Ready to March Again?

The National Equality March got us results, was organized quickly and cheaply, and got the grass roots passed the Human Rights Campaign, which needs a new strategy if it doesn’t want to be completely irrelevant. We need to be prepared to march again and should begin planning it. I lay out the case -- and a lot about the rift between the Human Rights Campaign and the grass roots and what needs to be done -- in my newest column in the Advocate:

The National Equality March, which Time magazine estimated brought roughly 200,000 people to the National Mall earlier this month, was such a huge success even before it happened that we must plan another one — even if it never happens. That’s because we’ve learned a few things in this first year of Barack Obama’s presidency.

First off, this administration responds to pressure, and unlike the previous Democratic administration, these White House officials cannot contain our discontent by going to groups like the Human Rights Campaign or politicians like Barney Frank (more on that and the reasons why farther down).

They want to keep LGBTs at arm’s length, but we continue to make that difficult, and we force them to move — ever so reticently — each time we have applied pressure.

Read the full column and let me know your thoughts.

My Appearance on Sunday "Today" Show

I spent the morning at NBC in Washington the day before the National Equality March, doing two live MSNBC "hits," as they call them, two hours apart (hope to have those clips soon), interviewed by Peter Alexander. During that two hour lull I did a taped interview for an NBC News report on the march and on President Obama's speech. That ran on "Weekend Today," first story on Sunday morning on NBC, clip below.

Barney Frank: March is "Useless," Lobby Politicians at Home

Congressman Barney Frank came on the show yesterday (audio of full interview is below). We discussed several issues, from hate crimes, to ENDA to DOMA repeal, but it was his comments on the National Equality March that got the phones going, mostly with people disagreeing but with some agreeing. He believes the march doesn't do anything, that President Obama "doesn't need any pressure" and says people should stay home and lobby their politicians rather than go to DC.


On the hate crimes bill:

Barney described the attempt the other night by Republican Rep. Louie Gohmert of Texas and others to remove the gay and trans inclusive hate crimes bill (the Matthew Shepard Act) from the defense authorization bill, to which it is attached as an amendment. Says that it will remain attached to the defense authorization bill and that Democrats beat back the attempt to take it off. There will be a vote on the authorization bill next week, he says, and Barney Frank believes it will be on President Obama's desk to sign shortly after that.

On the Employment Non-Discrimination Act:

There will be a vote in the House later this year on the trans-inclusive ENDA, and he believes it will pass. He says it will be in the Senate for a vote early next year, but that it will be difficult to get the 60 votes there needed to avert a filibuster. We will have our work cut out for us.

On the Defense of Marriage Act repeal:

Barney says that he isn't co-sponsoring Rep. Jerry Nadler's bill that would repeal DOMA -- called the the Respect for Marriage Act -- because he believes the bill, as it is written, is not worth the backlash it will cause since it won't have a chance anyway. Clarifying some of the discussions prior, he said he would endorse the bill -- and has endorsed DOMA repeal in the past -- if it did not have the provision that would give federal recognition to marriages of gays and lesbians in states where marriage is not legal for gays and lesbians (i.e., under the bill, a couple from Ohio could go to Vermont and get married, and go back home and have federal, if not state, recognition of their marriage). He says that is precisely the kind of thing that will stimulate opposition and whip up the opponents (he's said in the recent past they will charge that we're "importing" marriage). He believes that for a a bill that has zero chance of passage -- and he's not opposed to endorsing such bills, and has in the past, and understands why it's important to back bills that are not likely to pass -- it's not worth it to pick fights that will incite opposition and which we will lose.

On the National Equality March:

Barney Frank believes the march this weekend and rally on the mall are "useless" and don't put pressure on the White House. "I literally don't understand how this will do anything," he said. "People are kidding themselves. I don't want people patting themselves on the back for doing something that is useless." Besides, he says, "Barack Obama does not need pressure." He says we should model ourselves as lobbyists on "the National Rifle Association." He says people should not come to Washington and should stay home and lobby their members of Congress. "Nobody in Congress even knows they're there, he says, and he is not attending the March: He is going to California to raise money for himself and other Democrats.

Why I Am Marching on Washington

I have talked about the idea of a march on Washington since the day after the election, as I explain in this Advocate column. But I didn't initially support this march, the National Equality March to take place October 10-11. That all changed, particularly after the DOMA brief, but also after listening to Cleve Jones when he came on the show for a full hour in which he took calls from across the country. The clincher though was the cocktail party commemorating Stonewall 40, put together to do damage control, as I note in the column:

Last June, amid growing criticism of President Obama’s foot-dragging on LGBT rights and after the despicably homophobic Defense of Marriage Act brief, the White House hosted a cocktail party to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Stonewall. It was nice for us to see a president commemorating the Stonewall riots for the first time. But it was an even better event for Obama himself, a great photo op, in the midst of the outcry, showing gay people -- dubbed by the media as LGBT “leaders” -- applauding him.

Leaders? The crowd included an overwhelming number of Democratic Party hacks and donors, Beltway social climbers, careerists (specifically, former gay group heads now looking for jobs), PR flacks, lobbyists, sycophants, and assorted sellouts. The fabulously superficial -- including a fashion editor who sits front and center at every New York fashion show -- were there too. And everyone was enthralled by the event, clapping uproariously for the president. Many of those present had raised lots of money for Obama and for the Democratic Party—or gave generously themselves -- and probably worked for 20 years to see the day when they could have cocktails and hors d’oeuvres in the White House, using the good china no less!

That really had me realizing we all needed to go, but as I said, I'd been thinking about a march early on:

It’s not that I was ever really opposed to the idea of a march. To the contrary, as listeners to my Sirius/XM radio show know, I’ve been talking about marching on Washington ever since the morning after Election Day. For me, it’s been a matter of historical precedent: The black civil rights movement wisely took advantage of a window of opportunity in 1963, when Democrats controlled both the White House and Congress. Republicans could no longer be blamed for the lack of civil rights protections, and marchers knew that media attention would put pressure on the Democrats and shame them into action.

We have that same window of opportunity today.

But that’s not to say I was immediately sold on this march.

Read the whole column to see my reasoning, and let me know your thoughts. Hope you'll be there!