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By: JOE CREA COMMENTS
 
Hilary Rosen, one of two people named to run the Human Rights Campaign on an
interim basis until a replacement for former executive director Cheryl Jacques
is hired, spoke to the Blade this week about the future of the organization.
Rosen is the former director of the Recording Industry Association of America
and the partner of former HRC Executive Director Elizabeth Birch.
Michael Berman, who is a heterosexual longtime Democratic political consultant,
will serve as HRC's temporary co-chair with Rosen.
: What can you and Mike Berman
accomplish in this interim period in what many consider a hostile environment
of a Republican-controlled White House and Congress?
: There's a very deep bench here at
this organization, and I assume that people know that. There's already a lot
of work going on. HRC's staff has been up on the Hill in the last few weeks
talking with Republicans and Democrats about things to go forward with. Same
within the states, talking to state legislators and governors and the state
groups about opportunities there. I'm pretty confident and excited that people
are going to see some cool things out of this place.
: What lessons has HRC learned from the 2004
election?
: Winning is better. Two things stuck out
for me. One is that, the Democratic Party in particular, spent hundreds of millions
of dollars on messaging and ads and things like that where we had lots of allies
and common ground but none of that institutional money or allied money was spent
on any messaging or communication on our issues.
And I think we cannot go into another election cycle where there is not more
attention paid to both our supportive Republicans and supportive Democrats —
even people who may not support our whole agenda, but just people who want to
make sure that when they do support us, they are reinforced positively for it.
That they participate with us in the strategy and discussion, and I think in
many respects the party got off the hook by saying, "If we don't talk about
gay issues, we won't have to think about it."
: Did some gay leaders … handle the
Democrats with kid gloves because this was a year where many said, "anybody
but Bush," and they were willing to cut the Democrats some slack?
: Yes.
: Some critics are saying HRC personalized
its opposition to President Bush's re-election through its campaign slogan,
"You're fired." Do you think this effort backfired since the same
amount of gays voted for Bush in 2004 as did in 2000?
: I don't think it backfired at all. And first
of all, that's a silly notion. President Bush personalized the issue when he
created a constitutional amendment to write us out of the Constitution.
I don't think anyone should apologize for hitting back on him hard. He deserved
it.
: What kind of person do you think would be
best suited to become the next HRC president and executive director?
: [Laugher] I think someone with a passion
and energy and some sizzle. I've said several times, there's a lot of steak
in this movement and not enough sizzle.
: Should the board give extra consideration
to hiring a Republican as the next executive director?
: I have a long view of these kinds of jobs,
and I think you've got to hire the best person for the job. That best person
will get along with Democrats and Republicans and be tough on them both when
warranted.
: Cheryl Jacques' resignation came less than
a year after the HRC board hired her. Why did she leave so soon, and does the
board now feel it made a mistake in hiring her?
: You know, no one is looking back. I think
Cheryl came in at a tough time and did a good job under tough circumstances,
and I think mostly people are just ready to move on.
: Sources familiar with HRC have said the
board became concerned about Jacques' job performance after it learned that
a significant number of high-level staff people had, or were planning to, resign
because of disagreements with her. How many staff members resigned over disagreements
with Jacques?
: ...
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