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Mubarak Dahir is editor of the Express
Gay News, a publication affiliated with this paper, and can be reached at mdahir@expressgaynews.com
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HOME > VIEWPOINT > EDITORIAL
By: MUBARAK DAHI COMMENTS
THERE IS A T-SHIRT hanging in my closet that dates back to the 2000 march on Washington
for gay and lesbian rights.
My then-lover and I bought the matching T-shirts because of the funny, double-entendre
statements on them.
“I can’t even walk straight,” mine says. His read, “I
can’t even think straight.”
Mostly, we bought them both for fun, because they were clever. But naturally
we were aware of the political suggestion behind them. It was, after all, a
political march on the nation’s capital.
We bought the souvenir T-shirts at the Human Rights Campaign store, just off
DuPont Circle.
Neither of us intended our nonchalant purchases to be construed as any kind
of political endorsement of HRC, or membership in the organization.
But after discovering the rather crafty way that the group that bills itself
as the nation’s largest gay and lesbian rights organization counts its
membership, I can’t help but wonder if I am an unwitting member of an
organization I never intended to join.
And I can’t help but wonder just how many other gay men and lesbians
around the country are, too.
Even worse than feeling deceived about whether I am counted as a member of
HRC against my will, I can’t help but think: If HRC fudges its membership
numbers simply to get political clout, how else are they misrepresenting the
organization that claims to be the most powerful group in the country fighting
for gay and lesbian rights?
And if they would misrepresent even this most basic, elementary issue, why
should I trust them on other, more important things? Indeed, how can I trust
them?
HRC CLAIMS TO HAVE a membership of 650,000 people.
That number easily makes it the largest national gay and lesbian rights group
in the country.
In fact, that number dwarfs the reported membership of other name-brand gay
rights groups.
The National Gay & Lesbian Task Force, also located in Washington D.C.,
reports a membership of approximately 20,000.
Parents & Friends of Lesbians & Gays, better known as PFLAG, weighs
in at just about 44,500 members.
The National Center for Lesbian Rights registers it has about 9,000 members.
All of this makes HRC’s number look pretty impressive. Until you know
how the group counts its “members.”
As detailed in a recent Washington Blade news article, HRC’s bylaws define
members as anyone who has contributed $1 or more, whether as a gift or payment
for goods and services delivered by HRC.”
The group’s spokesperson, Steven Fisher, told the Blade that once someone
gives or pays $1 or more to HRC and provides a name and address, they’re
counted as a member for life.
He defended this unusual way of counting members by saying, “The GLBT
movement is unique. When we come out of the closet, we commit for life.”
Apparently, we commit in death, too.
HRC does not proactively clean out its membership rolls. The agency pays for
a service that tracks when an address is no longer valid, but otherwise those
who know the member must inform HRC for a name to be removed from the rolls.
GIVEN THIS ODD accounting system, it’s no wonder that HRC’s membership
rolls have skyrocketed since 1990.
That year, the group listed a membership of 20,000 people. Just five years
later, reported membership had increased five-fold, to 100,000.
In the past decade, HRC’s official membership numbers increased 650 percent,
to today’s whopping 650,000.
It’s easy to understand why HRC, or any political rights organization,
would want to have the highest possible membership it could record.
There is not only safety in numbers, but power in them, too. When you are lobbying
Congress, the more people you can claim to represent, the more likely members
of Congress will be to pay attention, and ultimately vote in your favor.
But it’s disgraceful that HRC would engage in such a misleading representation
of who they are and how many gay and lesbian Americans support it.
It appears that HRC does know how many real members it has, but they’re
not telling.
Prospective members are told on HRC’s Web site and in membership materials
that dues are $35 and must be paid annually.
“Active members” of HRC are those who pay dues annually. Someone
who buys a product at an HRC store would not be counted as an “active
member.”
HRC spokesperson Fisher acknowledged to the Blade that the organization’s
number of “active members” is substantially ...
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