Petrelis Files

More Kramer: Who's Giving to HRC?

(With a hand in the air, a minor comic and Obama donor uses the gay community to boost her career. At her side is Joe Solmonese, a minor Democratic Party hack who earns a first-class salary of $307,000. Photo credit: Alex Wong, Getty.)

From New York City, Larry Kramer posted a comment in response to my essay yesterday about the Human Rights Campaign's 2009 IRS tax filing. Larry writes:

michael, this is revolting, that so many staff members receive so much and the organization provides so little. i have called for joe's resigning. hell, i have called for the organization itself to disband and sink into a well-deserved oblivion. what i want to know is who in this day and age of reality and transparency gives money to this useless place? they must be living on the moon not to see what isn't going on. each year they seem to rake in more and more big bucks. it's sickening. you should try and get a list of their major donors and post that!

good work, as usual. thanks.

That got me curious about HRC donors and their corporate sponsors, so I checked out their 2009 annual report, and the info was not in it. Like Larry, I wonder who in their right mind gives money to this useless org, and I'd sure like to read their views on why they think HRC is worthy of even a queer three-dollar bill.

By the way, the Getty photo agency today published pics from the HRC rally this week, and this caption for the image below caught my eye:

"Local resident Jim Rinefierd holds up a US flag and a Human Rights Campaign flag during a rally in support of a repeal of the "Don?t Ask, Don?t Tell" policy March 18, 2010 at the Freedom Plaza in Washington, DC."

(Photo credit: Alex Wong, Getty.)

The info for practically news photo captions is gathered by the photographer, and it's most likely in this case that Alex Wong asked James Rinefierd who he was and where he lives. Since I know from HRC's IRS 990 filing that Rinefierd is an executive at the org, and that he earns $158,000, I wonder why he didn't tell the photographer that he ain't just some average gay out to support HRC.

Call me skeptical about anything to do with, or anyone who works for, or was once employed at HRC. I don't think the Getty photography got the full truth from Rinefierd.

The org has sucked up too much money and political capital from the gay community for decades and we have so little to show for the hundreds of millions they rake in.