http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andrew-beaver/hrc-goldman-sachs_b_1257465.html
When the Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest gay group and one that has done considerable good work, arrives in New York from D.C. to consort with a predatory company like Goldman Sachs, it creates an alchemy that suggests that the organization has seriously lost its way at a unique time in our country and the LGBT movement's history.
I'm talking about HRC's decision to honor Goldman Sachs with its 2011 Workplace Equality Innovation Award at the group's annual New York dinner this past Saturday, which inspired a protest by Occupy Wall Street' Queer Caucus.
In 2012, honoring a New York company for being good to its gay employees is like congratulating it for a passing second grade, since New York City has strong anti-discrimination laws protecting LGBT people, and most of New York's banking industry has policies protecting LGBT employees. Let's be clear: HRC honored Goldman for money and prestige on Wall Street.
HRC's willingness to whitewash the pasts of individuals and organizations in return for cold cash is nothing new. In some ways I don't fault the group's willingness to look these execs in the eye, take their money, and use it to promote LGBT equality. But this strategy has its limits. In honoring Goldman Sachs, HRC is incredibly tone-deaf to the enormous outrage nearly all Americans feel toward the banks and securities firms at the center of the economic meltdown.
= new reply since forum marked as read
