Stonewall Democrats pull out of DNC gay fundraiser. DNC withholding financial support, and DOMA.

Links here and here.


Apparently the DNC has decided to withhold funding from the Stonewall Dems while asking them to help raise money for the party:



The eyebrow raiser for me is the first paragragh, not the second. Withholding financial support but asking to help raise money for the party? This stuff is just killing me at this point.

Have we really just been an ATM? I don't even know what to think at this point...

(Edited to highlight an interesting sentence in the first paragraph, as well as to correct punctuation, and to clarify the title.)

It started with Howard Dean and his evangelical CEO of the DNC - Leah Daughtrey.

When I see Dean on my tv talking about what Obama needs to do for the community I just snort. Dean is a hypocrite on this issue.

I always tried to remind myself that he signed for Civil Unions, but even that was forced upon him.

The events of this past week have been seriously disheartening. I started out last Friday posting in some of the threads regarding the DOMA motion by the DOJ but seeing some of the responses and justifications for it all drained me of any interest in debating it. It's like being kicked when you're down.

I suspect we aren't going to get our fierce advocate. I am beginning to lose hope that at (as of last month) age 34, I'll ever see a validation of my rights while I'm still young.

I've been interested in politics since I was in high school. It's one of the few things I'm truly passionate about, but that's falling away. I don't know how much longer I can bring myself to care anymore.

I'm getting very tired of waiting...

Try being in your mid-60s. My political activism for our community started in the 70s. My job and my partner's jobs were threatened. My partner (who had a high profile academic position) was the subject of a state investigation in the 80s. Thank God for tenure. Our house was vandalized. We even received physical threats from other members (only men) of our community because some thought our "outness" might somehow wash over on them and "people would know" and they would lose their jobs. Note: We lived in a university town in the lower midwest.

I knew from day one that Obama did not care about us - that we made him uncomfortable. What he has done is not a surprise. The moment he was nominated I added 8 years to the time we would be required to wander in the darkness.

Like you - I have been a political junkie all of my life. It started while in elementary school and the civil rights movement. That is why Obama's treatment is particularly galling to activists of a certain age and background.

Stay in the game - its truly your only option.

I guess I just fell for the whole hope and optimism thing. I saw McClurkin and didn't bat an eye. I figured he was just trying to lure in the religious crowd. I saw the Warren thing, got a little uncomfortable, but wrote it off as an attempt to woo over centrist Republicans.

Then the discharges continued. Then the website was edited. Then the silence and Gibb's non-answers. Then the DOMA filing. Now the memo. And about that memo--the one that's supposed to remind me that this administration cares so very much about me and people like me, while doing absolutely nothing to help me or anyone I know...

My god, he had a press pool in the room. He could have said anything in the world about all of this. He could have denounced the language of the DOMA filing, he could have strongly advocated for us. I watched the video. They couldn't even bring any energy with them into the room. It was like they all wanted to be somewhere else.

I'm sick to my stomach. I fell for it all starting with the primaries all the way up through the inauguration. I'm smarter than this. I should have known better, and I should have known that nothing would change. Another life lesson, I guess.

I want to comment on our age differences and the much longer time that you've waited for change as compared to me. I really, sincerely hope my complaining about waiting in no way belittled your time waiting. And I want you to know, that even though I haven't talked with you before, I am grateful for all the work you've done and am sadenned by all the time you've been forced to wait. If it weren't for your activism, I wouldn't be able to walk out my front door and live in the open as who I am. Thank you for everything you've done.

But, no thanks needed - all the work was actually for a selfish reason; I just wanted my own life to matter, to mean something.

I am a little surprised you are still using the HRC logo given that Joe Solmonese (supreme DC villager who mostly worries about cocktail parties, dinner parties and signings) was standing behind Obama for the signing of the memo yesterday. And apparently still plans to attend the gala.

I mentioned in a thread at the end of last week that I was going to change it. I just did--to a badly formatted picture of myself that I'll fix later. It reflects who I will donate money and time to now--the rights of myself and others. Not cocktail parties, (that I'm not invited to at least), and certainly not candidates that support anything less than real equality now.

HRC's press release yesterday after the memo signing was pathetic.

I have not seen Joe mentioned as pulling out. Why would he? He was just at the WH yesterday?

Doesn't really matter. I gave up on the HRC when I realized they were cool with inequality as long as they kept getting paid.

and we never, ever talk about how a big closeted dyke in party headquarters was advocating against us while Dean was running things.

I like Dean a lot, mind you, but he let the DNC sell us out.

They want our money, our support and our votes. Otherwise they want us to STFU and stay the hell out of their way. They especially don't want us doing anything unseemly, like holding them to their promises or (gasp) demanding the rights they all take for granted and we've been denied for centuries.

Us queers do have way more expendable income than the other folks. I actually wrote a paper on this issue in 1980 while in graduate school. I just came across it the other day. My conclusion was even better than I remembered regarding the LGBT community becoming a viable political force. The Professor liked my writing and research but disagreed with my conclusion. I would like to run in to him again.

We had a place at the table in the Democratic Party for decades until Dean's tenure. Most did not realize what was going on at the national level. Now we are not only not at the table, we are not even under the big tent.

That really speaks volumes.

Boy, have we been had. November is the last time I will ever vote for the "least worst candidate."

No kidding.

When the republicans take control again.

And of course, these assholes LIKE it when Republicans are in control. They get the policies they want implemented (corporate) and don't have to be bothered with being responsible for anything.

Alenating their base with republican policies and then blaming the base when they lose is the DLC/Third Way/blue dog way.

Q3JR4.

I have become a "little d" democrat. It's going to take more than just a letter behind a candidate's name to earn my vote.

is that they are making their voices heard very clearly and biting back where it hurts. They key to any action is top stop being an ATM machine.

It's the only thing that gets their attention

at gunpoint if need be

It's more of that "pragmatic" bullshit.

A schism between the working class and between affluent left-liberals is the last thing the DNC should be allowing to happen if it wishes to consolidate power.