Earlier, I shared with you Michelangelo Signorile’s first question, “What Grade Would You Give Obama And Congress on LGBT issues?” and the panel’s responses from his Out-Q Sirius Radio show yesterday, “The Path Forward: An LGBT Leadership Town Hall.”
Remember, you can listen to a rebroadcast in full this weekend (schedule here.) If you’re not a Sirius subscriber, think about signing up — Mike is great! But you can get a free pass at the site if you want to try it out first.
Now, I want to share the next segment, comments made by National Gay & Lesbian Task Force executive director Rea Carey, Human Rights Campaign president Joe Solmonese, and blogger and activist Pam Spaulding of Pam’s House Blend. After you read them, I’ll share my thoughts. The question was a bit broad ranging, but had to do with where we are right now, in relation to progress on LGBT issues, and the White House, from the moment Obama took office.
Rea Carey:
Some of these things [we’ve accomplished] are not sexy. They’re not going to make headlines. So we have to force them to make the headlines.
It’s as if during the previous eight years, someone went through the entire federal government and unplugged every lamp that had anything to do with money going to our community, attention to young people, to seniors, anything that would benefit LGBT people, and they shoved them in closets.
She went on to say that there’s been a lot of work by a coalition of twenty LGBT organizations to work their way back, and to communicate our needs and our stories to decision-makers in government.
Joe Solmonese:
This administration has appointed the highest-ranking openly gay person of any administration in history in John Berry as head of the OPM, and the greatest number of openly-LGBT people, moreso than any previous administration.
When we talk about these things, like DOMA, and ENDA, and Uniting American Families, and the big landmark legislation, that is not something that sits solely with the president. You can’t evaluate the president’s performance on the idea the we ought to have overturned DOMA at this point, without considering the fact that you’ve got to look at the fact of where we are in the House and Senate on those things.
Pam Spaulding:
I expect that the [LGBT activist] groups working at the federal level are going to see the importance of getting ENDA done, getting these things done. And when you see the behavior that has been exhibited during the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” which, it seems like that repeal should have been a lot easier than it has been, I wonder when I see lots of my readers saying, ‘Why aren’t they all working together and holding a press conference?’ ‘Why can’t they do joint activities that show the level of urgency?’
While listening to the Town Hall, I gained a tremendous amount of respect for NGLTF’s Rea Carey. She has credibility and intimate knowledge of details. Pam Spaulding said the exact same thing I said a year ago in May, 2009, in my piece, “The Big Tent,” when I asked, “How do you feel our leaders are serving us?” and, when are they going to start working together? and then later, when I wrote in “LGBTQ Leadership: Going The Way Of America’s Automakers,” that our LGBT activist groups are like the American automakers,
…old, outdated, ineffective, over-lapping behemoths whose lack of achievement demand they either declare bankruptcy, then refocus on their core competencies and truly re-create themselves, or turn over the wheel to the new leaders of our community: national grassroots organizations like Join the Impact, and local ones, like Mass Equality, Equality Maine, and One Iowa.
In my previous post I mentioned how HRC’s Joe Solmonese was really the “punching bag” of the day. Do you see why?
Why is it at every turn, Solmonese makes a concerted effort to bend over backwards and applaud Obama for things like appointing “the highest-ranking openly gay person of any administration in history,” (which is nice, but doesn’t stop DADT discharges or let me marry.) Joe’s own letter to Obama a year ago June, while firm, has certainly not delivered any results.) Why is Solmonese working so hard to defend Obama’s performance?
Here’s a little fact I learned during my twenty-five years in business. Think about your own experience and you’ll recognize its truth: Poor performers stick together. Excellent performers stick together. Not all the time, but look around your workplace, or think about life in college or high school.
Those who are doing a great job surround themselves with others who do a great job. Solmonese’s adamant, uncritical, unwavering support of Obama on LGBT issue performance — which is where they both are weak — is becoming, well, let’s call it uncomfortable.