There's some chatter going on about the DNC/OFA's sudden interest in LGBT issues. The day after the House vote, I got an e-mail from OFA:
Adam --
This is big news: Yesterday, the full House of Representatives and the Armed Services Committee in the Senate voted to repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell."
In his State of the Union address, President Obama pledged to end the law that denies gays and lesbians the right to serve their country. Now, we are closer than ever to making good on that promise.
The full Senate will soon start its debate on repeal. But some Republicans are digging in their heels. Senator John McCain said, "I'll do everything in my power" to block a vote. And Mississippi Senator Roger Wicker called the repeal bill "a major mistake" -- announcing that the GOP plans to filibuster.
We can defeat those who'd stand in the way of history. But we must show our senators that Americans -- in every state -- overwhelmingly support repeal.
Stand with the President and join the pledge to end "Don't Ask, Don't Tell."
Stand with the President: Repeal 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell.' Add your name.
From the Recovery Act to health reform to Wall Street reform, one by one President Obama is delivering on his campaign promises. And, now -- if we can overcome Republican obstruction -- we have a chance to deliver on another: bringing "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" to an end.
As the President has said, this is about more than just living up to his word. We must end this law because "it's the right thing to do."
Any policy that punishes brave men and women who step forward to serve their country simply for being who they are isn't just misguided -- it's discrimination.
That's why President Obama didn't just campaign on ending "Don't Ask, Don't Tell"; he made it a priority. And it's why it's now a matter of how and when -- not if -- we will repeal this law.
But as the Republicans prepare to block a vote on this historic legislation, we must do all we can to help deliver on the President's promise.
Add your name to the pledge today -- and then please pass it on:
Then, yesterday, one marking Pride month (June) and trumpeting the Administration's accomplishments on LGBT issues:
Friend --
I wanted to make sure you saw this note from Governor Kaine. This Pride Month, the Democratic Party wants to hear from every American committed to the struggle for LGBT equality.
We've made great strides since President Obama took office -- and we're so close to one more big accomplishment in repealing "Don't Ask, Don't Tell."
But our work is far from done -- and I'm looking forward to fighting alongside you in the months ahead.
Today marks the beginning of Pride Month -- a time not just to remember the brave Americans who stood up to hate and discrimination at the Stonewall Inn 41 years ago, but a time to stand with those who are committed to that same fight today.
LGBT Americans have helped build the Democratic Party into what it is today. And, as a leader of the party, I'm proud of our role in the struggle for equality.
That's why it's important to me -- and to the future of this party -- that we hear from you.
Take a moment to share your thoughts with us this Pride Month.
At times the pace of progress has not been as fast as some -- myself included -- would like. And, while equality cannot be achieved overnight, the President and our Democratic leaders in Congress have made important strides over the past 16 months to address barriers that LGBT Americans face.
-- Last year, we passed the Matthew Shepherd & James Byrd, Jr., Federal Hate Crimes Act -- which expanded the definition of hate crimes to include sexual orientation and gender identity and became the first federal law to provide protections for transgender Americans.
-- In April, the President issued a directive, making critical changes to federal regulations and allowing gay and lesbian Americans to make medical decisions on behalf of their partners.
-- And now we are on the verge of living up to President Obama's pledge to repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." The House just passed historic legislation to end this discriminatory policy, and the full Senate is getting ready to vote in the coming months.
But we are not satisfied. And we are not finished.
We must remain committed to making greater strides toward the fundamental American principle of equality.
Then today, I got another e-mail, which was probably just a "bump" e-mail on the DADT one because I didn't open the first (it was forwarded from a friend):
Adam --
I wanted to make sure you saw the message from Mitch below. The House's vote on "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" is a huge moment -- for our movement and our country.
But this fight is just getting started.
The Senate will take up this issue soon, and there are Republicans pledging to block a vote from even taking place.
Polls show that 78 percent of the country agrees that it's time to end "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," but opponents of reform aren't getting the message. Can you sign on to help us show that Americans overwhelmingly support repeal?
Yohannes Abraham
Political Director
Organizing for America
Original Message
I have mixed feelings. On the one hand, I'm fairly cynical about it all. The reason is partly because of how OFA and the Obama administration mishandled the No On 1 issue to the point of going out of its way to avoid it (see here and here), not to mention hasn't done much on other fronts. The other part is the DADT e-mail just comes across as a basic, almost shameless list-building, asking me to sign a pledge stating "I proudly stand with the President for the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." I noticed two things about this. One is that it came the morning after the vote, so the cynical part of me says it's just shamelessly capitalizing on enthusiasm for the Democrats finally doing something awesome on DADT repeal (after many of you threatened a breakup in our open letter to the Democrats late last month). It's kind of like the guy who comes to the victory party after barely lifting a finger to help during the fight.
The other is the timing. The DADT e-mail came a day after the highest hurdle in this fight- SASC and House floor votes. While full Senate repeal still isn't certain, I'm all of a sudden being asked to sign this pledge after the two biggest votes? It did not go unnoticed, by the way, that there were no e-mails of these types before the two toughest votes on this. Where was OFA then? So I'm not exactly the degree of excited that some colleagues are. The Pride month action appears to actually be a little more sincere, asking me to submit a comment that will be "hand-delivered" to Gov. Kaine. I'm crossing my fingers that the comments submitted will actually be read, but am not holding a lot of hope.
The less cynical side of me accepts that any attention is still attention, and hopeful that if there is a great return on these e-mails, that OFA will choose to mobilize members on future actions. Low response rates are one way of telling organizations whether their members care about an issue. So because I think it's worth doing for that reason, and partly because I'm curious, I submitted a comment. And I'm overall glad it's being done- it sends a strong signal. We'll see how much action and mobilization actually follows in the months and years to come.
With 100% reporting and 52.8% of the vote, Annise Parker was elected Mayor of Houston tonight. Great win for the LGBT community and progressives everywhere. She ran a solid campaign, has a long history of progressive activism, and I think will be a good Mayor. Nice to notch a win in the face of anti-LGBT attacks on her during the campaign, and recent losses elsewhere.
With her election, Houston becomes the largest city in America (it is 4th-largest in the country) to have an openly LGBT Mayor. Go Houston.
Thanks to everyone who voted, donated, volunteered, and/or asked friends to do any of the above.
John Aravosis has the story. Here's a leaked e-mail from Andy Tobias, DNC Treasurer, to donors:
1. An email went out asking activists to make calls to New Jersey. It was insensitive not to omit Mainers from that email. I apologize that no one thought to do that. I can't imagine it could have cost No On One even a dozen votes, but I still wish someone would have thought of this in time to catch it. Mistake noted.
2. A different email went out to Mainers urging them to vote. As the only thing of substance anyone was voting on in Maine was Question One, and as Democratic activists vote our way, this was a small but positive effort to be helpful.
I would have liked to see that email discuss No One One directly, in case there may have been an email-enabled Organizing for America activist someplace in Maine who did NOT know where Maine Democrats stood on this issue. (Out of the country without Internet access until the night before the election?) But I'm told there was concern that advocating specifically for a ballot initiative, whether LGBT or otherwise, would set a precedent for every other ballot initiative. Bureaucracies are nervous about setting precedents.
So a couple of things:
John was in Maine with me the last couple of days, and I spoke with him while all this was going on and he was getting responses from the DNC. We now know that the DNC official either deliberately lied or misled John to squash the story, or the DNC official hastily and stupidly spoke to him without the later facts (that it was a glitch). Either way, it's fucked up.
I spoke with another DNC official today after my piece on the OFA's fuckups/refusals to help, and that official told me "Some Mainers inadvertently got the email, but it was not sent to our Maine list." I was also told that this was a "glitch", and the quote above confirms that. Okay, one might think, a glitch is your system has a few people with the wrong zip codes in them, so they get a blast meant for someone else. Whoops. Fine. That's not actually what happened. What happened, per Tobias' e-mail, is the DNC did a large e-mail blast on this, and wanted to make sure Mainers didn't get that e-mail, for fear that the gays might find out and ask, how come we didn't get this kind of help?
It's kind of like being forwarded a party invite the host doesn't want you to come to, and when you show up, everyone gets silent and it's a-w-k-w-a-r-d. The party, in this case, was electoral help, and OFA wanted to make sure people didn't find out it was being grossly insensitive by not extending an invitation to the gays in Maine. Awesome.
Andy Tobias needs a serious date with electoral organizing reality. He wrote of the insensitivity, "I can't imagine it could have cost No On One even a dozen votes". Just like the White House saying "but but but we invite them to conference calls!" over the "internet left fringe" comment, this misses the point by a mile, and belies a misunderstanding of how campaigns work.
The point is that mobilizing Maine OFA members could have done wonders for the campaign. If Maine OFA members had been mobilized to canvass, give, phonebank, and other activities at different points in the campaign, then we absolutely would have picked up well over a dozen votes. I remember going to Arlington, VA to volunteer the weekend before Election Day 2008. They turned me away because they had more volunteers than they needed. In Maine, there were canvass sites on the weekend before Election Day that did not have enough volunteers in them.
I personally know both of the leaders at DriveforEquality and TravelforChange, who worked insane hours to collect donated airline miles, set up ActBlue donation pages, and coordinate logistics of hotel rooms, rides, etc. to get volunteers from other states into Maine. People wouldn't have had to take time off work and spend money to travel to a corner of the nation if OFA mobilized Mainers to help in their own state. They didn't.
Andy seems to mock LGBT complaints in his #3 point by saying it would have been nice to ask Mainers to vote No "in case there may have been an email-enabled Organizing for America activist someplace in Maine who did NOT know where Maine Democrats stood on this issue. (Out of the country without Internet access until the night before the election?)"
Again, Andy, you're missing the point. One of the biggest priorities for this campaign in an off-year election was turning out young voters, and that was no secret. Lots of OFA activists are young people. I've organized GOTV for young people in 2004 at my alma mater. Young people don't vote just because they know where Maine Dems stand on the issue or they get a bland OFA e-mail reminding them to vote. College students vote after you've given them 25 reasons to, dorm-stormed, called them, set up voter reg tables in the student union, set up shuttle buses to polling places (which the No On 1 campaign did at UM-Orono), have Dave Matthews Band perform at their campus to encourage voting, and basically drag them kicking and screaming to do it. If you want to win campaigns, you have to mobilize people, not just send them an e-mail and pat yourself on the back.
So rolling your eyes and saying "but OFA activists knew where Maine Dems stood on the issue anyway, and we sent them an e-mail, so what's all the fuss about" is irresponsible.
The "concern" that getting involved in ballot initiatives would force them to get involved in every initiative is false. As John pointed out, the DNC sent $25,000 to the No On 8 campaign in CA. President Carter came out against the Briggs Initiative in 1978. I'm sure there are more examples of the party getting involved in ballotland. And what's more, we're talking about an e-mail here, people. Not multiple campaign stops, which Obama gave Corzine and Deeds. Not vast organizing on a grand scale. E-mails.
It is getting harder and harder to give LGBT people a good reason to actively support this Administration and the DNC. I, for one, would like to see an apology from the DNC over all this.
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