Cute idea. Their argument was that lots of gay and trans youth, and lots of people with AIDS, are homeless, thus HRC should do more to push health care for all, affordable housing, living wage jobs, maintenance of benefits for seniors a priority.
Maybe. I don't want HRC just pushing generically for affordable health care, affordable housing, and jobs. We already have non-gay (well, non-either-sexual-orientation) groups doing that. Now, if they have some specific set asides for gay, trans and HIV+ people in those bills, that's another story, push ahead. Should HRC have tried to carve out parts of health care reform and the stimulus bill to help our community? Yeah. Should have they have pushed Dems to put anti-bullying legislation in the new education legislation being discussed? Yep. And had they done that, I'd be all for HRC whipping the bill (i.e., lobbying its passage), because they were, in part, LGBT bills.
But I don't believe gay or any other special interest group should be advocating for everything under the kitchen sink (okay, that's a mixed metaphor, but I like it) just because we're all liberals and we think all liberal issues are good. Under that scenario, HRC should be lobbying for more money for Head Start, school lunches, childhood immunizations, tax cuts for the middle class, a mortgage reform, and every other issue that affects people who breathe - namely, every issue on the planet (gay people need oxygen too, so let's sign HRC on to global warming and mountain-top mining campaigns too).
Politically advocacy groups need to watch their mission, and avoid mission creep, or they end up being about everything, and ultimately nothing.
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