Dufty Hosting Potluck Protest
Now comes a lengthy article in the latest Bay Area Reporter, all about the expanding forms of protest against the organization. One detail in the story stand out. It's a small gesture, but beautifully creative that Bevan Dufty won't be at the HRC gala. Instead, he'll be home hosting a potluck for the trannies and their supporters.
I think no matter where one falls on the ENDA and the trannies debate spectrum, many gay voters are pleased to see an ongoing coordinated effort to hold HRC accountable. Community discussion about the myriad failures of HRC may one day make it eventually deliver federal advances for gay Americans.
From today's BAR:
Calls to boycott this year's Human Rights Campaign gala dinner in San Francisco are growing louder as the national group's July 26 fundraiser grows nearer. The Washington, D.C.-based LGBT lobbyist organization upset many in the Bay Area's LGBT community last year when it backed passage of a federal Employment Non-Discrimination Act stripped of gender identity protections ...
The agency has defended its position by saying that it will work to educate congressional members on the need to extend job protections to transgender employees. So far, though, HRC has refused to commit itself to only backing a fully inclusive ENDA when a new Congress is seated in 2009 ...
With San Francisco home to a large transgender community, the protest planned outside the Bay Area dinner is expected to be the largest to date, despite HRC's decision to allow attendees to opt to give their contribution to the statewide effort to defeat an anti-gay marriage amendment on the November ballot ...
Openly gay Supervisor Bevan Dufty informed Solmonese earlier this month that, in addition to not attending the gala dinner this year, he plans to host a potluck dinner for the protesters the night of the event.
"I plan to have pasta and wine at my house," said Dufty, who was part of the host committee for the dinner last year. "I called Joe since he was in town to do the AIDS ride to tell him that I was not going to be on the host committee and that I was not going to the event this year."
Last week the Alice B. Toklas LGBT Democratic Club released an open letter in which it announced it also would not be taking part this year in the dinner, at which it usually hosts a table. The club did not use the word "boycott" in its letter, and instead asked community members to "forgo" HRC's gala event this year ...
Kate Kendell, executive director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights, has refused to attend any HRC events since it announced its decision on ENDA. She said she has no plans to attend this year's dinner.
"I very much hope and believe HRC will clearly and unequivocally take the position that they will only support a fully inclusive ENDA as the only possible way to move forward for our community," said Kendell. "I certainly believe they will demonstrate that critical leadership. Until they do, I am not comfortable attending HRC events."
At the same time, Kendell said she believes HRC's commitment to the anti-gay marriage amendment fight is "genuine, substantial, and enormously important" for the LGBT community to have a chance of defeating it.
"This is a sharp disagreement on ENDA among colleagues," she said ...
The protest of the HRC gala will have little impact on the future relationship between the organization and the Bay Area's LGBT community, said Luna.
"A healthy discussion is of value. It is never going to be something we hold against people," he said. "We want to make sure every voice is heard. We do think at some point in time we can move beyond this controversy so we can step up to the plate and do the hard work that needs to be done on this issue."
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