May 18, 2006  |  By: LOU CHIBBARO J  | COMMENTS     

Nearly all of them are accustomed to announcing their upcoming events in carefully worded news releases.

But on May 24, the executive directors of as many as 36 national organizations for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Americans will meet behind closed doors in a Washington, D.C., office building for the 13th bi-annual session of the National Policy Roundtable.

There was no public announcement about the meeting, and most gay people have never even heard of the Roundtable or its twice-yearly meetings.

“It’s not that we don’t want the community to know about something,” said Matt Foreman, executive director of the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force, which started the Roundtable meetings in 1997.

“It gives people a chance to have a frank exchange of ideas and to express their differences, if they have them, to help all of us understand what’s occurring around any given issue” within the gay rights movement, Foreman said.

According to Foreman, Roundtable sessions provide gay-movement leaders a chance to mull over issues like same-sex marriage, involvement in presidential elections, and votes on gay-related legislation in Congress and state legislatures.

Foreman and the heads of other national GLBT groups involved in the Roundtable insist that coordinated policies are not established during the private meeting, nor do the leaders dictate the direction gay groups take on a day-to-day basis. They said the Roundtable doesn’t issue policy statements on behalf of its member groups.

“It allows people to tell about what they are doing,” said H. Alexander Robinson, executive director of the National Black Justice Coalition, which advocates for African-American gays. “It has not come up with any binding decision.”

It’s also a way to stay a step ahead of the political competition.

“It’s a wonderful opportunity for us to get together and talk about the issues we are working on,” said Mara Keisling, executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality. “It’s not that there are secrets. But every meeting we go to we talk about sensitive strategy. We don’t want our enemies to take steps to counter what we propose.”

The Task Force released a list of the heads of 36 national gay rights groups that comprise the membership roster of the Roundtable, but declined to provide the agenda set for the upcoming meeting.

“We have never discussed with the National Policy Roundtable making the meeting agendas public and cannot do so without the group’s approval,” said Task Force spokesperson Roberta Sklar.

“Generally speaking, each meeting discusses federal policy, state and local legislation and ballot initiatives, and any emerging issues or longer term plans,” Sklar said.

Sklar said about 75 percent of the Roundtable members attend any given meeting.

The upcoming meeting is expected to take place in a conference room in the Massachusetts Avenue, N.W., office building where the Task Force’s Washington, D.C., offices are located.

Who’s who in the movement

Among the other groups listed as members of the Roundtable are the Human Rights Campaign; the ACLU’s Lesbian & Gay Rights Project; the gay Catholic group Dignity USA; the National Center for Lesbian Rights; the World Congress of GLBT Jews; the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs; and Parents, Families, Friends of Lesbians & Gays.

The National Stonewall Democrats, which represents gay Democratic Party clubs throughout the country, and the gay Log Cabin Republicans are also members.

Other member groups cover issues ranging from gays in the military and youth advocacy to electing openly gay politicians to public office and gay-supportive personnel policies at major U.S. corporations. One of the smaller groups, Two Spirit Press Room, educates the news media on issues of concern to gay Native Americans.

Foreman said a number of national AIDS groups participated in the Roundtable meetings during the first few years of its existence. He said AIDS groups have since moved to “separate infrastructure and coalition and leadership” meetings of their own, and have not been regular members of the Roundtable in recent years.

He said an official with the national group AIDS Action was scheduled to attend the Roundtable meeting on May 24 to discuss issues surrounding the Ryan White CARE Act.

Foreman said a steering committee made up of member groups has set two requirements for membership in the Roundtable: an organization must be national in scope and must address policy issues.

Chamber not invited

One group that appears to fit that bill has not been invited to join the Roundtable and has not received a reply to its request for consideration, according to its leader. ...