Garden State Equality's GayTM is Closed

Last year activist/author/political consultant David Mixner proposed a boycott on campaign contributions to the Democratic National Committee for their lack of follow-through on their verbal support for LGBT equality. Mixner told the Dems in no uncertain terms, "The Gay-TM is closed!"

Almost immediately, the guys at AMERICAblog launched the "Don't Ask, Don't Give" campaign that caught on like wildfire in the gay blogosphere. The list of sponsors of the project reads like a who's who of LGBT activism. Predictably, the Human Rights Campaign and the rest of Gay, Inc. condemn the efforts of gay activists and bloggers to compete for the attention of the DNC. For mainstream activist organizations, the "Do Nothing Dems" are a safer bet than Republican homophobes.

On Monday one more organization found the courage to "walk the walk". Garden State Equality has decided that it will no longer contribute to the Democrats, or any other party, and will instead give to individual candidates and non-party organizations that actively support LGBT equality.

“No political party has a record good enough on LGBT civil rights that it can rightfully claim to be entitled to our money on a party-wide basis,” said Steven Goldstein, chair of Garden State Equality.  “No longer will we let any political party take our money and volunteers with one hand, and slap us in the face with the other when we seek full equality.”

"Our Board of Directors felt so strongly about adopting this new policy," Goldstein said, "that it unanimously decided to include it in the organization's bylaws."

I am in complete support of Garden State Equality's actions and the "Don't Ask, Don't Give" campaign. It is a powerful way to send a message to those politicians who have romanced us for years, but have never put out. Don't support political parties or candidates that refuse to work for full equality for all people. Money talks!