This afternoon the Human Rights Campaign did the right thing and removed Target and Best Buy from their Equality Buying 2010 buyer's guide. This morning my interview with HRC's Fred Sainz had been posted on many web sites. Glad to see HRC removing these companies from their guide, as there need to be consequences for Target's, and Best Buy's, actions. Wrote HRC's Michael Cole in a statement which he sent me:
Because we understand the impact of leaving Target and Best Buy on the various products associated with the Buyer’s Guide, both companies will soon be removed from it.HRC will not encourage people to shop at either store and believes that consumers should make their own decisions after careful consideration of all of the information available to them.
Howard Dean has continued to defend his argument that the backers of the Islamic Center near ground zero should "compromise and move the site, even as his own group seemed to rebuke him. In interviews with both Glenn Greenwald and Keith Olbermann he tried to lay out his case as both men pointed to the double standards. We'll go through it on the show and get your thoughts as the controversy over this building continues to reverberate. Dean has always been a progressive who championed the left of the Democratic Party, so his stand is disillusioning. What do you think is behind Dean's comments? Is it inevitable that it will be moved?
Sarah Palin continues to defend Laura Schlessinger, while Laura talks about her "gay and black friends" and the woman who made the call to her show has gone public. We'll get into it and take your calls.
On Wednesday I talked with the Human Rights Campaign's Fred Sainz about the group's response to Target and the boycott of the company. It became clear that HRC is still telling people to shop at Target. We'll open it up to you and ask for your thoughts in hour two. UPDATE: Early this afternoon HRC announced it would remove Target from its buying guide. Kudos to them!
It's Friday, find out who the "Angel, Turkey, Gassie and Climax of the Week" will be!
All these stories and so much more, today on The Michelangelo Signorile Show!
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It may sound crazy, but not only is the Human Rights Campaign refraining from joining the boycott against Target; it is still actively telling LGBT people through its Buying for Equality 2010 buyer's guide (for which the group has an iPhone app) that they should spend their hard-earned cash at Target, something which was confirmed by Fred Sainz of HRC when I had him on the show on Wednesday (audio of interview below). And that's because Target is still scoring a 100% on HRC's Corporate Equality Index -- a measure of workplace practices toward LGBT people -- and HRC tells LGBT people to shop till they drop at these high-scoring "equality-friendly" businesses.
Let me first say it's great to see HRC speak forcefully about Target's $150,000 political donation to a group that gave money to an antigay candidate and Target's refusal to now match that donation with one to a pro-gay cause or candidate. HRC's Joe Solmonese said in a statement after talks broke down,"If their initial contribution was a slap in the face, their refusal to make it right is a punch in the gut and that’s not something that we will soon forget."
Tough words, and I applaud them. But what exactly is Target's punishment now for the gut punch HRC will not soon forget? HRC announced in response to Target's refusal to "make it right" that it would now donate $150,000 to a pro-gay Democrat challenging the antigay Republican whom Target's money went to in the Minnesota gubernatorial race. I'm glad to see HRC helping local activists to defeat homophobes in elections around the country, as the group has commendably done in the past.
But how exactly is this a punishment for Target? I would hope, after all, that HRC would be helping out in the election in Minnesota, where the stakes are high for LGBT people, whether or not Target donated to an antigay candidate.
I posed the question of ramifications for Target to Fred Sainz on the show:
Signorile: My question is, how is the $150,000 that you’re donating...a punishment to Target?...What are you doing exactly to Target?...Are you joining the boycott? Moveon.org is calling for a boycott.Is HRC telling people they shouldn’t shop at Target?
Sainz: No, the organization doesn’t have an official position on the boycott. We think that consumers need to make their own decisions and that each person has an awful lot of choices today...And certainly this will inform consumers’ decisions on where they should make their purchases...
----
Signorile:...The [Corporate] Equality Index is a position on the boycott, because the reason you give the equality index is to tell people where to shop...
Sainz: No, that’s not true.
Signorile:...and what companies they should support...
Sainz: No, no, that's not true. The Corporate Equality Index is a measure of the workplace practices of companies. It was started as a guide of what the best employers are for LGBT people...It is not meant to be a statement on a company’s wholistic behavior. It is rather a measurement of the workplace practices of a company. That’s really–-
Signorile: HRC does tell people to shop at equality-friendly businesses, even has an app that is devoted to that.
Sainz: That is true.
Signorile: Okay, so the equality-friendly businesses are those that score high on the Corporate Equality Index.
Sainz: That is true…
Signorile: So right now, at this moment, Target still has a 100, and that means that’s a good place to shop.
Sainz went on to again explain how complicated it supposedly is to change the Corporate Equality Index criteria (something he told me a week earlier when I had him on the show) and how the group is trying to “grapple” with the new changes since the Supreme Court decision in Citizens United and that they don’t want to make a "knee-jerk" response and that they are working it through but in a "thoughtful” manner. That’s all well and good, but the boycott is now, and as it goes on, HRC (which, Sainz confirms, to HRC's credit, is no longer allowing Target to sponsor any of the group's fundraisers) is still telling people to shop at Target.
Listen in below.
UPDATE: Let me just add that the bigger problem here is HRC offering a "buyer's guide" at all. You're not an ad agency for corporations; you're a civil rights group. I know other groups do it, but it will always run into trouble. If you're going to do it you need to be able to quickly fix it, such as in a situation like this.
It's fine and good to list companies based on workplace practices and they should be letting LGBT people know what are the best companies to work for. But telling people to spend their money at these companies -- and then HRC taking donations from these companies, as they have done with Target -- puts your group in a bad position. It appears as if the reason for the buyer's guide is to get donations from the companies in return for sending LGBT consumers to them. And the reason HRC is now "grappling" and trying to figure out what to do is because they're worried about other companies in their index, some of which no doubt also give to antigay causes or candidates. If they remove Target they'll have to remove others. They shouldn't have been in this position -- or should be able to react quickly and change the buyer's guide immediately when a problem arises.
UPDATE II: Another thought: A simple solution for HRC, if it feels it wants to tell LGBT consumers where to shop, is to separate the Buyer's Guide from the Corporate Equality Index. For the buyers guide rate companies based on how they support the larger LGBT community and what donationthey make to causes and candidates. And keep the Corporate Equality Index separate, as a rating of workplace practices.
In light of new poll that shows that almost 20% of Americans now believe President Obama is a Muslim -- a big increase from last year -- I'll ask listeners how many of them believe it too. With all the calls we've received attacking the Islamic Center two blocks from ground zero, I'm sure our audience includes some who now believe the President is a Muslim too (even though the poll was done before the controversy). Why would the number increase? We'll go through it and take your calls.
Now Sarah Palin has come out for the woman who never was a doctor, Laura Schlessinger, tweeting " b thankful 4 her voice,America!" What's even more hilarious is that she tells Laura not to quit when that's exactly what Palin did! We'll get into it.
It's now all out warbetween Ann Coulter and WingNutDaily's Joseph Farah, who Coulter called a "media whore" because he dumped her from his web sites convention because she is the guest of honor at a party of the gay Republican group GoProud. Pass the popcorn!
What does it mean that the last combat troops have left Iraq? Did we win the war? Is it over? We'll take your calls.
4:30 ET Americablog's John Aravosis, who started his career as a web activist with the highly effective StopDrLaura.com ten years ago, joins me to talk about the campaign against the woman who never was a doctor and is now, finally, leaving radio, no doubt because she didn't want to again battle a campaign like the one Aravosis unleashed a decade ago.
Also, we'll read listener survey comments and take your calls!
And, don't forget, you can follow me on Twitter and Facebook!
Listen to The Michelangelo Signorile Show weekdays live from 2-6 pm ET on Sirius XM'sOutQ: Sirius 109, XM 98 and on the Sirius XM iPhone app. Not a subscriber? Not a problem! Listen online any time with a free seven-day pass or, if you have an iPhone or Blackberry, go to the app store and download Sirius XM for free, for a 7-day trial, and listen on your phone.
"Doctor" Laura (who is no medical doctor of psychologist of any kind, but actually a phys. ed teacher) is now calling it quits, claiming her 1st amendment rights were violated. Okay, we'll have lots to say about this and take your calls.
Target has now rebuffed the Human Rights Campaign's urging the company to give an equal amount of money to a pro-gay cause as they did to antigay Republican candidate for governor. We'll speak with Fred Sainz of HRC about where the group's relationship with Target goes from here. 3:30 ET
The controversy over the Islamic center two blocks from Ground Zero continues as Republicans demonize American Muslims further. Yesterday there was lots of passion on the show -- and lots of calls from those opposed to the mosque. We'll report on the the latest and continue the discussion.
Mary Cheney has donated 00 bucks to an anti-marriage Republican. And virulently antigay website World Net Daily has dumped Ann Coulter because she is speaking at a party of gay Republicans, who claim she's the the "right-wing Judy Garland." Okay, a lot to unpack here, and we'll do it!
All these stories and so much more, today on The Michelangelo Signorile Show!
And, don't forget, you can follow me on Twitter and Facebook!
Listen to The Michelangelo Signorile Show weekdays live from 2-6 pm ET on Sirius XM'sOutQ: Sirius 109, XM 98 and on the Sirius XM iPhone app. Not a subscriber? Not a problem! Listen online any time with a free seven-day pass or, if you have an iPhone or Blackberry, go to the app store and download Sirius XM for free, for a 7-day trial, and listen on your phone.
Former Clinton advisor Richard Socarrides makes the point that President Obama has "no choice" but to support marriage for gays and lesbians:
Support for equal benefits, but not for equal status — a gay "separate but equal" rule — is contrary to what Obama stands for, both as a person and as a symbol of expanding freedoms and opportunities. Continuing on this course will lose him and his fellow Democrats the support and enthusiasm of a large block of his base voters.
But can President Obama, who once supported gay marriage, only to oppose it now, change his position again? The answer is yes — and he in fact has no choice.
People understand that most public officials who now support gay marriage once opposed it. It wasn’t until after they left office that Bill Clinton and Al Gore (and, most recently, Laura Bush) said that they favored marriage equality. As Nate Silver recently wrote on his blog FiveThirtyEight.com: “Does anyone really believe, in a country that is becoming close to evenly divided on gay marriage, that Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John Kerry are among the half who oppose it?“
My take on the 9th Circuit ruling late yesterday: If you follow the timeline of the 9th Circuit appeal of Judge Walker's ruling, even with the fast-tracking of the case and the strict deadlines for getting papers in, it's likely we won't see a ruling from the 9th Circuit until the beginning of 2011.
Whatever happens there it will no doubt go to the Supreme Court, which would most certainly keep a stay in place even if the 9th Circuit affirms Judge Walker's ruling. And then it's with the Supreme Court for much of next year -- a faster process than many had predicted (some were thinking we'd get a SCOTUS decision in 3 to 5 years), but slower than we'd hoped in just the past week. Of course, it's possible that the 9th Circuit rules fairly quickly -- in a matter of days after closing arguments in early December -- that the Prop 8 proponents have no standing in the case, and the Supreme Court could agree fairly quickly. In that scenario we'd see marriages in California happening much more quickly, but Prop 8 would not be the case that would take marriage equality to the rest of the country via the Supreme Court. Just my guessing.We'll get into it all on the show today and speak with legal experts to get the full deal.
The controversy over the mosque at Ground Zero only got uglier over the weekend after President Obama commendably came out for the first amendment and defended the right to building the mosque. Wingnuts went into overdrive, accusing him of everything from helping the terrorists to flip-flopping when he clarified his remarks. It's pretty scary when George W. Bush is seen, in retrospect, as having been one of the adults in the Republican Party. We'll get into it all and take your calls.
What will happen today or tomorrow or maybe even Wednesday regarding Judge Walker's decision to only extend the stay overturning Prop 8 until Wednesday? Will the 9th Circuit of Appeals overrule him or will the marriages begin again? Will proponents appeal to the Supreme Court? We'll go through all the possibilities and take your calls.
Guest / 3:30pm EST - The National Organization for Marriage took its Summer for Marriage Tour to Washington DC this weekend. Many activists were in the crowd at the counter protest, including 10 year old Will Phillips. Joe Sudbay of AmericaBLOG was there as we'll and joins us this afternoon to talk about it.
Guest / 4:30pm EST - Sarah Schulman joins me this afternoon to talk about her latest film, The Owls, a "funny, mysterious and humane generational anthem starring some of the most popular underground artists in Lesbian Cinema."
The man at the center of the controversy over Target's donations to candidates, Republican Tom Emmer, now refuses to comment on Minnesota's marriage amendment. Very interesting.
All these stories and so much more, today on The Michelangelo Signorile Show!
And, don't forget, you can follow me on Twitter and Facebook!
Listen to The Michelangelo Signorile Show weekdays live from 2-6 pm ET on Sirius XM'sOutQ: Sirius 109, XM 98 and on the Sirius XM iPhone app. Not a subscriber? Not a problem! Listen online any time with a free seven-day pass or, if you have an iPhone or Blackberry, go to the app store and download Sirius XM for free, for a 7-day trial, and listen on your phone.
We cannot just keep feeding the people who hurt us. There are plenty of Democrats who are pro-equality and who deserve your support to the individual campaigns. But the Democratic National Committee should not get a dime of your money. Why? I responded in my column in the Advocate to a piece written by DNC Treasurer Andy Tobias in which he implored LGBT people to give to the Democratic National Committee this year:
Tobias’s screed cannot hide just how disappointing our “fierce advocate” and his toothless party have been for the past two years. A few drops have been wrung out into the glass, including passage of a long-overdue hate-crimes bill that had been kicked around in Congress since the 1990s and an uncertain compromise on repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell,” as gay men and lesbians continue to be ejected from the military.
Real progress? The Employment Non-Discrimination Act is dead in the water this session. The Domestic Partner Benefits and Obligations Act, a bill that would give gay federal workers spousal benefits, and which Congress has promised a vote on since June 2009, is no closer to the president’s pen. Meanwhile, the White House continues to aggressively defend the Defense of Marriage Act and is expected to appeal a July decision handed down by a Nixon-appointed federal judge who ruled that a critical portion of the federal ban on marriage equality is unconstitutional. President Barack Obama has said he opposes the law but by all accounts has not lifted a finger to push for the legislative repeal that he promised would be a priority if he were elected.
And then there was the president's pitiful response to the landmark Prop 8 decision. A spokesperson responded to The Advocate's Kerry Eleveld that ,"The President has spoken out in opposition to Proposition 8 because it is divisive and discriminatory," without any congratulations let alone elation of any kind. Then White House advisor David Axelrod headed onto TV to push the message that the president doesn't support marriage for gays and lesbians, reaching out to homophobes on a day when he should have been reaching out to us. It was yet another nasty slap in the face.
We'll find out today whether gay and lesbian couples in California will be able to marry again, or if Judge Walker decided to keep the stay of his landmark decision in place while the Prop 8 proponents appeal.
Perhaps influenced by the reasoned and detailed decision by Judge Walker, and the media coverage that showed how well he'd done his job, a majority of Americans, 52%, for the first time believe that marriage should be a constitutional right for gays and lesbians. This could be a tipping point in public support and popular opinion.
Lt. Col. Victor Fehrenbach, the highly decorated Air Force pilot, has filed suit to stop his discharge under "don't ask, don't tell,"a last ditch effort to save his career.
Guest: Jennifer Pizer from Lambda Legal joins us 3:30 ET to talk about Judge Walker's decision, whichever way it goes.
Looks like it will be another busy day on the show tomorrow: Judge Walker will be announcing his decision on whether the marriages of gay and lesbian couples begin immediately or if his decision is stayed pending appeal. The news will come down between noon and 3 ET, so either just before the show or during our first hour.
Target's troubles with the LGBT community have taken a turn for the worse as The Awl revealed this week that the CEO and other top executives have been giving to antigay causes and candidates for quite some time.
There was some encouraging electoral success yesterday in primaries around the country, for LGBT candidates and also for the Democrats and Obama-backed candidates heading into the mid-term elections. And for Republicans, another tea party backed, anti-immigrant candidate. We'll get into it all.
As flight attendant Steven Slater continues to be heralded as an icon among stressed workers, we'll take more of your calls on his actions, the airline, the passenger, and what should happen to him.
Guest / 4:30pm EST - Yesterday, the NOM Summer of Marriage Tour continued, making a stop in Raleigh, NC. In attendance on the other side of the "ten's of NOM supporters," Pam Spaulding of Pam's House Blend. She joins us today to talk about the protest and what she's calling NOM's "Fail-O-Rama."
Florida attorney general Bill McCollum, running for governor, now says he doesn't have "a recollection" of what he said when he said gays should not be allowed to adopt because "“I really do not think that we should have homosexuals guiding our children." We'll get into it.
These stories and so much more, today on The Michelangelo Signorile Show!
And, don't forget, you can follow me on Twitter and Facebook!
Listen to The Michelangelo Signorile Show weekdays live from 2-6 pm ET on Sirius XM'sOutQ: Sirius 109, XM 98 and on the Sirius XM iPhone app. Not a subscriber? Not a problem! Listen online any time with a free seven-day pass or, if you have an iPhone or Blackberry, go to the app store and download Sirius XM for free, for a 7-day trial, and listen on your phone.
I report on, comment about and sometimes madly obsess over politics, media, popular culture and a host of other things that irk and/or interest me. View my full bio to learn more about me and my daily radio show on Sirius Satellite Radio' s OutQ.
The Michelangelo Signorile Show airs across the U.S. and Canada weekdays from 2-6 p.m. EST on Sirius XM's OutQ: Sirius 109 and XM 98, and on the iPhone via the Sirius XM iPhone app. Listen online at any time by getting a free three-day pass and tuning to OutQ 109. Learn more about my show and OutQ. For interview ideas and show topics, please e-mail producer David Guggenheim.
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