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Human Rights Campaign Shows Its True Stripes with Transgender Exclusion

Two transgendered members of the Human Rights Campaign’s business council resigned yesterday, widening the divide between the group and the transgender community. Jamison Green and Donna Rose are both authors, speakers and consultants–internationally recognized leaders with very long lists of awards and a history of participation and support for many of the largest and most effective LGBT rights organizations. Their departure is significant, not just for the transgender community but for all supports of the Human Rights Campaign (HRC).

In a joint letter notifying HRC of their immediate resignation, Green and Rose were clear that the group’s decision to support a trans-exclusive version of the Employment Nondiscrimination Act (ENDA) was the beginning of the end of their support. But there’s more to the story behind the scenes at HRC, and it’s not a pretty one. The behind-the-scenes details, spelled out on Rose’s blog, reveal disconnects and exclusion:

One thing I’ll share that I don’t think anyone else knows yet. The day of our HRC Board Call to make a policy decision on ENDA (10/1) we held a Business Council call that afternoon to discuss the situation amongst ourselves as corporate leaders and to make an uninvited recommendation to the Sr. Staff and Board about the decision we were going to be asked to make. I have always found the fact that HRC leadership kept Daryl and the Workplace Project totally out of the loop throughout the entire ENDA debacle to be troubling. As I’ve said before, those are the people who should have been most engaged. In any event, although we hadn’t been asked to provide an opinion (something else I find odd) we felt that it was important to meet as a group and to have one. So, we met in the later part of the afternoon, we talked, and we forwarded our recommendation to Joe, David Smith, and to others.

What leap of logic did HRC President Joe Solmonese and his lieutenants have to make to rationalize excluding the business council from policy decisions on employment nondiscrimination? It seems to me to smack of nothing less than a hunger for power, and another example of HRC’s desire to control the debate on gay rights. In my view, HRC is more interested in getting invited to the table than in unifying the LGBT community to work as one force against homophobia and discrimination.

Why didn’t Green and Rose stay on and work for change within HRC? They tried. Again, from Rose’s blog:

We struggled with this for quite a while, but in the end we knew what we needed to do and we did it. I don’t feel that it’s necessary to rehash everything we’ve done and felt over these past few weeks to reconcile today’s announcement, but suffice it to say that the fact we didn’t get a response at all from Joe Solmonese to our request to meet with him personally indicated to us that our time there was up. It was that simple.

In fairness, I believe HRC’s strategy is rooted in the necessity for political compromise. It is extraordinarily difficult to diffuse hate and discrimination in one fell swoop. But I can’t help but think that in an effort to get a seat closer to the front of the bus, they’re willing to throw some members of the community under the wheels. You can compromise on timing perhaps, or on wording. How can you compromise on principle? And what’s worse, how can you not even include subsets of the community in the discussion? And Solmonese is apparently unwillingly to even extend a hand to those he’s pushed aside, making no effort to bring the community back together.

HRC’s actions on ENDA are more than a transgender issue. Lest we think it doesn’t affect the rest of us, we should think again. HRC has shown us its true stripes: positions, strategy and tactics are controlled by Joe Solmonese and others at the highest levels. Dissenting opinion and unity be damned. Have you noticed that comments are not allowed on HRC’s blog? In fact the blog is damn hard to find from their Website. That tells me that the organization is not interested in and/or will not allow discussion or input on their decisions.

Visit Life on Q’s Transgender Resource Page.

Unity = Power

In my opinion, the only road to full equality has to be wide enough for all of us. What the gay rights movement does not have is our Martin Luther King, Jr. There is no unifying voice. There is no incentive for the entire community come together as the radical right wing has done to fight against us.

In my opinion, it’s time for Joe Solmonese to go. It’s time for new leadership at HRC–leadership that can inspire unity. Because unity is power, and unity will bring more involvement from the larger LGBT community–many of whom stay on the sidelines because it doesn’t feel like their fight. A unified LGBT community can wield more influence with leaders in politics and in business.

Here’s an excerpt from their resignation letter, available in its entirety on Rose’s Website:

Recent HRC policy decisions – to actively support a version of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) that excludes our transgender brothers and sisters as well as gender-variant lesbian, gay, and bisexual people – have placed us in an untenable position. On November 8, the day after the ENDA vote in the House of Representatives, we requested an opportunity to meet personally with HRC President Joe Solmonese to share our concerns and to discuss HRC’s strategy for addressing recent legislative shortcomings before making a decision to stay or go. As the only transgender representatives on the Business Council our community expects us to have some influence, or at least to receive the courtesy of a consultation. Almost 3 weeks have passed since that request and we have heard nothing in response. This lack of response speaks volumes, so we feel compelled to take this stand today.

We are announcing our resignations from the HRC Business Council, effective immediately. Considering recent broken promises, the lack of credibility that HRC has with the transgender community at large, and HRC’s apparent lack of commitment to healing the breach it has caused, we find it impossible to maintain an effective working relationship with the organization.

Joe, it’s time to go. We need an inspirational leader who can bring us together. Not a leader willing to sacrifice community power for personal power. In the words of Martin Luther King, Jr., “Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. This is the interrelated structure of reality.“