HomoQuotable - Andrew Sullivan

"This blog [Sullivan's] has long described the useless organization called the Human Rights Campaign as a tool of the Hillary Clinton campaign. But the scale of the group's enmeshment with the Clintons is revealed by Michael Petrelis's research into the campaign contributions of all its major figures.

"The final tally? Drum roll: Hillary Clinton: $4,300, Chris Dodd: $3,000, John Edwards: $750, Bill Richardson: $500, Barack Obama: $0.

"In the end, they couldn't even fake it. When Obama got the nomination, the news of HRC's endorsement was made on the HRC website by a college intern! The trouble, of course, is that the fusion of gay rights with the Clinton machine - fatal to gay equality in the 1990s - has not exactly given the lobbying group much cachet with the next potential Democratic president.

"Meanwhile, Solmonese's record on Capitol Hill is, despite his breathless promises a while back, non-existent.

"They still haven't passed their hate crimes bill; the employment non-discrimination bill is still in limbo (they were insisting it should be the priority over marriage and the military two decades ago!), Don't Ask, Don't Tell still stands, and HRC didn't even ask the presidential candidates what their position was on the HIV immigration and tourism ban on their election questionnaire. One reason the US still has the same HIV immigration and tourism policies as Saudi Arabia and Yemen is because the US chief gay lobby group is more interested in selling tchotchkes than standing up for gay people or people with HIV.

"But fear not: they have persuaded Christian Siriano to design a "fierce, fabulous, flawless" t-shirt for the summer. This is what the suckers still give them money for." - Andrew Sullivan.

While I am not uncritical of the HRC, I wouldn't necessarily characterize the personal donations of a few thousand dollars by HRC executives as "enmeshment", nor would I saddle them as being entirely responsible for the failures of the movement.