I laughed when I received a recent email from the Human Rights Campaign’s vice president of membership and development offering a reduced rate “membership,” “if I only came back by midnight tonight.”

She told me that according to their records my membership had lapsed and that to make it easy for everyone to participate they were making a special offer only available today. I could save $15 on my membership as a former member if I would rejoin. Then to strengthen their call for my membership they forwarded an email from HRC President Joe Solmonese “in case I missed it” in which he asks for money. It had no date on it but he wrote that “if I come back before midnight” my ‘gift’ will change the lives of loving families — and I can’t think of a better reason to ‘donate’ than that.” In that one email they called the $20 they wanted from me a gift, a donation and a membership. They also told me this was the last time they would ask.

HRC isn’t the only group that does this, but it’s a mistake. I support HRC and the work it does even if I don’t contribute today. HRC continues to be an important part of the advocacy effort for the LGBT community. But it would be a stronger organization today if they had chosen to become a real and viable membership organization years ago.

The email makes it clear the HRC dichotomy that people have talked about for more than 20 years. HRC is not now and has never been a membership organization. Some see it as a successful advocacy organization (others dispute that) but what no one can deny is that HRC is a successful fundraising machine. But asking for money on the pretext of being a membership organization is false advertising.

In a career spanning both government and the non-profit sector I have had the opportunity to work closely with, be a member of and run a number of membership organizations. Member benefits usually include defined and delineated tangibles at discounted rates, such providing useful research, continuing education opportunities, magazines and journals, online publications and information, discounts on attending meetings, travel, seminars, webinars and intangibles like advocacy work. The email I received from HRC didn’t list one such benefit. A real membership organization doesn’t consider anyone making any type of contribution a member as those kinds of “members” can’t be counted on to continue making random contributions each year. Instead they carefully count and cater to their members and keep track of them with annual dues renewals stressing the current benefits and always looking for ways to make their membership more valuable.

The most successful advocacy membership organization is the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP). It has grown exponentially and provides a host of benefits to members for very little money. AARP retains its members because the cost of membership is low and easily offset by the savings they receive from those benefits.

More than 20 years ago, it was suggested to the powers that be at the then-named Human Rights Campaign Fund that they look at turning themselves into a real membership organization and that they set a goal of attracting 1 million members with annual dues between $7 and $25. Benefits of membership could include a glossy magazine. Other benefits could come from vendors such as insurance companies, travel firms, airlines, clothing and food outlets that would provide meaningful discounts.

This very simple concept was based on the assumption that with low dues and valuable benefits you could — over a period of years — attract one million members. These members would come from both the LGBT community and our allies. Considering inflation, a low annual membership rate today of between $15 and $25 the organization could raise between $15 and $25 million, which would cover the basic costs of running the organization. Then additional funds could be raised from both members who had more money and others to cover the costs of additional lobbying, advocacy and anything else that the organization wanted to undertake including building a reserve fund or endowment.

In the long run this would be a way for HRC to become more relevant to many people and a way to institutionalize the organization for years to come. As we have seen from the fights that African Americans and women have waged to attain their human and civil rights, the fight goes on even after legislative success. HRC will continue to be needed to monitor progress and to educate our own community, our allies and the general population.

HRC will have to provide something for the younger generation that is tangible — not just the intangibles of advocacy — if it is to attract life-long members and supporters. There may be other ways but this is one reliable way to build HRC for the future.

Washington Adventist Hospital (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

The president of the Takoma Park, Md., based Washington Adventist Hospital has apologized for what she says was a “miscommunication” that led to a delay by the hospital in allowing a woman to visit her same-sex partner following the partner’s admission to the emergency room.

But hospital president Joyce Newmyer disputes claims by the two women and the Human Rights Campaign that an initial denial of a request to visit the partner was due to discrimination. Instead, she says it was based entirely on a policy of barring anyone from visiting emergency room patients undergoing initial treatment and evaluation.

Newmeyer’s assessment of the matter is at odds with an account by Takoma Park residents Kathryn Wilderotter and Linda Cole, who have been partners for eleven years and were legally married in Canada in 2004.

The Human Rights Campaign, a national LGBT advocacy group, released a statement saying a hospital staff member declined to allow Cole to visit Wilderotter shortly after Wilderotter was taken by ambulance on Nov.13, 2011 to the hospital’s emergency room because Cole “was reportedly not recognized as a family member.”

Wilderotter told the Blade she suffered a seizure while driving her car, resulting in a crash that led to an injury. She said a female staff member sitting at the front desk at the emergency room entrance declined to allow Cole to visit Wilderotter after Cole told the woman she was Wilderotter’s partner and spouse.

According to Wilderotter, Cole called Wilderotter’s sister, Kristin Biggs, who arrived at the hospital about 20 minutes later. When Biggs approached the same emergency room staff member she introduced herself as Wilderotter’s sister, Wilderotter told the Blade.

The female staff member then replied, “Oh, we have family here now. You can go in,” Wilderotter quoted her partner as informing her.

HRC announced in its Jan. 19 statement that Cole and Wilderotter have filed separate complaints of discrimination over the incident with a joint federal commission that regulates hospitals and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, an arm of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

“Discrimination during a medical emergency may be one of the worst forms of discrimination LGBT people face,” said HRC President Joe Solmonese. “Recognizing this problem, federal regulations were put in place to end discrimination in healthcare settings and allow all people to be with their loved ones during their most critical moments.”

Solmonese was referring to the implementation in January 2011 of new federal regulations initiated by the Obama administration that require all hospitals participating in Medicaid and Medicare programs to allow patients to designate the persons they wish to see as visitors. The regulations prohibit discrimination in hospital visitation based on sexual orientation and gender identity among other categories.

Since nearly every U.S. hospital participates in Medicaid or Medicare programs the new regulations are said to apply to nearly all hospitals in the country, including Washington Adventist Hospital.

Meanwhile, HRC said in its statement that Washington Adventist Hospital has not responded to its annual survey of healthcare providers, which it uses to publish the HRC Healthcare Equality Index. The index assesses and discloses the policies and practices of hospitals related to LGBT patients and their families.

Newmyer told the Blade on Monday that she didn’t know why the hospital hasn’t returned the HRC survey in past years but said hospital officials were currently working on it and would be sending it to HRC shortly.

In a phone interview with the Blade on Monday, Wilderotter said a hospital executive called the couple six weeks later to say the incident was caused by a new employee unfamiliar with hospital policies and that the hospital apologized for what happened.

Newmyer posted a statement on the hospital website on Jan. 20 saying she was troubled over news media stories reporting the initial denial of visitation was due to discrimination.

“First, I want to express my deepest apologies to Ms. Wilderotter and Ms. Cole for feeling anything less than valued at our hospital,” she said in the statement. “As a policy and a practice, our hospital does not discriminate against anyone regardless of their race, ethnicity, faith, sexual orientation or ability to pay,” she said.

Newmyer told the Blade on Monday that a hospital investigation into the incident shows that a “perfect storm” of miscommunication and coincidence may have led Cole and Wilderotter to believe they were singled out for discrimination.

According to Newmyer, when Cole arrived at the hospital doctors and emergency room attendants were treating Wilderotter and evaluating her condition. She said the hospital has a policy that prohibits anyone from visiting an emergency room patient at this “critical” stage of treatment.

She could not determine exactly what the hospital staff person told Cole at this time, Newmyer said, but she is certain that the denial of the visit would have been issued to anyone arriving at that time. In what she called an unfortunate coincidence, Newmyer said the attending doctors and staff completed their initial evaluation of Wilderotter and cleared her to receive visitors just as Wilderotter’s sister arrived.

When the sister was allowed to enter the emergency room treatment area, Cole understandably could have concluded that her initial denial was due to discrimination rather than the across-the-board policy of delaying visitation during the early stage of treatment, Newmyer said.

Wilderotter said the emergency room staff member’s comment referring to her sister as “family” and saying the sister could enter the area where she was being treated suggests that the staff member believed the sister rather than Cole should be allowed to enter the treatment area for a visit. Wilderotter said she has also heard from friends and others familiar with Washington Adventist Hospital that family members are sometime allowed in to visit a loved one in the emergency room even during the early stage of treatment by doctors and nurses.

“My sister took Linda by the hand and led her in,” said Wilderotter, who noted that she was comforted to see the two of them arrive at her side. Wilderotter said the staff member at the emergency room entrance didn’t attempt to stop Cole from entering the treatment area with her sister.

Catherine Holroyd, a Hyattsville, Md., resident contacted the Blade on Monday to report that she and her lesbian partner have been treated with respect and were fully recognized as a same-sex couple when the two have been admitted to Washington Adventist Hospital on separate occasions as patients.

“I’m a retired nurse,” Holroyd said. “I can tell you that we’ve been treated well at that hospital and so have other gay couples.”

HRC spokesperson Paul Gueguierre said Cole and Widerotter’s discrimination complaint has merit.

“Linda Cole was denied access to her partner during a time of great need,” he said. “Regardless of whether it was a simple communications problem, this was unfortunately a case of healthcare discrimination,” he said.

“We are encouraged by recent statements by hospital administrators that they do not discriminate and will take steps to prevent this from happening again in the future,” Guequierre said. ”We look forward to their participation in the Healthcare Equality Index. The HEI is designed to prevent cases like this one.”

The story of the year was the end of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” Here are our picks for the rest of 2011’s top LGBT news stories.

#2 N.Y. approves marriage

New Yorkers celebrated same-sex marriage during June Pride. (Blade photo by Michael Key)

The Empire State became the sixth and most populous state in the country to legalize same-sex marriage in June when the legislature passed and Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) signed into law a bill legalizing marriage rights for gay couples.

Upon passage of the legislation, Cuomo said New York has “finally torn down the barrier that has prevented same-sex couples from exercising the freedom to marry and from receiving the fundamental protections that so many couples and families take for granted.”

The achievement marks the first time that a Republican-controlled legislative chamber — in this case, the New York State Senate — passed legislation in this country legalizing same-sex marriage.

The law went into effect in the state on July 24. Kitty Lambert and Cheryle Rudd, a lesbian couple from Buffalo, N.Y., wed in Niagara Falls at midnight and became the first couple in the state to benefit from the law.

#3 Rep. Barney Frank retires

Rep. Barney Frank announced in November that he wouldn’t seek a 17th term in the House. (Blade photo by Michael Key)

The longest-serving openly gay member of Congress announced in November that he wouldn’t seek a 17th term in the U.S. House.

Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), 71, was first elected to Congress in 1980. The lawmaker made his sexual orientation known in 1987 — becoming the second to do so after Rep. Gerry Studds (D-Mass.).

Frank said redistricting in Massachusetts and his desire to retire before reaching age 75 prompted his decision not to run.

“I have enjoyed — indeed been enormously honored — by the chance to represent others in Congress and the State Legislature, but there are other things I hope to do before my career ends,” Frank said.

The lawmaker is credited with helping shepherd through the passage of hate crimes protections legislation and “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” repeal in the 111th Congress. But Frank was criticized by transgender activists in 2007 for dropping gender identity protections from the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. The gay-only bill ultimately died in the Senate.

His most enduring legacy will likely be the passage of Wall Street reform legislation commonly known as Dodd-Frank, which he pushed through as chair of the House Financial Services Committee.

#4 Obama won’t defend DOMA; Boehner hires counsel

House Speaker John Boehner announced that he would hire counsel to defend DOMA in court after the Obama administration said it would no longer do so. (Washington Blade file photo by Michael Key)

The Obama administration made a significant reversal in policy in February when it announced it would no longer defend the Defense of Marriage Act in court.

In a Feb. 22 letter, the U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder notified Congress that laws related to sexual orientation, such as DOMA, which prohibits federal recognition of same-sex marriage, should be subjected to heightened scrutiny.

“The president has also concluded that Section 3 of DOMA, as applied to legally married same-sex couples, fails to meet that standard and is therefore unconstitutional,” Holder said.

Obama’s decision riled House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), who accused the president of abandoning his constitutional duties. In March, Boehner convened the Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group, which on a 3-2 party-line basis voted to defend the law in court in the administration’s stead.

To assist the House general counsel in defending the law, Boehner hired private attorney Paul Clement, a U.S. solicitor general under former President George W. Bush. The cost of the private attorney was initially announced at a blended rate of $520 an hour and total cost cap of $150,000, but Boehner later bumped up the cost cap to $1.5 million.

#5 Giffords shot; gay intern hailed as hero

Gay intern Daniel Hernandez was credited with helping to save the life of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords after she was shot. (Blade photo by Michael Key)

The nation recoiled in horror in January after pro-LGBT Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) became one of 20 people shot people by a gunman during a town hall event in her district.

Daniel Hernandez Jr., a gay 20-year-old who had worked as an intern for Giffords for just five days at the time of the shooting, was credited with providing the first aid that saved her life.

“The attitude that I had,” Hernandez said, “was trying to make sure that those who had been injured were going to be OK, so to try to provide whatever first aid I could until someone else could come in and take over.”

Medics arrived on the scene to take Giffords and others to the University Medical Center in Arizona. Giffords slowly recovered and made her first appearance on the House floor in August to vote in favor of the agreement to raise the debt ceiling limit.

At a memorial service, President Obama called Hernandez a “hero” during his eulogy. The White House invited Hernandez — along with his father, Danny Hernandez Sr., — to sit alongside first lady Michelle Obama during the State of the Union address in January.

#6. Clinton, Obama endorse int’l LGBT rights

Hillary Clinton delivered a sweeping pro-LGBT speech in December calling for other nations to respect gay rights as human rights. (Washington Blade file photo by Michael Key)

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in December gave a high-profile speech in Geneva, Switzerland in which she spoke out against human rights abuses committed against LGBT people overseas.

During the speech, Clinton reiterated her previously held belief that human rights are gay rights and gay rights are human rights and said LGBT people overseas “have an ally in the United States of America.”

“It is a violation of human rights when people are beaten or killed because of their sexual orientation, or because they do not conform to cultural norms about how men and women should look or behave,” Clinton said.

Clinton gave the speech on Dec. 6 in observance of Human Rights Day, which recognizes the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on Dec. 10, 1948 by the U.N. General Assembly. More than 1,000 diplomats and experts were in attendance.

On the same day, President Obama issued a memorandum to government agencies urging them to step up efforts against anti-LGBT human rights abuses abroad. Among other things, the memo calls on agencies to work against the criminalization of homosexual acts overseas and directs the State Department to lead a “standing group” to respond swiftly to serious incidents threatening LGBT human rights abroad.

#7 Jamey Rodemeyer commits suicide

Year In Review: 2011

A 14-year-old from Williamsville, N.Y. took his own life in September after his parents said he was subjected to bullying in school over his sexual orientation.

Jamey Rodemeyer, who attended Williamsville North High School, took his life in an apparent hanging. Prior to his death, he sent his last message in the form of a tweet to Lady Gaga, which read, “Bye Mother Monster. Thank you for all you have done. Paws up forever.”

Rodemeyer made a video for the “It Gets Better” project, a website dedicated to preventing teen suicide, in which he identified as bisexual and described the harassment he endured from other students.

“I just want to tell you that it does get better [be]cause when I came out for being bi I got so much support from my friends and it made me feel so secure,” Rodemeyer says in the video.

Rodemeyer’s death inspired outrage across the nation. Lady Gaga told her fans via Twitter she spent the days after his suicide ”reflecting, crying and yelling.” She later met with President Obama over the issue of bullying.

#8 GOP hopefuls tout anti-gay views

Former Sen. Rick Santorum said he would resinstate ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ if elected president. (Blade photo by Michael Key)

Presidential election season officially kicked off this year as Republican candidates seeking to oust President Obama from the White House touted their anti-gay views.

Former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum likely took the prize for emphasizing anti-gay positions most often in his campaign. In addition to pledging to reinstate “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” Santorum said, “our country will fail” as a result of same-sex marriage. He also raised eyebrows in August when he said same-sex marriage is like “saying this glass of water is a glass of beer.”

Activists with Truth Wins Out revealed the therapy clinic that Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) co-owns with her husband, Marcus Bachmann, engages in widely discredited “ex-gay” conversion therapy aimed at turning gay people straight. The candidate has refused to answer questions about the clinic.

A total of five contenders — former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, Santorum, Texas Gov. Rick Perry and Bachmann — each penned their name to an anti-gay pledge from the National Organization for Marriage. Signing the document commits them to backing a U.S. constitutional amendment against same-sex marriage and to defending the Defense of Marriage of Act in court.

#9 Prop 8 fight continues in California

Litigation seeking to overturn Proposition 8 progressed through the courts this year amid questions over whether proponents have standing to defend the law and whether the sexual orientation of the judge who ruled against the marriage ban should have disqualified him.

In the case of Perry v. Brown, the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in January sent the question of whether Prop 8 proponents had standing to defend the amendment in court to the California Supreme Court. The question emerged after state officials declined to litigate on behalf of the same-sex marriage ban.

In November, the California high court issued a unanimous decision that Protect Marriage and other groups who worked to pass the anti-gay initiative in 2008 indeed could continue the case.

Another challenge to U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker’s decision emerged in April after the retired magistrate told reporters he’s gay and has been living with a same-sex partner for 10 years. Proponents of Prop 8 said Walker should have recused himself from the case.

But in June, U.S. District Judge James Ware ruled that Walker’s sexual orientation wasn’t a factor in the judge’s decision to rule against Prop 8 and upheld the previous decision. The anti-gay activists appealed the ruling to the Ninth Circuit.

The Ninth Circuit heard oral arguments on whether Walker’s sexual orientation should have disqualified him as well as whether the tapes of the trial should be made public. The appellate court has yet to make a decision on any of these issues.

#10 Solmonese steps down from HRC

HRC President Joe Solmonese announced in August that he would step down after six years at the helm of the nation’s leading LGBT advocacy group. (Washington Blade file photo by Michael Key)

The head of the Human Rights Campaign announced in August that after six years he would be stepping down as president of the nation’s largest LGBT organization.

The co-chairs of the board of directors of HRC and its sister organization, the HRC Foundation, said Joe Solmonese will remain as head of both organizations until the completion of his contract in March to ensure a smooth leadership transition.

Solmonese oversaw the defeat of the Federal Marriage Amendment in 2006 as well as passage of hate crimes protections legislation and repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” But he alienated many transgender activists in 2007 when he declined to oppose a decision by House Democratic leaders to remove protections for transgender people from the Employment Non-Discrimination Act.

The search committee seeking Solmonese’s replacement is being co-chaired by board members Joni Madison of North Carolina and Dana Perlman of Los Angeles. The replacement has yet to be announced.

Ken Cuccinelli (Washington Blade file photo by Michael Key)

The Virginia State Board of Social Services voted 5 to 1 on Wednesday to allow licensed adoption agencies to refuse to approve adoptions or foster parents based solely on a would-be parent’s sexual orientation as well as six other characteristics.

The board took that action by rejecting for the second time this year an adoption related rule change first drafted in 2009 by state social services officials under former Governor Tim Kaine.

The proposed change called for banning discrimination in the state’s adoption and foster care system solely because of someone’s sexual orientation, religion, age, gender, disability, political beliefs, or family status.

MORE IN THE BLADE: CHRISTIAN CONSERVATIVES ‘IN DRIVER’s SEAT’ IN VIRGINIA

Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell and the state’s controversial attorney general, Ken Cuccinelli, who took office in 2010, opposed the changes. Cuccinelli told the board in a letter that it lacked the authority to add a sexual orientation non-discrimination provision in adoption rules because sexual orientation is not a protected status under state law.

“Politics once again trumped child welfare in Virginia,” said Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign. “How many times can you let the 1,300 children in Virginia’s foster care system waiting for a loving, forever home down?”

Solmonese called on the Virginia Legislature to pass legislation “that makes the best interest of the child the sole basis for adoption, not whether someone is gay or whether two caring adults are able to be married.”

MORE IN THE BLADE: VIRGINIA ELECTS FIRST OPENLY GAY SENATOR

Virginia law limits adoptions to married couples and single parents. Unlike some states, it does not prohibit gays from adopting. It prohibits adoptions by unmarried couples, gay or straight. The proposed change that the board rejected did not call for legalizing adoptions for unmarried couples.

The Family Equality Council, a national gay rights group, says as many as 6,700 adopted children are being raised in Virginia by same-sex couples, with one member of the couple having obtained the adoption.

Equality Virginia, a statewide LGBT advocacy group, also condemned the board’s action, saying it would have an especially harmful impact on large numbers of LGBT youth awaiting adoption or placement in a foster home.

“Today, the State Board of Social Services told the people of the Commonwealth, who they represent, that it is okay for agencies licensed by the state to discriminate in making their services available to prospective adoptive and foster care parents, the 1,200 children waiting for a loving forever home and the 6,000 children in foster care,” said Claire Gastanaga, Equality Virginia’s legislative counsel.

In its action on Wednesday, the board left in place the state’s current non-discrimination policy for adoption and foster care, which bans discrimination based on race, color, and national origin.

Gastanaga, who attended the meeting in which the board voted, said the vote came after a Cuccinelli representative told the six board members that expanding the rules to include sexual orientation discrimination and the other categories could subject board members to “personal liability.”

She said legal experts supporting the expanded non-discrimination rule have disputed Cuccinelli’s claim that the board doesn’t have the authority to make the change.

A spokesperson for the Virginia chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union told Reuter’s News Service that the ACLU was considering filing a lawsuit to challenge the board’s action.

The board has said that during a 30-day public comment period on the proposed rule change it received 1,611 comments in support of expanding the non-discrimination protections and 1,154 comments opposed to the expanded protections.

Among those speaking out against the expanded protects was Krystal Thompson, chief executive officer of Commonwealth Catholic Charities, one of several faith based organizations licensed by the state to facilitate adoptions and foster care placements.

“We have the right under federal and state law to make decisions consistent with our religious beliefs,” the Richmond Times-Dispatch quoted her as saying.

Gastanaga said some faith based adoption agencies as well as non-religious agencies routinely approve adoptions and foster care placements to lesbians and gay men in Virginia.

“Equality Virginia believes that best interests of the child should be the sole basis for child placement decisions,” she said in a statement. “Discrimination based on any of the factors stripped from the final rules has no place in the decision by the state or its licensed agencies whether to provide adoption or foster care services to children or to prospective loving parents.”

Aradhana ‘Bela’ Sood, professor of psychiatry and chair the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Virginia Commonwealth University, serves as chair of the State Board of Social Services. She was the one board member to vote against the decision to reject the expanded non-discrimination rules.

“The science really doesn’t substantiate the notion that that is the only way children should be raised,” the Times-Dispatch quoted her as saying in referring to the assumption that children do better when raised by a married heterosexual couple.

The Human Rights Campaign has posted the official job description for the next President, who will replace outgoing leader Joe Solmonese. Do you have what it takes to lead HRC?

…The President reports to the Boards of Directors of both the Human Rights Campaign and theHuman Rights Campaign Foundation and is responsible for the overall management and leadershipof HRC’s activities and programs.  The President’s job is  to develop and implement  HRC’sstrategic vision, its policies and programs to advance the interests of its membership and the LGBTcommunity as a whole.  The new President will be charged with leading this important organizationduring a time of great change and progress in the country.

The President will be working every day to improve the lives of LGBT Americans by identifyingand overcoming societal and legislative barriers to LGBT equality. At the same time, s/he will beworking to engage, educate and empower millions of fair-minded Americans to advocate for equalrights for the LGBT community.

Specific responsibilities include:

Provide vision and focus for a dynamic organization.  HRC is a large, diverse and highlymotivated organization with activities occurring simultaneously in many locations and on a varietyof issues, with a unique combination of professional staff, volunteers, allies, boards, donors, andmembers. The President must be able to inspire, motivate, coordinate and honor these multipleconstituents  in ways that advance the mission of HRC and maintain the highest standards ofservice and integrity.

Build, maintain and continually inspire a work environment to achieve the highest standardsof performance and accountability.  One of the hallmarks of HRC’s mission is to assureworkplace equality for all LGBT employees. HRC strives to attain those goals with  its ownemployees by fostering a workplace that welcomes and embraces diversity and encouragesindustry, teamwork and mutual respect. The new President must not only embrace these values, butcontinually lead in creating an atmosphere that promotes teamwork, client responsiveness,diversity, accountability, professional development and succession planning  – and helps theorganization adapt to changing and disparate needs within the community.

Manage through change.   The effectiveness of HRC as a civil rights organization will depend onhow well it manages uncertain changes in the political environment and how nimble it can be inresponding to external changes. Managing these changes in ways that keep HRC relevant andcentral to the movement will be critical for success.

Represent and lead HRC in the most positive manner, enhancing HRC’s visibility andinfluencing public opinion.  The President of HRC has the ability to reach government andbusiness decision-makers and influence public opinion on issues vital to HRC’s mission. It isessential that the new President be able to convey HRC’s activities (and those of the broader LGBTcommunity) effectively and persuasively to thought leaders and the broader public through a widevariety of communication tools.

Lead the development and promotion of legislation and public policies that positively affectLGBT families and their children, as well as, oppose legislation and public policies that wouldadversely affect LGBT families and their children.  HRC’s President also is the strategic visionaryon how to elect candidates for public office who will sponsor and support HRC’s legislative agendaand the creation of equities for LGBTs throughout society, as well as oppose those candidates whohave promoted policies and legislation adverse to LGBT families…

Attract new members, allies, strategic partners, advocates, donors and volunteers.  HRCcontinues to grow and diversify its membership, which has helped to expand its impact. The newPresident must be able to lead HRC in building on its growth by effectively finding new ways toretain and attract a broader membership base.  S/he must be skilled in coalition building, working inpartnership with other LGBT and civil rights organizations to tackle legislative and policy needs onthe state and federal level.

Engage diverse constituencies.    Diversity and inclusion are strategic imperatives for HRC andnecessary for the continued success of the organization. Diversity and inclusion have beenembedded in HRC’s mission since it was founded in 1980.  In the last several years however, HRChas provided diversity and inclusion objectives more sustained support internally by providing staffand resources to cultivate a diverse and inclusive environment at every level of the organization.

In addition, HRC has developed significant relationships externally to evidence its commitment todiversity and inclusion.   The President must work to broaden public support for LGBT equality byengaging fair-minded people and partner organizations that represent the multiple dimensions ofdiversity, including ethnicities, national origins, ages, sexual orientation, gender identity, beliefs,religions and faiths, geographies, experiences, cultures, socio-economic backgrounds and levels ofphysical ability.

Lead the development of educational programs that positively affect the societal and culturalcondition, as well as shift public opinion. HRC’s next President will continue to build upon thedynamic educational programs and tools of the organization such as the Corporate Equality Index,Healthcare Equality Index, Family Project and Religion & Faith programs. S/he also will push forinnovation and the creation of new programs consistent with HRC’s strategic plan that will educateand gain a broader understanding of the challenges and opportunities faced by the LGBTcommunity.

Read the rest of the job description, including the preferred qualifications (to see if you qualify), here.

The U.S. Senate confirmed on Thursday an out judicial nominee to become the second-ever open lesbian to sit on the federal bench.

Senators confirmed Alison Nathan, whom President Obama nominated in March for a seat on the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of New York, by a vote of 48-44.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) said on the Senate floor there was “no question the Senate should confirm Ms. Nathan.”

“As her resume shows, she is an accomplished nominee with significant experience in private practice, academia and government service,” Leahy said. “Twenty-seven former Supreme Court clerks have written to the Judiciary Committee in support of Ms. Nathan’s qualifications, including clerks who worked for the conservative Justices.”

Shin Inouye, a White House spokesperson, commended the Senate for confirming Obama’s nominee.

“The President welcomes the confirmation of Alison Nathan,” Inouye said. “She will serve the American people well from the District Court bench.”

Currently special counsel to the Solicitor General of New York, Nathan has also served as a special assistant to President Obama and an associate White House counsel. Before joining government service, she taught law first as a visiting assistant professor at Fordham University Law School, and later as a Fritz Alexander fellow at New York University School of Law.

All Democratic senators who were present voted in favor of the nomination. All Republicans who were present voted against her, including GOP senators known for holding pro-LGBT views, such as Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine), Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) and Scott Brown (R-Mass.).

Senators who didn’t vote were Sens. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.), Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), Kay Hagan (D-N.C.), Richard Lugar (R-Ind.), David Vitter (R-La.), Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and Joe Manchin (D-W.V.).

The Senate didn’t confirm Nathan without opposition on the floor. Republican senators spoke out against her.

Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he voted to report Nathan’s nomination to the floor, but couldn’t vote for her on Thursday — as well as judicial nominee Judge Susan Hickey — because of their records and American Bar Association ratings.

“Ms. Nathan and Judge Hickey both have had limited experience in the courtroom,” Grassley said. “They have failed to meet even the minimum qualifications that the ABA uses in rating process.”

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), who’s known for opposing pro-LGBT initiatives in Congress, also expressed concerns on the floor about Nathan’s legal experience and what he said was her belief that judges can look to foreign law in deciding cases.

“It’s very hard for me to believe that I should vote to confirm a judge who’s not committed to following our law, who believes they have a right to scrutinize the world, find some law in some other country, bring it home, and use that law to make it achieve a result in the case they wanted,” Sessions said.

Leahy defended Nathan’s nomination on the Senate floor, saying although her ABA recommendation wasn’t unanimous, a majority on the standing committee that evaluated her said she was qualified.

“I note that a majority of the Standing Committee rated Ms. Nathan ‘qualified’ to serve,” Leahy said. “I also note that Ms. Nathan’s ABA rating is equal to or better than the rating received by 33 of President Bush’s confirmed judicial nominees, who were supported by nearly every Republican senator.”

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said the claim that Nathan has made any assertion that she’d look to foreign law when deciding cases is “patently false.”

In a questionnaire response to written questions from Grassley, Nathan wrote: “If I were confirmed as a United States District Court Judge, foreign law would have no relevance to my interpretation of the United States Constitution. In this area, as in all others, I would follow binding Supreme Court precedent.”

LGBT advocates praised the Senate for confirming Nathan and sending the third openly gay person to the federal bench.

Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign, hailed the confirmation and said additional representation of LGBT people in the courts is necessary.

“Alison Nathan’s demonstrated intellect and dedication to public service is a model of achievement for LGBT youth and we commend the Senate for their confirmation vote today,” he said. ”With qualified LGBT attorneys all across the country, we look forward to the federal courts reflecting the diverse composition of our society in districts from coast to coast.”

Chuck Wolfe, CEO of the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund, called the Nathan confirmation “another step toward America’s leadership class reflecting the country it serves.”

“For too long Washington has ignored the impressive talent and experience found in the LGBT community,” Wolfe said. “It’s been beholden to the opinion of extremists who wanted to exclude us. We have to continue to fight against that kind of political homophobia, and we will.”

The first lesbian — and first openly LGBT person — to sit on the federal bench is Deborah Batts, who was nominated and confirmation for a position on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York during the Clinton Administration.

In July, the Senate confirmed J. Paul Oetken to another seat on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, making him the first openly gay male to sit on the federal bench.

Two other openly gay nominees are also pending before the Senate: Michael Fitzgerald, who was nominated for a position on the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California; and Edward DuMont, who was nominated for a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.

The Senate Judiciary Committee held the confirmation hearing for Fitzgerald last week. The panel hasn’t reported out the nomination, but the record for committee members to submit follow up questions closed only this week.

Obama renominated DuMont in January after the 111th Congress took no action on his appointment. DuMont’s nomination has yet to be considered by the full Senate — or even the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Frank Kameny’s gay rights activism predated the Stonewall riots by more than a decade. (Washington Blade file photo by Michael Key)

Expressions of condolences from LGBT activists and their straight supporters poured in from across the country this week following the death in Washington on Tuesday of Franklin E. Kameny, one of the nation’s most prominent gay rights leaders.

Friends said Kameny, 86, appears to have died in his sleep while in bed at his house in Northwest Washington. A representative of the D.C. Medical Examiner’s office, who spoke to friends and well-wishers who stood outside the house Tuesday night, said the cause of death couldn’t be immediately determined.

Kameny’s passing came a little more than a month before the planned celebration on Nov. 15 of the 50th anniversary of his founding of the Mattachine Society of Washington, the first gay rights organization in the nation’s capital.

LGBT rights advocates Charles Francis and Bob Witeck, who were longtime friends of Kameny’s and established the project to preserve Kameny’s papers over a 50-year period, said they would be announcing soon plans for a memorial service to honor the gay rights leader’s life.

Witeck said Nov. 15 is being considered as a possible date for a Kameny memorial gathering.

Timothy Clark, Kameny’s tenant and friend, said he found Kameny unconscious and unresponsive in his bed shortly after 5 p.m. on Tuesday. Clark said he became concerned when he arrived home a few minutes earlier and noticed Kameny hadn’t retrieved his newspapers, which are delivered outside the house in the morning.

He said he called 911 and rescue workers determined that Kameny had passed away earlier, most likely in his sleep. Clark said he had spoken with Kameny shortly before midnight on the previous day and Kameny didn’t appear to be ill or in distress.

Kameny is credited with being one of the leading strategists for the early gay rights movement – beginning nearly a decade before the 1969 Stonewall riots in New York’s Greenwich Village and continuing forward.

The Stonewall riots, triggered by a police raid of the Stonewall gay bar, are considered by most activist leaders as the starting point of the modern LGBT rights movement. But movement leaders credit Kameny and his collaborators in the Mattachine Society of Washington with laying the groundwork that enabled the post-Stonewall LGBT organizing to flourish.

“Frank was a revolutionary who lived to see the world change, and I’m comforted by that,” said Francis. “He was the first gay American to root the argument for gay civil equality in the words of Thomas Jefferson and the Declaration of Independence and Constitution.”

Gay historian David K. Johnson, who wrote about Kameny in two books on the gay rights movement, said Kameny broke from the early American “homophile” movement’s tactics of accommodation with the prevailing views that homosexuality was a disorder.

“Kameny’s style and tactics differed markedly from those of earlier homosexual leaders,” Johnson wrote in a 2002 article posted on the website of D.C.’s Rainbow History Project. “By unabashedly proclaiming that homosexuality was neither sick nor immoral, Kameny helped move gays and lesbians out of the shadows of 1950s apologetic, self-help groups and into the sunlight of the civil rights movement, setting the tone for a movement that continues today.”

It was during his years as head of the Mattachine Society of Washington that Kameny in July 1968 coined the phrase, “Gay is Good,” which activists say became a forerunner to the gay pride celebrations that followed the 1969 Stonewall riots.

Born and raised in New York City, Kameny served in combat as an Army soldier in World War II in Europe. After the war, Kameny received his doctorate degree in astronomy from Harvard University.

He came to Washington in 1956 to take a position teaching astronomy at Georgetown University. The following year, government recruiters persuaded him to take a job as a civilian astronomer with the U.S. Army Map Service in Washington.

NASA career derailed

Kameny told the Blade in a 2002 interview that the nation’s race against the Soviet Union for superiority in space had just begun in full force and he set his sights, among other things, on a possible role in the U.S. space program.

A short time later, Congress created the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and Kameny said he would have seriously considered applying to become an astronaut. But that was not to come about.

Just five months into his job at the Army Map Service, U.S. government security investigators uncovered information leading them to believe Kameny was gay. They opened an investigation into his alleged “threat” to national security. Within a few weeks he was dismissed from his job, with his name placed on a list of people labeled as government security risks.

Kameny challenged the dismissal before the U.S. Civil Service Commission, which set personnel policies for federal employees. The commission upheld the firing, prompting Kameny to take the matter to court. After losing in the lower courts, he appealed his case to the U.S. Supreme Court, becoming the first known gay person to file a gay-related case before the high court.

The Supreme Court upheld a lower court ruling against Kameny and declined to hear the case. But Kameny’s decision to appeal the case through the court system motivated him to become a lifelong advocate on behalf of LGBT equality.

Gay historian Johnson wrote in his 2002 article that Kameny’s lawyer withdrew from the case after the U.S. Court of Appeals ruled against Kameny, forcing Kameny to write his own appeal to the Supreme Court.

Johnson called Kameny’s 60-page legal brief filed before the high court a groundbreaking challenge to the federal government’s policy barring homosexuals from working for the government in any capacity. Johnson said it served as Kameny’s and the gay movement’s strategy document for advancing legal rights for gays in the years going forward.

Kameny’s Supreme Court brief, or petition, also offered the world its first glimpse of what became his trademark use of blunt, sometimes inflammatory language combined with reasoned arguments to challenge anti-gay policies.

“The government’s regulations, policies, practices and procedures, as applied in the instant case to petitioner specifically, and as applied to homosexuals generally, are a stench in the nostrils of decent people, an offense against morality, an abandonment of reason, an affront to human dignity, an improper restraint upon proper freedom and liberty, a disgrace to any civilized society, and a violation of all that this nation stands for,” he wrote in his Supreme Court petition.

“These policies, practices, procedures, and regulations have gone too long unquestioned and too long unexamined by the courts,” he wrote.

Gov’t apologizes to Kameny

Although Kameny lost his own case, he spent the next decade working with attorneys and other gay and lesbian federal workers to chip away at the then U.S. Civil Service Commission’s ban on gay federal employees through new court challenges. By 1975, after losing several cases to gay employees who won reinstatement to their jobs over a period of years, the Civil Service Commission dropped its ban on gay employees.

The change, which came under the administration of President Gerald Ford, was based on court rulings saying the government could not discriminate against homosexual federal employees if no evidence exists to show a harmful “nexus” between someone’s sexual orientation and their ability to perform their job.

Kameny, who called the development a major victory for gay rights, turned next to ongoing efforts to end two other anti-gay policies of the government – the ban on gays from receiving government security clearances and the ban on gays in the military.

In 2009, the Obama administration through the U.S. Office of Personnel Management – the successor agency to the Civil Service Commission – issued Kameny a formal apology for his 1957 firing. The apology was extended by OPM Director John Berry, an openly gay man.

In an area of work for which Kameny is less known, he established a paralegal practice in the 1970s that continued through the 1980s and early 90s to represent gays encountering problems obtaining or retaining security clearances as well as gays facing discharge from the military because of their sexual orientation.

Activists following his paralegal work, including those who he helped keep their security clearances, called Kameny a tenacious counsel who sometimes worked with lawyers and other times served as an administrative representative before adjudicatory hearings, including discharge hearings in all branches of the military.

“When the super-secret National Security Agency (NSA) was on the verge of firing me simply for discovering I was gay, I enlisted Frank Kameny’s help in resisting,” said Jamie Shoemaker, a linguist and NSA career employee.

“His gutsy, unapologetic efforts to save my career and that of many others with security clearances led to a ground-breaking change in the attitude of our country’s intelligence agencies toward gays,” Shoemaker said.

Kameny said he was pleased when his security clearance practice became mostly unnecessary in the 1990s when President Bill Clinton issued an executive order prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation in the issuance of government security clearances.

Soliciting sodomy

In his work with military service members ensnared in what activists called witch hunts, where military investigators pressured vulnerable gays to identify other gays under false promises of lenient treatment, Kameny coined another phrase aimed at helping those under investigation – “Say nothing, sign nothing, get counsel.”

Charles Francis and others who knew Kameny said his paralegal work met an important need in the years before groups such as Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund and Servicemembers Legal Defense Network emerged to take on this type of legal work.

LGBT movement colleagues also credit Kameny with playing a lead role in the effort to persuade the American Psychiatric Association in 1973 to remove homosexuality from its list of disorders. As a scientist by profession, Kameny wrote and spoke often beginning in the 1960s about what he called the faulty or “junk” science that the psychiatric profession used to support its claim that homosexuality was a mental disorder.

Kameny and others supporting him within the profession argued that nearly all of the “gays are sick” theories were based on studies of patients in therapy. There were little or no studies made of the overwhelming majority of gays who never sought therapy and functioned well in society despite widespread anti-gay prejudice, Kameny and others argued.

When broader studies were conducted of gays and lesbians in the population at large, findings showed there were no differences in the numbers found to have mental health problems between samples of gays and straights, Kameny often pointed out.

In yet another area of work, Kameny is credited with playing an early and effective role in pushing for repeal of state sodomy laws, which made it illegal for consenting adults to engage in oral or anal sex in the privacy of the home. In keeping with his characteristic defiant rhetoric, Kameny sought to dramatize what he called the “lunacy” of laws prohibiting private, consenting sex.

On a number of occasions he publicly solicited public officials, including D.C.’s police chief in the 1960s, to engage in sodomy with him. In 1987, when the U.S. Supreme Court upheld Georgia’s sodomy law in the case Bowers vs. Hardwick, Kameny said he wrote letters soliciting sodomy to each of the Supreme Court justices that voted to uphold the law.

“I defied them to prosecute me,” he told the Blade. “They never did.”

Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign, said Kameny “led an extraordinary life marked by heroic activism that set a path for the modern LGBT civil rights movement.”

“From the early days fighting institutionalized discrimination in the federal workforce, Dr. Kameny taught us all that ‘Gay is Good,’” Solmonese said. “As we say goodbye to this trailblazer on National Coming Out Day, we remember the remarkable power we all have to change the world by living our lives like Frank – openly, honestly and authentically.”

Chuck Wolfe, CEO of the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund, said Kameny’s death marked the “loss of a hero and a founding father of the fight to end discrimination against LGBT people.”

“Dr. Kameny stood up for this community when doing so was considered unthinkable and even shocking, and he continued to do so throughout his life,” Wolfe said. “He spoke with a clear voice and firm conviction about the humanity and dignity of people who were gay, long before it was safe for him to do so. All of us who today endeavor to complete the work he began a half century ago are indebted to Dr. Kameny and his remarkable bravery and commitment.”

Local activists who knew Kameny said they are deeply saddened over his passing but pleased to have shared time with him at several LGBT events in Washington during the past three weeks.

On Sept. 30, D.C.’s LGBT Community Center honored Kameny along with three other activists with its community service award at a ceremony at the downtown Hotel Sofitel. Kameny delivered what his activist friends called his standard and beloved fiery speech asserting his 50-year struggle to change society to bring about full and unabridged rights for LGBT people. It was to be his last speaking engagement.

His passing inside his house on Tuesday came several years after the city designated the house at 5020 Cathedral Ave., N.W., as a historic landmark because of the work Kameny and his activist colleagues performed there since the 1960s on behalf of LGBT rights. In 2010, the D.C. City Council voted unanimously to name a two-block section of 17th Street near Dupont Circle as Frank Kameny Way in honor of Kameny’s lifelong work on behalf of equality for the LGBT community and the community at large.”

Kameny’s death also came five years after Francis and Witeck helped arrange for the Library of Congress to acquire more than 50,000 documents from the Kameny Papers Project, which pulled together nearly 50 years of papers and documents that Kameny compiled through his work on behalf of LGBT people.

“Frank Kameny was the Rosa Parks and the Martin Luther King and the Thurgood Marshall of the gay rights movement,” Yale Law Professor William Eskridge told the Associated Press earlier this year.

The Human Rights Campaign held its annual National Dinner at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center on Oct. 1. President Barack Obama addressed the hundreds of attendees. Special guests included rugby legend and anti-bullying activist Ben Cohen, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, actress Sarah Jessica Parker, author Betty DeGeneres and wrestler Hudson Taylor. Featured entertainment included Greyson Chance, Cyndi Lauper and Mika.

(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key)

President Barack Obama (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

President Obama denounced GOP presidential candidates on Saturday for not speaking out against the booing of a gay soldier who asked a question on “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” during a recent debate.

Obama made the remarks during his keynote address at the Human Rights Campaign’s 15th annual dinner at the Washington Convention Center in D.C. before an estimated audience of 3,000 people.

In one notable portion of the speech, Obama took aim at Republican presidential hopefuls for not speaking out during a Sept. 22 debate against the booing of a gay soldier who asked a question about “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” via video from Iraq.

“We don’t believe in the kind of smallness that says it’s OK for a stage full of political leaders — one of whom could end up being the President of the United States — being silent when an American soldier is booed,” Obama said. “You want to be commander-in-chief? You can start by standing up for the men and women who wear the uniform of the United States — even when it’s not politically convenient.”

Christian Berle, deputy executive director of the National Log Cabin Republicans, took exception after the speech to Obama’s criticism of Republican presidential candidates.

“President Obama’s focus on the booing at the latest GOP debate underscored his focus on politics over policy in his speech,” Berle said. “Such actions were quickly rebuked by Governors Huntsman and Johnson, after the debate, which was appropriate. His speech last night, much like his tenure as President, was more cheap shots and politics than substance on policy.”

The speech before HRC supporters could arguably be seen as a stump speech before the LGBT community as the Obama gears up his 2012 re-election campaign.

Obama enumerated five accomplishments he achieved for LGBT people in the first two-and-a-half years of his administration: passage of hate crimes protections legislation; issuing an order assuring hospital visitation rights for gay couples; lifting the HIV travel ban; repealing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”; and declaring that the Defense of Marriage Act is unconstitutional.

Obama gave particular emphasis during his address to the end of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” which was lifted from the books on Sept. 20 as the result of repeal legislation he signed in December.

“Many questioned whether we’d succeed in repealing ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,’ and, yes, it took two years to get the repeal through Congress.,” Obama said. “We had to hold a coalition together. We had to keep up the pressure. We took some flak along the way. But with the help of HRC, we got it done. And ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ is history.”

Obama continued, “All around the world, you’ve got gays and lesbians who are serving, and the only difference is now they can put up a family photo. No one has to live a lie to serve the country they love.”

The audience warmly greeted Obama with cheers and applause. Attendees gave the president a standing ovation at least three times, including during his mention of bringing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” to an end.

At one point, an audience member shouted to Obama, “Fired up!” The president immediately replied, “I’m fired up, too,” and continued his address.

Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign, had particular praise for Obama while introducing the president and said his organization has accomplished “more in the last two years” than the previous seven.

“We must stand with those who have a history of standing with us and that includes Barack Obama,” Solmonese said. “No president has done more to improve the lives of LGBT people than Barack Obama.”

Some advocates were hoping that Obama would take the opportunity of speaking before an LGBT audience to endorse marriage equality.

Since last year, Obama has suggested he evolve to support same-sex marriage, although he hasn’t yet endorsed marriage rights for gay couples. The president offered no such support during his address.

John Aravosis, the gay editor of AMERICAblog, said Obama gave ”the speech we expected, not the speech we deserved.”

“It was a safe speech, an election speech really,” Aravosis said. “He rightfully listed a number of excellent accomplishments, with the ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ repeal at the lead. But his term isn’t over, so what’s next? Marriage? An executive order on ENDA? … The president gave a good speech, but it could have been great.”

Obama also faced calls to publicly come out against anti-gay marriage initiatives that will be on the ballot next year in Minnesota and North Carolina. During his speech, the president didn’t explicitly mention these measures, but spoke out against efforts to enshrine discrimination in state laws and constitutions.

“There are those who don’t want to just stand in our way but want to turn the clock back; who want to return to the days when gay people couldn’t serve their country openly; who reject the progress that we’ve made; who, as we speak, are looking to enshrine discrimination into state laws and constitutions — efforts that we’ve got to work hard to oppose, because that’s not what America should be about,” Obama said.

Among the explicit plans of action that Obama stated during his speech were outstanding promises from his 2008 campaign that he pledged to accomplish, including legislative repeal of DOMA and passage of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act.

“I need your help to fight for equality, to pass a repeal of DOMA, to pass an inclusive employment non-discrimination bill so that being gay is never again a fireable offense in America,” Obama said.

Attendees at the HRC dinner hailed Obama and said the lack of announced support for marriage equality during his address isn’t as significant as other aspects of his speech or his accomplishments for LGBT people.

Gay D.C. Council member David Catania (I-At-Large) said Obama described LGBT issues during his address with an authenticity that “really is breathtaking.”

“He is singularly the most important president we’ve ever had when it comes to the advancement of rights for the LGBT community,” Catania said. “And his remarks here are so authentic. I believe who we saw is the real Barack Obama — someone who knows the importance of equality.”

On Obama’s lack of support for marriage equality, Catania said, “I hope that as we go forward, he find it in his next term in his capacity to openly support marriage equality — not just drop the defense of DOMA. But this is not the time to be diminishing his remarks. What he has done is nothing short of breathtaking.”

Mike Manning, a bisexual cast member of MTV’s “Real World D.C.” in 2009, said he heard exactly what he wanted to hear from Obama and had an exchange with the president after the speech.

Mike Manning (Washington Blade file photo by Michael Key)

“I don’t get star-struck with celebrities, but with Obama, of course, I did,” Manning said. “The only thing I could think to say to Obama was ‘Hey Obama, you’re awesome. He said, ‘Thank you. You’re awesome.’ So now I can die happy. The President of the United States said that I was awesome.”

On Obama’s position on marriage, Manning said, “I like the way that he’s letting the nation evolve with him on his views. My opinion is that Obama has always been supportive of same-sex marriage, but the fact that he is letting the nation evolve with him is very smart.”

Manning continued, “The way Obama handles things, he has a process for everything, and he’s very smart at planning things out. Like for his repeal of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,’ he didn’t just sign an executive order, he actually took the time to get people on his side, and I think that’s what he’s doing right now with marriage equality.”

Bil Browning, the gay founder and editor-in-chief of the Bilerico Project, was less impressed with the president and wanted to hear more during his remarks.

“It effectively listed all of his accomplishments, but I found it a little lackluster and was hoping for less of a campaign speech and more for a celebration or an acknowledgment of how far he’d exactly come on our issues,” Browning said.

Browning said he’d like to see Obama publicly support marriage equality, but acknowledged he doesn’t know “if coming to a constituent dinner is the proper place to announce a big change policy, that he’s changed his position on marriage.”

Other notable attendees at the HRC dinner were D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray and former second lady Tipper Gore. Gay administration officials John Berry, director of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management Director, and Fred Hocherg, head of the U.S. Export-Import Bank were also there. Lesbian Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), who recently launched a campaign for a U.S. Senate in Wisconsin, and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg made separate addresses during the dinner.

No protesters were seen outside the Washington Convention Center prior to the HRC dinner. Demonstrators often protest Obama at the LGBT events in which he participates for his lack of support of marriage equality and HRC for allegedly being an elitist organization.

Heather Cronk, managing director of GetEQUAL, said protesting the HRC dinner “wasn’t a priority and didn’t seem strategic.”

“We’re focused on building a grassroots movement that can demand full federal equality for LGBT Americans — and with limited resources, we have to be discerning about how to direct the energy of GetEQUAL’s organizers,” Cronk said. “Since we decided that protesting at the event wouldn’t actually help us build that uncompromising and unrelenting movement, we’re staying focused on where we can have an impact.”

UPDATE: This post has been edited.

Pink, left, and Bette Midler at last year's HRC dinner. (Blade file photo by Michael Key)

This week’s social and political scene is busy with three events coming up honoring a diverse group of people.

The D.C. Center is having its annual fall reception tonight from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Sofitel (806 15th St., N.W.). The reception will serve to reflect on the Center’s work over the past year as well as honor those who have made outstanding contributions to the LGBT community. This year’s honorees are Rick Rosendall, Sheila Alexander-Reid, Frank Kameny and Earline Budd.

“This is a larger event than we’ve done in the past,” said David Mariner, the Center’s director. “It’s the first time we’ve done the event in a hotel …we’re going as an organization and that makes sense.”

Mariner thinks the event will be even bigger next year, as it will be the Center’s 10th anniversary. Tickets are $75 for individuals, $200 for host committee and $45 for students and seniors. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit thedccenter.org.

HRC holds its 15th annual national dinner at the Washington Convention Center on Saturday night.

President Barack Obama will make his second appearance as president at the Human Rights Campaign dinner, and will deliver the keynote address. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg will be presented with the National Ally for Equality Award for his advocacy on marriage equality in New York State.

“This has been a remarkable year in the fight for LGBT equality,” said HRC President Joe Solmonese. “We’re thrilled to be joined by national leaders and inspiring artists as we celebrate our victories and redouble our efforts for the fights that remain ahead.”

Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), who is running for the U.S. Senate, will also be a featured speaker.

Entertainment will be provided by Cyndi Lauper and Greyson Chance, who is the first artist to be signed to Ellen DeGeneres’ record label, eleveneleven. Pop singer Mika will also give a full concert for the event’s after-party. For more information, visit hrcnationaldinner.org.

And the Victory Fund’s 11th annual Gay and Lesbian Leadership Awards are Wednesday at 101 Constitution Rooftop (101 Constitution Ave., N.W.). This year’s honorees are Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), who was at the center of the fight to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” and Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), vice-chair of the House LGBT Equality Caucus.

“Just as we need more openly LGBT members of Congress who can speak authentically about their lives, we also need more straight allies who see the value in removing barriers for LGBT Americans,” said Denis Dison, vice president of communications. ”Lawmakers like Sen. Collins and Congressman Ellison deserve to be recognized for standing up and speaking out for a freer and fairer country.”

The event begins with a VIP reception starting at 6 p.m. and the program beginning at 6:30 p.m. Individual tickets are $150 and can be purchased online at victoryfund.org.