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22 Feb 2007 08:52 am

The Antidote to HRC

There is hope for the gay rights movement - just don't expect it from the failed Hillary cronies at the Human Rights Campaign. Here's a fascinating piece by Josh Green in the new Atlantic on the efforts of mega-wealthy Tim Gill, founder of Quark, to jump-start gay political organizing. Believe it or not, Gill's people are actually organizing in several states; they have outreach to ... Republicans! And they are getting results. Money quote:

In 2000, [Gill] gave $300,000 in political donations, which grew to $800,000 in 2002, $5 million in 2004, and a staggering $15 million last year, almost all of it to state and local campaigns... On Election Day, fifty of the seventy targeted candidates were defeated, Danny Carroll among them; and out of the thirteen states where Gill and his allies invested, four — Iowa, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Washington — saw control of at least one legislative chamber switch to the Democratic Party.

But Gill is too smart to believe that gay equality will be achieved through the Democratic party alone. He comes from a Republican family, has made some key Republican hires, and hopes one day to give equally to both parties. It's an obvious strategy - focused, bipartisan, local. Funny how the Human Rights Campaign has sucked millions out of gay wallets and never achieved anything like this success. Still, they have a big new building, more fundraisers than lobbyists, and lots of jobs lined up for the Hillary administration. By their own objectives, they're doing fine. But their record in national legislation? Close to absolutely nothing.

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