My best friend Seth doesn’t celebrate Valentine’s Day. He refuses to. As you can imagine this doesn’t make Seth a high point of adulation at his local Hallmark and Godiva, but that’s not the guts of it. The most interesting aspect of Seth’s conscientious objector status to V-Day is how he responds when his wife’s friends hear of his stance. Struck with a facial expression you thought only Joan Cusack could pull off, they tell him it’s just WRONG. He simply responds by telling the wrench-faced accusers that if they can tell him one factual piece of information about St. Valentine, he will begin celebrating Valentine’s Day. He has yet to buy roses and chocolate on February 14th.

I see a similarly uninformed trend growing in an unsettling way in the Lesbian Gay Bisexual & Transgender (LGBT) Community, where all of a sudden it seems cool to hate on the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) without knowing why. For those who may not know, the HRC is the largest political organization fighting for the civil rights of LGBT Americans, and is one of very few large-scale LGBT rights organizations capable of consistently organizing and mobilizing political action and support on a national level. Consider the effort involved in getting just 8 gays dressed, coiffed, and out the door to the club on time and you’ll begin to realize what an achievement this is. The HRC has had a major hand in the passage of pro-LGBT policies in the U.S. regarding gay marriage and Civil Unions, insurance benefits for same-sex domestic partners, hate crimes legislation, and protections against workplace discrimination.

While it’s difficult to imagine why members of the LGBT Community would oppose the organization whose sole purpose is to advance the cause of their civil rights, the current wave of public upset can be traced to a certain event.

On November 7, 2007, the U.S. House of Representatives voted the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) into Federal law, making it illegal to fire someone from their job because of their sexual orientation. However, one month prior to the vote Congress made it clear that ENDA did not have the votes needed to pass, a problem to which the solution became the removal of Transgender people from those protected by the bill. Understandably, Transgender Americans and many non-Trans members of the GLBT Community were outraged and directed their anger at the HRC, claiming that the HRC sold them out and does not care about them. Now less than 5 months following the passing of ENDA into law, the idea that the HRC opposes Transgender rights has grown to the point of the San Francisco PRIDE Committee nominating the HRC for this year’s Pink Brick “Award,” a recognition awarded via public vote to a person or group seen to be an enemy of the LGBT Community. The SF PRIDE Committee has placed the HRC in the company of fellow 2008 Pink Brick nominees Bill O’Reilly, a conservative political pundit who rabidly espouses anti-LGBT views in the media, and President of Iran Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who leads a government that routinely executes LGBT people.
Given the significant public perception consequences this poses and the growing anti-HRC sentiment I saw in the LGBT Community around me, I decided to do some digging. At the club, in the grocery store, on the sacred ground of the men’s shoe department at Nordstrom, I started asking people who said they’re against the HRC why they hold that opinion. All but 2 of the 34 people gave no solid basis for their view. They had no clear answer for their negative feelings toward the HRC. They could give no factual information to support their opinions. Most did not have any Transgender people in their circle of friends and family. Not one of them could tell me what ENDA is. At the end of our conversation I would ask them again why they think the HRC is bad, and would receive one of three responses: “I don’t know,” “Well, they just are, “ and the gold-medal winner, “Well, that’s just what my friends have been saying.” I was appalled by this, and still am. LGBT people are recycling uninformed political opinions over Cosmos at the club and thoughtlessly damaging an organization dedicated to fighting for our rights.

Here are the facts: The fight to pass ENDA began in 1994 when the bill was first introduced in Congress. Did you get that? It took 13 years to pass this bill, 13 years with the HRC at the helm fighting to make it illegal for your boss to fire you because you’re a tranny, fag, dyke, or bi-freak. They also were ignorant of the fact that the HRC requires companies to have Transgender protections and benefits in place in order to rate a perfect 100 in the HRC Corporate Equality Index, and most importantly, that the HRC went straight from the passage of the 2007 ENDA to fighting for a revised ENDA which includes Transgender people in the protections of the law.

To say the HRC is an enemy of the LGBT Community because they’re winning the fight for our Employment Non-Discrimination rights one step at a time is misguided, for the nature of the U.S. Legislative Process makes it nearly impossible for any minority group to get everything they want all at once. If this anti-HRC attitude perpetuates into a general perception in the LGBT Community, it could have significant negative effects on the future of our civil rights. Tear down those who fight for our rights long enough, and eventually no one will fight for us at all.

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