Human Rights Campaign

I am a donor and member of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered lobby group Human Rights Campaign. They aren't the only group I give to, but they were one of the first. For those of you who don't know me IRL (as they say), I'm a broke as a joke 20-year-old college student with a part-time job who isn't getting any money from mom and dad, yet I still find a few extra dollars here and there to give to causes I believe in. I do this not to show off how awesomely philanthropic I am in my blog but because even though I hardly ever agree with the propaganda HRC sends me in the mails I still think the issue is fundamentally important and that it's important to have national groups looking out for these citizens.

This is how modern political activism works. In Washington there are these people called "lobbyists" and it's their job to live in Washington and talk to politicians and look out for the best interests of the people that pay them, usually a special interest group like gun owners or pharmacy companies. These people have a LOT of money. They have enough money to wear fabulous suits and take politicians out for lovely meals to share over table talk of their employer's cause and do all sorts of other things I don't want to think about because I still like to believe politics is more than a money game.

But I know sometimes it isn't. Sometimes legislation goes to the highest bidder, so lobby groups like to make sure they have enough money to at least be competitive with the highest bidder, if not win. It might not be fair, but that's how it works. Protests are certainly the free speech right of every American, but they are largely ineffective. A protest of 40 people outside city hall with "honk for gay marriage" signs is going to be broken up far before it has a chance to be anything more than an eyesore to 90% of the people that see it. A large-scale protest needs money for advertising, materials and legal fees for those who inevitably get arrested. For HRC, that money comes from the millions of people like me who donate. It also provides them with a public record of people who support gay rights- having millions of members is pretty important when you're trying to tell a company that if they don't start giving domestic partner benefits there are 30 million people with economic power who won't shop at their store anymore.

If gay marriage is going to happen in this country, gays and those who support them are going to need to start doing a little bit more about it than complaining about how unfair it is and moving to California (where it will likely be struck down by a marriage amendment in the fall, anyway). Complaining about how it's so unfair that guns have more rights in this country than gays isn't going to change the fact that gun owners out-fundraise gays by an incredible margin. Guns have more rights because gun owners have voted with their dollars time and time again that this is important to them, and so far gay rights activists haven't proven that they are a powerhouse who deserves to be heard in this economy.

Gay rights supporters can not beat groups like the NRA unless they join them. I'd suggest they stop complaining about how unfair this all is and join them. I think it's funny that most of the gays I talk to about gay rights spend an awful lot of time complaining but have not sent HRC their 30$ yet. NRA has millions of members who are proud to carry that membership card. Shouldn't your rights be more important than guns?