http://www.washingtonblade.com/2011/09/02/solmonese-era-comes-to-an-end/ the gay community's news source Thu, 20 Jun 2013 07:00:11 +0000 hourly 1 http://www.washingtonblade.com/2011/09/02/solmonese-era-comes-to-an-end/#comment-28600 Rick Rosendall Sun, 04 Sep 2011 14:10:40 +0000 http://www.washingtonblade.com/?p=28119#comment-28600 BTW, I agree with you, Kevin, on a lot of things, such as the handling of ENDA in 2007, the celebritizing of Solmonese, and the absurd inflation of HRC’s membership numbers. As to HRC being a wholly-owned subsidiary of the DNC (something Andrew Sullivan has flogged for years), let’s remember how HRC was crucified years ago when they rewarded Sen. Al D’Amato (who had done things they had asked) with an endorsement. I supported HRC’s decision then, even though I am a Democrat and would never have voted for D’Amato, because I respect different people/groups playing different roles. But HRC has its own constituency to please. If that keeps them from engaging the GOP sufficiently, let’s remember that all roads do not lead to HRC.

]]> http://www.washingtonblade.com/2011/09/02/solmonese-era-comes-to-an-end/#comment-28599 Rick Rosendall Sun, 04 Sep 2011 13:51:41 +0000 http://www.washingtonblade.com/?p=28119#comment-28599 This is a bit of a mess, Kevin. Joe Solmonese was a vast improvement over Cheryl Jacques, but he still wasn’t an “actual activist” like Dan Choi? The truth is that photo ops are only one small part of what Joe and HRC have done, whereas histrionics are Dan Choi’s main thing (along with indignant refusals to give the President credit for anything). I concede that Dan looked hot in his crucifixion pose, but instead of organizing his own event that day (March 18, 2010), he (with assistance from Robin McGehee) hijacked the HRC event at Freedom Plaza and urged people to follow him to the White House without telling them what he was planning. (I realize he didn’t want to tip off the Secret Service, but it was exploitive and no way to build trust.) When he got to the WH, he had no statement for the press explaining what he was doing. My contemporaneous report is at: http://tinyurl.com/yeus9px . Of course there is room for many different approaches to activism–which is a good thing, given our community’s diversity. But as we follow our different paths we should maintain good channels of communication, and we should be more respectful than to hijack one another’s events.

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