Um, They Are.
The Democratic National Committee, with a majority in both Houses of Congress, a new Democratic President in the White House, and facing an opponent with ever-receding popularity – Michael Steele’s Republican National Committee, decided to throw a fundraiser aimed at the LGBTQ community. Only, it looks like attendees are dropping as fast as President Obama’s popularity rating.
The fundraiser, which will feature Vice President Joe Biden, certainly no gay-rights advocate himself, has lost many prominent, previously-RSVP’ed representatives of the gay community. But not enough. The cause? Last week’s defense of DOMA by Obama’s DOJ. As I wrote in, “Buddy, Can You Spare A Dime?,” the LGBTQ community is incensensed: “[M]oney makes the world go round. And in many respects it’s true. But money, or withholding it, also makes people stand up and take notice.”
Off the list, according to AmericaBlog’s John Aravosis, are, Vermont Senate President Pete Shumlin, David Mixner, HRC’s Marty Rouse, ESPA’s Alan Van Capelle, Towle Road’s Andy Towle, wealthy Democratic donor Bruce Bastian.
Shumlin is quoted as saying,
“This memo from the Justice Department is more Bush than Bush,” he added. “It takes the only minority group left in America that nationalpoliticians can publicly discriminate against and still see their numbers go up in the polls and it reinforces the horrible stereotypes about our friends and neighbors.”
(image: Stephen Cummings)