is enough to look at the results.
HRC brings in $40 million/year, vastly more than any other non-AIDS related gay organization. That sum exceeds or is comparable to the budgets of major trade associations based in DC.
Despite this, HRC has been unable to pass legislative items that have been pending for decades. There are items that have been on HRC’s agenda since it was founded in 1980 that languish with no chance of passage in 2010. And year after year, HRC fails to make any strategic change in its approach. Few $40 million/year organizations can claim so little over so long a time frame.
Every competent organization that pursues lobbying in DC understands the need to hire or retain connected lobbyists, who are almost always former members of Congress, former staffers of current members, or are relatives or are somehow otherwise personally connected with current members. As political tides shift, a competent organization adjusts its lobbyists on retainer. 1994, 2006, and 2010 all saw shifts in control of Congress and every interest group adjusted its lobbying budget accordingly.
Not HRC. It has 2 lobbyists on staff. One has no Hill experience and the other came out of Tammy Baldwin’s office. Needless to say, we don’t really need a contact to move Baldwin. And nothing changes, regardless of whether the Dems control Congress, the GOP controls it, or it is split.
The result is that very little gets accomplished, even when our allies have complete control. And when that control slips, as it did last month, everything grinds to a halt. This is an institutional failure, and DLB is right to speak out against it.
With all due respect, when has HRC ever NOT had a wait-and-see approach? If President Obama, who is a “fierce” advocate of gay rights, never misses an opportunity to challenge giving gays even the most minimum of human rights, than the HRC must be even fiercer advocates, since all they do is solicit money and then applaud the Democrats for talking the talk while refusing to do anything at all for gays. The majority of Americans – including Republicans and Christians – believe gays should be allowed to serve openly in the military, and yet Obama and the HRC has fought against overturning Don’t Ask Don’t Tell every step of the way. f**k the HRC. Anyone who donates to them deserves to have their money go to waste.
Okay my complaint is with these folks who are so quick to criticize and say “f**k this” and “f**k that.” I would love to hear some solutions from these folks. And please spare me with what Queer Nation and Act-Up did. No disrespect, but if you don’t like HRC, please suggest something better.
It gets boring.
In the case of Harvey Milk’s store site, bashing HRC is a cop-out. Dustin Lance Black isn’t forking out cash to buy the site and make it a museum, and the LCR has been busy lately undercutting the prosecution of antigay violence, denying unemployment benefits to gay couples, and passing tax hikes for the poor to pay for tax cuts for the super-rich.
Some of the comments here touched on key principles of historic preservation: if a building gets neglected or destroyed, there’s no going back and being occupied and used buys time to hopefully get a more appropriate use later. That’s why older houses with ‘character’ being home to beauty parlors and chiropractic offices isn’t necessarily a bad thing. In this case, HRC occupying the building would be at least consistent with its history; something like a Starbucks wouldn’t.
Tommy said “Obama and the HRC has fought against overturning Don’t Ask Don’t Tell every step of the way. f**k the HRC.”.
Really? I’d like to see some examples of the HRC fighting against DADT every step of the way – I think you’re a bullshitter.
I’m with Wayne in that I admire Black very very much, but this is grotesque. It’s one thing to dis the HRC and another to do it shoulder to shoulder with the Log Cabin Republicans. What the hell?
Just to make my position here clear, I don’t speak for TWO, I only write here occasionally and post a cartoon every now and then at the gracious invitation of Mike and Wayne. That said, I personally have zero use for HRC. And it made me squirm to read they were going to open one of their HRC stores in Milk’s old camera shop. But as others here have already said, better them then it gets handed off to some faceless corporation with zero interest in the historical nature of the place. Better some of the money people give to HRC goes to keeping a place like this in the gay community then it goes to smoozing Washington politicians and getting nothing in return. Looked at that way, this is one of HRC’s better moves.
And…seriously, the Log Cabin Republicans? The Log Cabin Republicans? They going to buy The Stonewall Inn now and open a Huckabee 2012 office in it or something?