HRC's Logo -- wonder where this came from?
Looking at Tretter's boxes of stuff on the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), I think I can see a little more clearly what they have accomplished, and I'm thinking it won't be hard at all to produce a quality panel about them.
Basically, HRC is a lobbying group, also known as a "political action committee" (PAC). Much of their effectiveness comes from imitating previous powerful PACs like the Christian Coalition. Of course, not all GLBT advocates agree that this imitation was the right path for the GLBT rights movement.
Portrait of an Issue: 15 years of ENDA
HRC began helped introduce the Employee Non-Discrimination Act to Congress in 1994, and they have been fighting to get it through ever since. Will it finally pass in 2009?
Pink slip for Cheryl Summerville of Georgia. Without ENDA, she can't do anything about losing her job for being "gay."
Cheryl Summerville
HRC Lobbyists
Stephen Endean, who began organizing GLBT campaign contributions to supportive candidates in Minnesota, and later founded HRC in Washington, DC in 1980.
Candace Gingrich, who went on a speaking tour in 1994 after her brother Newt became Speaker of the House
Elizabeth Birch, Executive Director in 1994, when HRC helped to protect AIDS research funding from Republican lawmakers who wanted it cut.
Leaders who worked with HRC
Senator Jim Jeffords of Vermont, then a Republican, supported ENDA from the beginning
Wall of Shame: Leaders HRC opposed
Senator Jesse Helms of North Carolina, a legendary bigot that HRC attacked for years
