Somewhere in the vicinity of Houston, Texas – in the fall of 1989.
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Another Named Monster: HRC
Kelli Busey relays a message from C.D. Kirven re: HRC’s act of aggression against those tho don’t drink either the purple-n-yellow or red kool-aid:
The flag belong[ed] to Alex Rangel of Get Equal who brought the trans flag at the
rally. Brian was waving the flag for Alex as I waved the Bi Pride flag. When HRC
asked Brian to remove the flag an argument ensued then another woman walked up to Brian stating she was going to burn the flag while I was having words with
the first women then Brian dropped the flag on the ground and ran off
crying. I tried to console him but he kept crying. I grabbed the Trans Pride flag and
dared either one to say anything to me. The HRC didn’t want the Trans pride flag
behind the speakers bc they did not want to explain what it meant to the press.
As a matter of fact, the lady from HRC told Brian ” This is about marriage
equality not the Trans community.” At this point, we got into a cursing match
which I am not proud of & don’t want repeated.…
I was forced like the undocumented queer activist to change my speech. Everyone
knows I was mistreated the same way he was and since the stories have been
released I have told them again but I’m a black lesbian so no one cared! HRC
claiming my wording was too aggressive and dark!
AstroTurf by Any Other Name is Just as Plastic and Lifeless
…not to mention toxic if swallowed.
Among the comments to Jerame Davis’s piece at Shillerico setting out Davis’s witnessing of the HRC anti-T-flag incident, a rather good question re: ‘Human Rights Campaign’:
What does one expect from an organization that counts as ‘members’ people – whether currently alive or dead – who might never in any way, shape or form have made any conscious attempt or had any desire to ‘join’ HRC but instead just, at some point in their lives, for some reason caused $1.00 or more to leave their pockets and go into the HRC coffers?
The Biggest Problem…
…actually isn’t the removal request per se, but that someone who is allowed to earn a living in Gay, Inc., had to ask that representation question.
Now, here’s another question.
Its a question that I asked well over a decade ago in the Texas Triangle – a question that HRC has yet to answer:
Has HRC ever, at any time, accepted any aid or contribution (monetary or otherwise) the donation of which was conditioned in any way, shape or form, upon excluding transgendered people from HRC-supported national sexual orientation-based anti-discrimination protection legislation or upon excluding transgendered people from HRC’s mission statement?
The deafening silence then meant that there was only one possible answer, leaving the only question after that to be whether or not HRC was, in 2000, still being funded by money with anti-trans strings attached.
Considering HRC’s conduct – and near-genocidal record of employment discrimination against trans people in HRC’s own hiring practices (and, lets face it, when even Gay, Inc. tools such as Dana Beyer and Bil Browning notice it and say something about it, its not just a pet peeve of mine) – over the past 13 years, the question, sadly, still needs to be asked.
All of this continued (specifically financed?) transphobia from HRC is actually a wee bit ironic given that it is in the process of its own gender transition.
How so?
Well, the flag incident itself – and the fact that someone allowed to earn a living at HRC was sufficiently clueless about trans issues so as to have to ask the flag question – indicate that HRC is currently Karl Rove.
How so?
Well, this is not simply equating chunks o’ disreputability (though HRC’s history clearly qualifies “HRC” as a synonym for “disreputable”) but rather pointing out that HRC has become Karl Rove – not the evil-yet-intelligent Karl Rove who stole two presidential elections and engineered numerous other dirty Republican victories but Karl Rove as he was on election night 2012: babbling ‘Romney can win’ nonsense despite being told even by everyone else at Fox ‘News’ that there was no chance for Romney to pull out a victory.
That’s HRC today – epitomized by the cluelessness of this week – a product of years and years of intellectual inbreeding and political echochambering.
The woman pictured above – as well as the rest of HRC’s permanently-employed, detached-from-reality elites – probably actually believe not only that the organization has no history of discriminating against trans people but that the organization currently has no trans problem about which anyone has any place to complain…
which is why HRC is in the process of a gender transition.
This is the image you will be assaulted by if you go to the front page of HRC’s website:
Right now, HRC is Karl Rove, ca. Nov. 6, 2012.
It is seconds away from becoming Sarah Palin, ca. CPAC 2013.
If HRC is, institutionally, as smart as it protrays itself to be (a stretch I know, but follow me nevertheless), it will immediately begin making some job offers – not to militarists and/or preachers with no relevant political or advocacy experience (though, of course, I do suspect that Brynn Tannehill will be transformed into the next Allyson Robinson within a week, if the transformation hasn’t been accomplished already) but to the trans people who, a decade ago, forced HRC to begin acknowledging that trans people actually exist (after we proved that HRC was lying when it claimed that it was actually working positively on trans issues.) Absent a legitimate, substantial and non-token presence of more than one trans person at a time at HRC, the organization will remain an echo chamber of multiple, overlapping copies of the same soundbites – and, on trans issues, those soundbites will continue to be 1975 echoes of HRC founder Steve Endean railing against trans-inclusion in the Minnesota Human Rights Act….
and the organization will remain a cesspool of clueless elites who continue to act as surprised as ever when next trans people have to point out the reality of just how transphobic HRC remains.
Don’t Bet On It
From Maribel Hermosillo at Policymic:
How the Human Rights Campaign Has Failed Minorities
…
The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) has taken a lead role in campaigning for marriage equality. They have had many marriage equality victories such as in Maine, Washington, and Maryland. The HRC has also prevented constitutional bans that would have stopped further dialogue about marriage equality in Minnesota. While they have been successful in pushing the conversation of marriage equality, what exactly is their messaging?
To anyone who’s paying attention there’s only one answer to that question: lies packaged as truth.
HRC has a very white-only community oriented messaging that is problematic to their stance on diversity. As a progressive organization, they need to learn how to be inclusive to communities who are typically alienated from mainstream politics.
Seriously Maribel…
I wouldn’t bet on that happening.
“What’s the world coming to when you take money from a worldwide known bigot to vote against a measure which has ZERO impact against your constituents,constituents who overwhelmingly contact you in support of the measure?”
Seen receently on Facebook via Jenna Fischetti re: the bought-and-paid-for Maryland state Sen. Jim Brochin.
