Subject: Open Letter to LGBT Activists re: HRC
From: [email-masked]
Date: Fri, 30 Oct 1998 16:52:42 EST

Please Forward Broadly

October 29, 1998

An Open Letter to lgbt activists
From Carmen Vazquez

The Human Rights Campaign's (HRC) decision to endorse Al D'Amato, more than
any other in their history as a "mainstream" organization, signals far more than
the "focused and pragmatic" willingness to compromise ascribed them by the New
York Times (Week in Review, Sunday, October 25.)

There is a considerable number of progressive, left of center activists in the
lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender movement who are focused, pragmatic and
willing to compromise when necessary. We do not, however, feel compelled to
erase bottom line principles long held by this movement for the sake of
courting right wing favor in Congress. HRC's endorsement of a pro-life
candidate who has effectively denied millions of American women the right to
choose what to do with our own bodies is not pragmatic. It is wrong. Their
endorsement of a man who has repeatedly embarrassed the office of the Senate
with his racism and anti-Semitism (mocking Judge Lance Ito's ethnicity, the
more recent attempt to use the Holocaust as a campaign smearing device against
Chuck Schumer, who is Jewish) is not simple pragmatism. It is complete
capitulation to the right wing of this country. It is an outrageous slap at
grassroots activists in New York State who have had to endure eighteen years
of the Junior Senator's arrogance and contempt as he orchestrated the rise to
power of  right wing conservatives who despise us and have blocked anti-
discrimination and hate crimes legislation in New York State for years.   

And, we should have expected no less. For years, HRC has had very little
concern for what the vast majority of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender
activists think, feel or aspire to politically. Their alleged focus and
willingness to compromise has netted us very little. Despite a thirteen
million dollar a year budget, there is not a single major legislative victory
they can claim. Both the campaign for military service and the campaign
against the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) failed miserably. The near passage
of the Employment Non Discrimination Act in the Senate was nothing more than
cover for cowardly votes on DOMA in the Senate and House from our alleged
"friends" in Congress. The decision to stage a Rally in Washington in the year
2000 was made with virtually no input from grassroots activists across the
country. I have yet to hear HRC denounce an anti-choice vote in Congress, nor
have they been particularly focused or pragmatic when votes to severely
restrict welfare and other benefits for the poor were being debated in the
House or Senate. 

Not "gay issues"? Go tell that to the thousands of poor queers for whom cuts
in general assistance guarantees they will not be getting the anti viral drugs
that might prolong their lives or that they will be moving from low income
housing to the streets. Tell it to the thousands of lesbians every year who
want to choose to have children but can't afford alternative insemination or
who live in States that prohibit lesbians and gay men from adopting children
or even keeping the children they gave birth to. 
	
Yes, there has been a rift in this movement for a very long time but it is
simplistic and insulting to ascribe that rift to a difference between
"pragmatists" and "rock throwers." The rift is between those who view access
to power as an end in and of itself and those of us for whom political power
is a means to the attainment of social and economic justice for the many and
not the few. It is a rift between those who want to be "normal" at any cost
and those of us who believe that sexual liberation (and therefore reproductive
rights) is a central and inviolate tenet of our struggle for liberation. A
lesbian & gay mainstream organization strategically positioned to attain
"civil rights" (someday) and to act as power brokers for those among their
ranks who assimilate and accommodate themselves to the prevailing social norms
and economic system has no use for sex radicals or transsexuals or gender
deviant people of any kind. It also has little use for activists committed to
the realization of social and economic justice. 
	
We, in turn, should have little use for the people who position themselves as
friends of the homophobic, hate mongering, racially bigoted Junior Senator
from New York or his Party. Call HRC. Cancel your membership. Vote for Chuck
Schumer if you live in New York. If you live elsewhere, call and remind HRC
that advocacy organizations who have the arrogance to ignore local leadership
and grassroots activists run the risk of becoming ineffectual, irrelevant and
cash poor. 

Join people working to organize progressive responses to HRC and
the brutal death of Matthew Shepard in Wyoming. Join people working to elect
progressive and liberal candidates to office.
	
Maybe HRC's  poorly conceived endorsement of Al D'Amato and our rage over
Matt Shepard's death will prove useful after all. Maybe it will compel us to
take back our movement. I can only hope.

Carmen Vazquez				(212) 620-7310
Brooklyn, New York			Day phone number