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GLBT Groups over Non-Gay Issues Neo-Con, Pro-Republican Gay Pundit Critiqued by the NGLTF Lorri Jean: 'We're Fighting for Equality in Society as a Whole!'
"Reasonable people can disagree about whether national GLBT organizations should speak out on important issues of the day that are not exclusively related to GLBT civil rights, like the impending war against Iraq. "NGLTF has long believed that a 'gay voice' in such national dialogue is important; that our community need not be limited to a GLBT-only sphere. Just as African American leaders, feminist leaders, business leaders and religious leaders contribute to the national debate on issues that are not exclusively related to their own constituencies, there is no reason why our community shouldn't do the same. After all, we're fighting for equality in society as a whole, and not just to remain in a GLBT-only world. "What isn't reasonable is when Andrew Sullivan attempts to bolster his argument not by articulating a rationale for why GLBT organizations should be silent on issues like the war, but by writing a scattered diatribe against NGLTF that promotes blatant falsehoods about what we are and what we do. "It is interesting that Sullivan didn't write his piece about the Log Cabin Republicans, who came out in favor of the war long before NGLTF took a position, or about the numerous other national GLBT organizations that came out against the war before NGLTF did. Instead, he waited for NGLTF to take a position and attacked NGLTF alone. "To those who know Sullivan's right wing political perspective (e.g., opposing abortion rights and civil rights legislation) and long-standing bias against NGLTF, this is no surprise. To those who are just learning about Sullivan and NGLTF, here are the facts:
2. NGLTF's actual work speaks the indisputable truth that we are not, as Sullivan speciously claims, "irrelevant" to GLBT people. Nor are we anti-male, or anti-white, and I doubt the organization has ever taken any stand on capitalism! In 2002 alone we were instrumental in defeating all but one of the anti-GLBT ballot measures that were voted on across the country and in passing nine anti-discrimination laws, one hate crimes law and one safe schools law. Our think tank issued three groundbreaking reports--one of which exposed the blatantly anti-gay provisions of current welfare reform proposals. Had Sullivan bothered to read this report, he would have learned that current welfare reform proponents are seeking to punish the children of GLBT people by denying them access to limited supply benefits like Head Start programs and student loans. Sullivan may care only about equality for GLBT people of his privileged economic class. Fortunately, NGLTF cares about equality for all GLBT people--not only the rich and middle class, but the poor and working class too, the very people whose lives could be irreparably harmed by these discriminatory welfare reform proposals. 3. NGLTF's work in 2002 didn't stop there. Last year we trained thousands of activists in the skills they need to advance the cause of GLBT equality in their hometowns and states--fund raising, volunteer recruitment, voter identification and mobilization, coalition building and more. "And, oh yeah, amidst hundreds of public statements about GLBT equality issues, we issued one announcement about joining the Win Without War coalition. "Sullivan's inaccurate, misplaced and conservative harrumphing to the contrary, NGLTF has an unprecedented and indisputable record of accomplishment on behalf of GLBT freedom, justice and equality--a thirty-year record of doing work that is relevant to the lives of millions of GLBT people and our families and which continues today. "What "undermines the focus and the moral standing of the gay cause in the broader world" today is not NGLTF's participation in a mainstream coalition. It's the insistence of conservatives like Sullivan that national GLBT organizations should refuse to participate in the broader world unless it's in accordance with their right wing political perspectives. Everyone won't always agree with positions taken by NGLTF or any other national GLBT organization (although, in this case, the response to our joining the coalition has been overwhelmingly positive). "What is important is that, when we do take rhetorical positions, NGLTF sincerely strives to be intellectually honest and thoughtful, just as we strive to ensure that the actual programs that constitute the remaining 99% of our work are strategic and effective--an aspiration clearly met by the work described above. In that vein, I'll match the "moral standing" of NGLTF's work up to Sullivan's any day." |
Gay conservative pundit Andrew Sullivan attacked the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force for its anti-war stand 
NGLTF Executive Director Lorri L. Jean responds