Racism in the Gay Rights Movement Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit BlacklightOnLine April 20, 2000 The Millennium Mess On Washington: Elizabeth Birch, HRC and the Arrogance of White Power by Sidney Brinkley The nation's largest gay and lesbian political organization and the nation's largest gay faith-based movement announced plans today to sponsor a march on Washington in the spring of the year 2000. The event will be produced by veteran march organizer Robin Tyler who brought the organizations together to formulate planning. The Human Rights Campaign and the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches are exploring dates for the "Millennium March on Washington for Equal Rights" the heads of both organizations said today. HRC press release-February 1998 That was the beginning. The "heads" referred to are Elizabeth Birch, executive director of HRC and Rev. Troy Perry, founder of UFMCC. Robin Tyler has long since departed, among the first to go through revolving door of the march hierarchy. There were many things wrong about the way this march came about but from a Black perspective one aspect in particular stood out: it was a brazen display of White power and entitlement. Not only had they decided we would march, but to what tune-it came with a pre-packaged theme: Faith and Family. A contrived, obvious suck-up to White middle-America. In the press release Rev. Perry says his church was founded "with a commitment to social and spiritual justice." When he sat at that table to plan this march and saw nothing but White faces, one wonders where was his sense of social justice then? In the resulting uproar the theme was jettisoned-but the overall message remained the same, "Please accept us. We're just like you". The overall objective remained the same also, to make White Gays equal with White heterosexuals. "Equality" for everyone else comes only as a by-product of that goal. Early on, after a firestorm of protest swept across the country, the march was put on "pause" while Birch and others heard objections during a "Roundtable" meeting. Mandy Carter, along with Barbara Smith and Nadine Smith, has been a vocal critic of the march and attended the meeting. Afterwards she told the Washington Blade, "I burst into tears. I was so frustrated. I just couldn't believe that the richest [Gay] organization...and the biggest [Gay religious] network were basically saying 'Because we're the richest and the biggest, we can basically do what we want.'" In the same article Birch said of the meeting, if she had heard any "cogent or persuasive arguments to not do [the march], we would have reconsidered. We didn't hear any." The arrogance! She hadn't been satisfied so-tough. Protests were dismissed and Queen Elizabeth took her finger off the pause button. From then on the message was: The march goes forward. Get on board or get out of the way. Quite a few people did not get on board and did not get out of the way. There's been explosive confrontations and more protests. The march committee, taken aback by the sustained fury, made a number of concessions like holding a few "town meetings" around the country. A call for "Racial Justice" was added to the march platform. Some were mollified by these actions. Many others were not for various reasons. From a Black perspective there is no "fix" because the underlying problem hasn't been addressed: White Supremacy. Now, we are just days away from this morally and ethically bankrupt event. Concerned about the turnout, we are beginning to hear the nervy and self-serving argument from those planning to participate, that we who boycott the march are being "selfish" and have no "integrity" [!] They implore us to attend and show a "unified face" to the country. In other words, sacrifice our issues so they can look good for the newspapers and the evening news. Forget it! What's confounding is, so many have bought into the lie generated by HRC that this march is some sort of significant political event. It's not. Despite the hype and propaganda MMOW is only tangentially about equal rights-even for White Gays. It's about the money and HRC needs to put the word "Fund" back in its name. "...there are millions of dollars available in the community not accessed by any organization. The last march should be instructive. Gay Americans spent more than $170 million to attend that march. With proper planning, some of this revenue can be captured by the march entity." Elizabeth Birch and Troy Perry [March 1998] That came at the end of an editorial the duo scripted to convince skeptics why there should be a march. When all else fails there's the scent of money. And who is the march entity? If there's any money to be made out of this production, no one will make more than HRC. The march "entity" is being very secretive about financial dealings. That will be the Second Act, when they get to fighting over the money. Watch how quickly the alliances break apart. We shall see how much of a "unified face" is shown then. MMOW is about HRC amassing more money, more influence in Washington and more control over the Gay community. HRC is not the Gay movement-but it wants to be. In a now infamous quote from a 1998 interview in "OUT" magazine, Birch gave us a peek at her own bit of megalomania when, in defending the decisions she made, said: "Imagine what you would have done if three years ago you woke up and found that someone had handed you the [Gay] movement." [!] Besides the fact that all Birch was being "handed" was a job when she was hired in January 1995-she was previously director of litigation for Apple Computer-whomever was doing the "handing" probably felt HRC was "the movement" also There's no denying Birch has been a success for the organization. Got President Clinton to attend HRC's first national dinner. Got the support of Black leaders such as Jesse Jackson, Coretta Scott King and Congressman John Lewis. Got Ellen DeGeneres to be mascot. Membership is at an all-time high and HRC is taking money to the bank in wheel-barrows. All this by the end of 1997 which paved the way for the organization's strange behavior the following year. HRC was believing its own publicity. In October of 1998 the organization announced that its board of directors, in a lopsided vote of fifteen to seven, had endorsed Republican U.S. Sen. Alfonse D'Amato of New York over Democratic challenger Charles Schumer. "This endorsement has told all Republican candidates and elected officials that if they oppose the bigotry, extremism and ignorance of their leadership, they can look to the Human Right Campaign for support," wrote Winnie Stachelberg, HRC's political director, in an Op/Ed piece. Birch said of D'Amato, "his record is among the best" on Gay issues. That D'Amato's voting record was among the worse when it came to issues impacting Blacks, other people of color and people who believed in issues such as pro-choice didn't matter. He was good on Gay issues. If Birch's bout of "march madness" was a smack in the face to Black Gays, the D'Amato endorsement was a stab in the back to all African Americans after all the support the organization has received over the years from us. HRC is symptomatic of everything that was ever wrong with the Gay movement: arrogant, duplicitous, self-centered and self-serving. So, what else is new? More important, what can be done about it? "Not Much" appears to be Birch's attitude. After all, HRC has a membership said to number three-hundred thousand and annual revenue of fifteen-million dollars.Black Gays appear all over the place on how to proceed. There are a minority that support HRC. A larger portion couldn't less about the machinations of HRC, preferring an "I told you so" position and going on with their program. And then there's a portion of the community that, such as myself, choose to confront it. HRC is no ally to African Americans and do not deserve our support. Gay equality can be supported without supporting Elizabeth Birch and HRC. That message needs to be get out. We have thirty-eight members of the Congressional Black Caucus and Birch needs the support of each and every one of them. In fact, without the continued good-will of African Americans-Gay, straight and otherwise, elected official and rank-and-file-HRC would find it extremely difficult to maneuver. There are national, state and local GLBT organizations and activists-Black, Brown and White-that know what the issues are. They've been at it far longer than Birch and know how to deliver. If you are angered by the events of the past two years HRC can be confronted with a little "armchair" activism. You can write any or all members of the Congressional Black Caucus and express your dissatisfaction with HRC. You can post this article on any listserv you belong to. You can send it out on your personal email list. Anyone with a newsletter or other publication has my permission to publish it. The point is to plant the seeds. HRC deserves zero credibility among African Americans. Whatever happens over MMOW weekend, be it an unqualified success or a total failure, or something in-between, this does not end on April 30th. When Birch and her cronies sit down to tally up, whatever figure they come down to will only be a sub-total. The true cost of MMOW may not be known for some time. http://www.blacklightonline.com/millmess.html ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytsxp-04.21.00-11:43:17-7358