Don't Ask, Don't Give: A Boycott

John and Joe over at AMERICAblog launched this boycott earlier today. The cosponsors are some of the best around. It seems the effort is being picked up by (gasp!) traditional media outlets. Yeah, shocking, I know. Here's the deal.

Earlier today, we launched "Don't Ask, Don't Give," a donor boycott of the DNC:

Joe and I are launching today a donor boycott of the DNC. The boycott is cosponsored by Daily Kos, Jane Hamsher of FireDogLake, Dan Savage, Michelangelo Signorile, David Mixner, Andy Towle and Michael Goff of Towle Road, Paul Sousa (Founder of Equal Rep in Boston), Pam Spaulding, Robin Tyler (ED of the Equality Campaign, Inc.), Bil Browning for the Bilerico Project, and soon others.

Since the post went up, we've received coverage across the spectrum of media. Kerry Eleveld wrote a great piece at The Advocate. Ben Smith picked up it up, as did Atlantic Online.

Salon reported on the issue:

The tensions between the LGBT community and the administration have been constantly bubbling under the surface, and at times there have been open battles. Though the White House made some moves to at least quiet the most public of those fights, they've still been unable to bring the gay activists who'd normally be a solid base of support back into the fold.

Now, the fighting's back out in the open, as two prominent gay bloggers -- John Aravosis, who's previously written for Salon, and Joe Sudbay of Americablog -- have announced that they're organizing what they're calling a temporary donor boycott of the Democratic National Committee. Joined by another high-profile figure in the movement, Michelangelo Signorile, they're asking people not to donate "until the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) is passed, Don’t Ask Don’t Tell (DADT) is repealed, and the so-called Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) is repealed."

It will be interesting to see how the White House responds, if at all. And it will also be interesting -- and instructive -- to see how members of the LGBT community, and voters of all kinds, respond. The gay organizations haven't been at the forefront of the opposition to Obama; instead, it's been people like Aravosis and Signorile leading the charge. Success now might help them further supplant the traditional power structure in the community.

The best response from the White House would be to work on passage of ENDA and the repeal of DADT and DOMA. It was, after all, what Obama promised.

We'll have more later...including the blog reaction.

I can get behind this one. I've not gotten any response from my senator, Tom Carper, regarding his recent voting record on many issues, so I am ready for some belt-tightening at the DNC. Are they? Follow the link and sign the petition.

Check out the blog for updates.

More later.
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