No More Money to Anti-Progressive Democrats

[Brian]

I think we should support this, and you should convince everyone you know to sign on. The Democrats are playing to the Right and sucking up to the insurance industry because they think they can get away with it and no one is standing up to them. I have always believed that we need to go even further, and, as I've said before, divest ALL funds from ALL Democratic candidates--even the progressive ones. But I understand I'll get a lot of pushback on that one. This is a good first step.

The boycott is cosponsored by Daily Kos, Jane Hamsher of FireDogLake, Dan Savage, Michelangelo Signorile, David Mixner, Andy Towle and Michael Goff of Towle Road, Paul Sousa (Founder of Equal Rep in Boston), Pam Spaulding, Robin Tyler (ED of the Equality Campaign, Inc.), Bil Browning for the Bilerico Project, and soon others. It's really more of a "pause," than a boycott. Boycotts sounds so final, and angry. Whereas this campaign is temporary, and is only meant to help some friends - President Obama and the Democratic party - who have lost their way. We are hopeful that via this campaign, our friends will keep their promises.

So please sign the Petition and take a Pledge to no longer donate to the DNC, Organizing for America, or the Obama campaign until the President and the Democratic party keep their promises to the gay community, our families, and our friends.

See PHB for more details.

Unfortunately, so far, we have been unable to coordinate effective actions against the Democrats. An attempt to boycott a fundraiser in June ended up being a bust because too many gay and lesbian fat cats showed up anyway. Sure we got some big names to drop out, but it didn't really hurt the DNC much. This "boycott" is being organized through bloggers. While I do not think we should underestimate the "netroots" if this is going to be successful, it is going to need some legs outside of cyberspace as well.

[Mark Daniel Snyder]

Given how much support HRC has given to conservative dems I assume we'd have to stop giving them money as well by extension ;)

[Brian]

No more money to HRC? That was a given!

[Bill Perdue]

I think this is a terrific idea, not so much becasue it'll put pressure on the Democrats but because it'll help put and end to the protection racket they run on us.

They they make us an offer they think we can't refuse. "Give money and time or else we'll feed you to the Repbulicans and they'll retain Bill Clintons DADT and DOMA with vile accustions that you're child molesters and they'll torpedo your efforts to same SSM rights by bellowing 'gawds' in the mix, and they'll gut ENDA until it's meaningless... Oops."

The recent history of the DNC, the Obama campaign and the Congressional Democrats explains their hostility towards us.

The leadership of the DNC are homophobes and bigots.

Obama chose Tim Kaine of Virginia to nominally run the DNC. Kaine, like Bill Cinton, is a Dixiecrat. Kaine’s ‘faith based’ program opposes reproductive choice and stem cell research but he's all for funding 'abstinence' training. He was an early and hardnosed supporter of the genocide in Iraq and the invasion and occupation of Afghanistan. He ran a gay-baiting campaign to become governor and has the same bigoted attitude towards same sex marriage as Obama, McCain and Hillary Clinton.
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The real power in the DNC is Leah Daughtry who runs its day to day operations. Like Obama she’s a jebuz jumping theocrat who caters to the christer right. She’s an ordained pentecostal bigot who opposes same sex marriage. Daughtry used DNC funds to pay for anti-GLBT and anti-choice campaigns by other Jebuzocrats. Daughtry was sued, successfully, by the DNCs own director or LGBT outreach for antigay discriminatory hiring and firing practice.

Obama liked Daughtry so much she was promoted to running the Democrat national convention in Denver. Obama’s campaign catered to the christian right from beginning to end, from Donnie McClurkin to Rick Warren and ‘gawd’s in the mix”. Obama chose another ordained pentecostal bigot, Joshua Dubois to run his ‘faith’, read bigot, outreach and made significant inroads into the Republicans bigot outreach.

With Democrat ‘friends’ like Obama, Daughtry, Kaine and Dubois who needs Republican enemies like Bush and Rove. Certainly not the LGBT communities.

[Richard]

Thanks Brian

But just a pause and then back to business as usual? Gee when will we ever stop loving the masters and joining with the enemy? I suppose that this is a start until more of our people can finally break the chains.

I know full well that the 3 of you know that it isn't all just about us. Its a big wide world they are trampling down and anyone who looks at it from memeism should be overdone by now.

I gave up giving any $ to demonrats and HRC years ago. Now if my socialist, anarchist, and other hot queer leftists friends want money I will send what I can that is a given.

Bill,Brian and Mark how about giving us some ideas beyond returning to lap at the demonrats as it is just a lousy circle jerk. Most glbt people have been putting their faith and trust into all the wrong saviors over and over again and again.

As always

[Brian]

"Back to business as usual"? I certainly hope not. But that's the risk you take when you take a step in a particular direction. You can't always predict what the next one will be.

Unfortunately at this point most people are not radical, as I think you implied when you said "more of our people can finally break the chains." They want a narrow set of rights and the Democrats aren't delivering. That's all a lot of people know. It's a myopic view, I know but one that has a lot of openings for discussion. I have noticed that queer people are taking an overtly defiant stand against the Obama Administration. That's a good thing, too and a break from the past. We should always celebrate widespread suspicion and anger at the Democrats (from the left). In fact, a lot of movements are not doing that (e.g anti-war, labor).

I would like very much to discuss how we can infuse more radical ideas in the various queer movements, but it seems like a lot of radicals are more interested in denouncing less-radical political formations than thinking about that. They've written off the mobilization and don't want to be bothered with it. That's a shame, because there are a lot of pissed off queers that would probably be open to many of our ideas.

[Bill Perdue]

Richard, Brian

A broad radicalization is being fueled by the deepening economic crisis. The real unemployment level, at from 17%-22%, is well within depression levels. Higher productivity levels are due entirely to on the job speedups, automation and farming our union work to sweatshops, all measure endorsed or imposed by Obama. The war crises are as insoluble as ever and neither war is winnable.

The right centrist Republicans are moving right and the right centrist Democrats are right behind them. Both seem intent on retaining Clinton's DADT and DOMA. ENDA at it's best is not much better than the limp anti-discrimination laws of the 1970's and the Hate Crimes bill is of very limited value. We may get better reporting about hate crimes but they'll continue unabated.

The Democrats have to be seen not as wishy washy occasional allies but as enemies.

So who are our friends and how do we turn them into allies?

Start with labor. Unions are the heavy infantry of social change. Everyone in a union should contact the AFL-CIO LGBT group Pride at Work, whose principal founder was Howard Wallace, leader of the Coors Boycott and union organizer. Organize a chapter, even if it's small to begin with. There are hundreds of thousands of LGBT union members.
http://www.prideatwork.org/
http://www.kclabor.org/

Organize for independent political aciton. Join, support or organize a local group of the union led and funded Labor Party. African American GLBT union members can support the leadership of CBTU when it raises the question o independent Black political parties. http://www.cbtu.org/

Folks in unions can work with US Labor Against the War and others with antiwar groups on two key projects. First is to do what we can to strengthen antiwar sentiment in the armed forces by repeating the efforts of groups like GI-Civilaian Alliance for Peace in the sixties. And the second is to demand that Obama and Clinton throw open the gates of Us military and diplomatic stations to LGBT folks From Iraq, Iran and elsewhere and give them open ended asylum, protection and social services. http://depts.washington.edu/antiwar/gi_timeline.shtml
http://uslaboragainstwar.org/article.php?id=13157

There are also major opportunities for Latina and Latino GLBT folks to reach out to their communities and to immigrant and imported workers and for feminists, especially on the question of the Democrats betrayal of reproductive rights by voting for the Stupak Amendment.