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 Not sure why this Victory Fund Institute fundraising solicitation hit me the wrong way. Maybe it’s because, the Victory Fund has refused to call out the Obama Administration for not placing an openly LGBT Cabinet level appointment. They do good work, don’t get me wrong. But some how I think this fundraising appeal missed the mark. I’ve attended one of their trainings, and I don’t know if they have changed much since the 90’s when I attended. 1. Martin Luther King, Jr. was not an elected official, he was a man of the cloth, from the people. Political yes, a politician no. 2. What does this mean for those of us who aren’t elected officials, are we not leaders, are we not shaping the movement in so many ways? Of course we could attend the Victory Fund training that will help us run for office, but does it teach us about solid principles of a social justice movement that MLK’s work was so grounded in? I don’t think so. Often the message at these trainings is “it’s ok not to make your gayness the issue, so you can get elected.” 3. I’m sorry but being an elected official who is LGBT, may put one in a leadership role, but far too often political compromises have to be made to consolidate power for their office, for future legislative efforts, and for your future career. Risks are adverted, and crumbs are accepted. If you think this isn’t the case, just ask one of the elected officials listed by the Victory Fund. 4. I don’t think the next MLK of the LGBT movement needs to be educated by the Victory Fund, but maybe the Victory Fund needs to be educated by by the next MLK of the LGBT movement. I think if you are reading this you could be the next MLK of the movement. You don’t need Victory Fund’s stamp of approval, or mine for that matter. I look forward to getting to know you, and all of the great things that you are going to do. ************************************** “Where’s our Martin Luther King, Jr.?” I hear this question a lot from people who care deeply about LGBT equality, and the question itself is pretty telling. People want leadership. They need it. Leaders matter. As a reader of Gay & Lesbian Leadership SmartBrief, you have a better idea than most about the leaders at the forefront of the fight for LGBT equality. You know more about the political and legal developments that shape this movement. But what you may not know is the same organization that brings you this SmartBrief is also deeply involved in the training and development of LGBT leaders. The Gay & Lesbian Leadership Institute is a tax-exempt, 501(c)3 organization with a long history of helping LGBT people learn how to run for office, come out while in office, get appointed and sharpen their leadership skills. GLLI’s award-winning training and executive development programs have helped produce leaders like Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin, Congressman Jared Polis, Dallas Sheriff Lupe Valdez, and Alabama State Rep. Patricia Todd, to name just a few. All of these elected officials credit GLLI training for helping them break through barriers and win. We need a lot more like them. In 2008 GLLI convened a community-wide project to provide qualified, experienced candidates for presidential appointments, a program hailed by Obama-Biden Transition officials as among the most organized and professional of its kind. Today, President Obama is on track to appoint the greatest number of openly LGBT officials in U.S. history. As you plan your end-of-year giving, please make a tax-exempt gift to GLLI. We need your help to continue offering SmartBrief and the programs that will produce the next generation of LGBT leaders. Our community will achieve full equality one day, but only if we build up the men and women who will serve openly, lead the fight and win. I hope we can count on you to help. e Sincerely, P.S.–We’re good stewards of our donors’ dollars. GLLI is the only national LGBT organization to earn a four star rating from Charity Navigator…and we did it two years in a row. Fully 90% of your contribution goes directly to the programs that benefit future LGBT leaders, not to overhead. Will you make a tax-exempt gift today?
It is 5 minutes to midnight on ENDA, with still a possibility of getting a vote this year if everyone pulls together, and what happens? Do we have LGBT and progressive media exploding with articles of protest and telling people how to lobby Congress effectively to get this moving? Nope. Instead, a NY marriage vote that was known to be doomed sucks all the oxygen out of the room. The D.C. city council preliminary vote on marriage is also in the news. But unlike most mornings when I crank up my Google machine, there are no news articles this morning on ENDA, anywhere. This despite the fact that the Committee that’s supposed to mark it up announced yesterday that it’s not on the schedule next week, which means that it’s probably going in the deep freeze until February unless a miracle happens. As I’ve explained ad nauseam in previous posts, that is going to make ENDA harder to achieve. Let me first say — get on the phone and call the House Committee to help get ENDA moving again. It ain’t over till its over, and you have to be in it to win it. Okay, now that you’ve all done that, let’s drop the happy crap, and examine what happened to ENDA in 2009 to bring us from the assumptions of invulnerability surrounding its re-introduction, to today, when we are staring at its imminent placement in the deep freeze. This will help the LGBT and progressive communities realize how much more effort is really needed to pass ENDA. I am pleased to say that I have been invited to discuss ENDA on the Michelangelo Signorile radio show on Sirius-XM this afternoon at 4:30 ET. I am not pleased to say that many more such discussions should have been out there months ago on many radio shows and websites and newspapers in the LGBT and progressive communities. More here: http://bit.ly/8UjpzC
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