Jun 17, 2005  |  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 ...