Petrelis Files

Rostow, Bay Times: 
What Did GetEQUAL 'ENDA Summer' Achieve?

Over at the SF Bay Times site today, longtime community observer and pundit Ann Rostow asks some important questions about the Astroturf org GetEQUAL. Needless to say, I'm quite pleased to see she is providing some accountability to the actions and outcomes of the robust five-figure co-directors. We gays sure could use a dozen or two more Rostow's taking critical looks at Gay Inc orgs. From the Bay Times:

All I know is that GetEqual specializes in direct action and protests against lackadaisical Democrats, including Pelosi and Obama, who talk the talk but stumble along the walk. They were originally funded to the tune of, what, half a million (?) by deep pocketed individuals, but they’ve gone through that bankroll and are trying to raise money from us, the hoi polloi of the gay community.

[...] But in mid-August, the group launched something called “ENDA Summer,” ostensibly designed to force a vote on the Employment Nondiscrimination Act by the end of summer, even though it was clear that this was legislatively impossible. (The bill was dead and Congress was recessing.)

Either they had no idea what was going on in Washington, or they needed an issue for their direct action and didn’t actually care whether or not such action would lead to the result that was trumpeted by the very name of the campaign. All in all, a pointless exercise that left me unimpressed.

By the way, I just looked up ENDA Summer to find out when it started and saw that GetEqual sent “many thanks to the group of organizers who originally created the ENDA Summer campaign on Facebook and offered us their research.” So I guess GetEqual didn’t dream this up, but they picked it up from someone else, who for all I know may have started it back in March when it would have made sense.

Still, I stand by my original criticism of GetEqual. As I wrote at the time, why not at the very least call it “ENDA the year?” [...]