Human Rights Campaign under fire for corporate shilling

[marmar]

(Truthout) Chevron. Goldman Sachs. Monsanto. None of these are brands that we tend to associate with bringing justice into the world. And yet these three corporations, along with many other Fortune 1000 companies, were awarded a "100 percent" rating in the 2015 "Equality Index" put out by the Human Rights Campaign (HRC).

Even if you're not familiar with the name, you've probably seen the HRC's stickers - a yellow equal sign against a blue background - on a bumper or in the window of a coffee shop somewhere. The campaign claims to be the biggest gay rights organization in the country and is a self-appointed voice for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people everywhere.

The HRC is the de facto organization journalists call when they need an "LGBT viewpoint" on a topic. It has the ears of high-profile politicians - even deeply conservative ones like Alaskan senator Lisa Murkowski, a Republican, who credited an HRC postcard for causing her to vote with "The Gays." And the campaign is one of a few large LGBT nonprofits that hog political advocacy funding for the community's issues.

However, lots of people from the increasingly fractured "community" (often, white, wealthy gays vs. the rest) don't want to support an organization that devotes a good deal of its resources into making certain big corporations look like they're on the right side of history. Different LGBT people have different values - and even the stalwart HRC is beginning to see this, recently giving lip service to the issue of intersectionality. ..................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://truth-out.org/news/item/28430-human-rights-campaign-under-fire-in-lgbt-community