What am I not getting about gay rights groups?

I am supposedly a member of HRC and Equality Florida. I don't recall ever seeing a ballot for the leaders of these groups or the paid positions in these groups. Maybe I missed it.

Mind you, if these groups are run by their primary donors, I get that. Money talks, and I can accept or reject that the real leadership of the gay rights movement is a handful of heirs, stars, and business folks.

I'd just like to know how it works.

And even that may be in error. The HRC is run by a board of directors consisting of self-described LGBT leaders (there are actually several different boards with different areas, but the BoD runs the nuts and bolts of the thing). The Board elects its own membership after an assigned committee researches and nominates individuals for the position. The president of HRC is also decided by the Board. Who is on the board at any given time is listed on their website.

It should be noted, especially in regards to HRC, that many of the people sitting on the Board at any given time are generally high-powered business people, the politically connected, the corporately inclined, the back-scratchers and power-apologists.

Which explains, well, everything.

And your description is perfectly apt.

for the "privilege" of being on the board.

Endorsing Lieberman was not required but simpleton Solmonese went ahead and did it anyway, when withholding an endorsement would have been far wiser.

I just don't want political leadership on gay issues that focuses on gayness instead of equality.

and a couple of years ago tired of ENC as well. It's always the same cocktail-and-finger-sandwich crowd with their hands out for more cash, congratulating one another on having accomplished nothing still, hanging out with the cocktail-and-finger-sandwich crowd in Washington. Meh. We've never made an inch of progress, never gotten a thing unless we've done it for ourselves. HRC is a joke and while I don't know anything about EFL, ENC isn't much better off than the national cocktail-and-finger-sandwich crowd. Unless you have $250 a head, don't bother trying to go to one of their "functions". Excuse TF out of me, but aren't I one of the ones whose rights they're supposed to be working for, or are they there (as most of us suspect) just for the cocktails, finger-sandwiches, and to see who's cute enough to boink tonight?

I've been walking the streets, papering politicians, shaking hands, protesting, and getting in trouble since I was 21. I turned 52 in June. I've not seen a case yet where the national and state cocktail crowds have done anything for us that we didn't actually do for ourselves.

They consume large amounts of money and I don't think that they have much to show for it. They do provide a safe non-threatening interface with the "gay community" for straights, especially the well-heeled corporate variety, who see supporting our equality as kind of a cool hobby or a PR necessity rather than a true civil rights issue and who would really rather not have the reality of our second class status rubbed in their faces.