Joe Solmonese, HRC’s president, is stepping down. Ste=
phen H. Miller hopes new leadership will steer HRC in another direction:

My criticisms of HRC have dwelt on its becoming too much of a strategic a=
rm of the Democratic party. I=E2=80=99ll just note that it would be nice if t=
he HRC board would consider the possibility that come January 2013, the U.S.=
might have a Republican president and a Republican Senate and House. It wou=
ld be useful to have an HRC head who had some ability to understand and make=
the conservative-libertarian argument for gay equality, rather than a hard c=
ore progressive Democratic partisan. But the chances of that happening are m=
eager.

Agreed. It’s generational – a generation or two older than Solmonese, who=
was picked by the ageing board because he would never seriously deviate fro=
m the Democratic party machine they know and love. There’s nothing to be don=
e here, though. The GOP has thoroughly marginalized gay conservatives, and t=
he gay Dems are careerists, not looking to rock the boat, just to get a safe=
, dry seat on it. I look forward to the twentieth anniversary of the HRC’s h=
ead sending out emails breathlessly promising the passage of the Employment N=
on-Discrimination Act. One day …