Pro-Gay Marriage MassEquality Being Used By Pro-Civil Union Hillary Clinton

MassEquality Board Member and Former Board Chair, Ellen Zucker To Host Hillary Clinton Fundraiser Wednesday, October 10th, at Symphony Hall at 4:30PM

Add one more to the potential list of the Uncle Toms of LGBT Equality, this time Ellen Zucker of MassEquality.  Zucker who arguably was the most powerful player at MassEquality during our fight to save Equal Marriage in Massachusetts as she steered the helm as Chairman of its Board of Directors will be one of many hosting the Boston Hillary Clinton Fundraiser this Wednesday.

So how does an LGBT Leader who presumably did not equivocate in the campaign to protect Equal Marriage in Massachusetts so freely lend her public support to a candidate, Hillary Clinton, who 1) believes only in Civil Unions for gays and lesbians 2) says its just fine for states to decide if gays and lesbians get no partnership protections or some or full benefits, 3) only wants to remove a part of DOMA, not all of DOMA, 4) has gone on record saying that she is not "secretly" on the side of marriage equality and 5) more recently has been silent on the debate of removing trans people from the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (an act which before the recent hulabaloo, she supported)???

Know Thy Neighbor wants to know how Ellen Zucker can reconcile this as she is an important leader in our community.  We sent over an email and will post Ms. Zucker's response if we get one.  Former Candidate for Lt. Governor, LGBT supporter and Hillary Fundraiser Co-Chair, Deb Goldberg, sent an email to me which said that she does not blame me for my opinion of Hillary for even "one minute" and with regards to Ellen Zucker, Deb wrote, "Trust me it was not easy for her and she was somewhat ambivalent. I know it was hard for her."  I hope that this post will produce a response from Ms. Zucker.

But my post hits at the heart of a much bigger question facing the LGBT Community.  Do we really have any Leaders?  This topic keeps coming up on the pages of gay publications and LGBT political talk shows.  And unfortunately, the answer always seems to be "NO."  MassEquality has hired an outside consulting firm to tell it whether or not it should continue to exist and on October 15th it will open its doors to "stakeholders" so they can put in their two cents. 

But while we have been waiting for the umbrella organization that led the Massachusetts LGBT to victory on June 14th to decide whether it wants a future leadership role here, many things have happened in which our community needed a True Leader's voice.  There was a gaybashing in Provincetown in which the victim found he had no voice.  There is an on-going investigation in Provincetown of three other hate crimes this past summer  and national attention is being put on the police force which has us all wondering if LGBT can feel safe turning to those who are supposedly there to protect us.  There are/were strong Anti-Gay Mayoral Candidates running in two towns, Quincy and Fitchburg--one of whom is a signer of the anti-gay marriage petition.  And speaking of the petition, the Political Director of VoteOnMarriage, Rob Willington, who referred to gays as "evil" was given the position of second in command of the Mass GOP and was given endorcements by pro-gay Republicans such as Senator Bruce Tarr.  And most recently it is being suggested by many Massachusetts Congressmen including Barney Frank that the most politically weak part of our community, the trans people, be removed from the ENDA bill. This is sparking a major outcry from national LGBT groups--including many statewide equality groups who are volunteering time and field skills (MassEquality has yet to step to the plate on this one).

I for one will not equivocate on Equal Rights.  Full Equal Rights. No matter how tempting salaries or introductions to Presidential Candidates and celebrities might be.  I hope that Ellen Zucker will assure us all that what we all went through in Massachusetts for the last 4 1/2 years and our win to secure full Equality here did really mean something.  Ellen Zucker's name is being used as a commodity for political purposes by a candidate, Hillary Clinton, who wants LGBT to think that compromise on Equality is well-endorced.

To Email Ellen Zucker directly

Tom Lang, Director

Comments

[the true patriot]

this is all so horrible >_> gah.

[the true patriot]

thanks for posting this info up :) and thanks for caring about others.

[Tom]

Tom, I know one person in our campaign for justice that I would call a true leader in the LGBT community. And that leader is you, Tom Lang!

[John Hosty-Grinnell]

I second that opinion of Mr. Lang. I wish I had the time to tell you all the reasons why I feel that way.

Tom is right though, we can't let people try to pull a fast one here. Hillary shouldn't get away with fooling the moderates into thinking she is progressive enough while maintaining enough distance from us to attract the conservative vote. It is brilliantly thought out, but it doesn't have to be set into motion if we call her out on it. The best way to do that is to let our voices be heard. We have groups that are supposed to be representing us, and if they are going to lay on their backs like they have been, I say we put our trust somewhere else.

I have spoken to Tom Lang a number of times and voiced our community's need for a non-profit group that hungrily pursues our best interests. Perhaps this is what we really need to be talking about. Do we need to form a group that will better serve us? I will say this; we cannot allow Tom Lang to stand alone as the only one with both the brains to see this wrong, and the courage to stand against it. We are being sold out by the very people we trusted to watch out for us.

We need action. Not just of groups, we need person to person grassroots movement here in order to bring about the changes we need. Everyone has to find that Rowdy Citizen within them, and make their voice heard.

[johnson]

Don't be fooled. Hillary is not our friend. And the Demos are fools if they elect her as their nominee. They'll lose again.