With the country in the midst of aserious recession and LGBT people struggling to fund the civil rights battle, perhaps Solmonese should not be flaunting expensive tastes
Just when it looked like we might be starting to gain a little headway in our fight for equality, here comes Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese showing off his fancy new clothes in a magazine spread.
Washington Life recently included Solmonese in its 2010 Fashion Awards tribute to "35 men and women who bring that je ne sais quoi to the ballrooms and boardrooms of Washington."
In the piece Solmonese confided that he favors designers Ann Demeulemeester, Billy Reid and Dolce and Gabbana.
For those of you who are unfamiliar with the French expression, je na sais quoi means "an intangible quality that makes something distinctive or attractive," according to Wikipedia.
Solmonese, whom the magazine labeled the "Elegant Activist," was featured with the likes of Count Renault de Viel Castel, whose "Parisian polish makes [him] a shining star in the young shining social firmament."
Also included in the list were Michelle Obama and Nancy Pelosi, along with a host of others that few know but supposedly would be dazzled by if they did.
Well, what can you say to that?
It just literally takes one’s breath away, particularly when you’re trying to convince someone that LGBT people belong to an oppressed group in need of legislative protections to ensure them the right to work and to live in peace.
All I can figure is that Solmonese must have sipped a little too much champagne at a cocktail party when he agreed to participate in that magazine feature. As the head of a nonprofit civil rights group that depends on donations to exist and do its work, Solmonese appears to have shot himself squarely in the center of his stylish footwear.
One reader of the article commented on the magazine’s Web site, "And meanwhile, the rest of the country looks on, wondering whether we will have jobs in the next year and be able to afford a new pair of jeans."
Indeed, I’m sure the millions of unemployed Americans —straight and gay — who are worried about holding on to their homes and providing food and shelter for their families are mightily under-impressed and unamused by Solmonese’s apparent lavish spending on clothing. It provides ammunition for conservative pundits and others opposed to LGBT equality that argue gay and lesbian people tend to be privileged rather than oppressed.
It’s Solmonese’s business how he spends his salary — which is estimated to be in the neighborhood of $350,000 per year, plus perks based on the nonprofit group’s 2008 financial reports — but surely this is not the time to be flaunting wretched excess. Maybe more than a decade ago when the economy was booming it might not have caused such a stir, but now the nation is in the tank.
It also seems to be setting a poor example for young LGBT people as regards priorities in life. What comes to mind here is a Dallas lesbian well known for her fashionable style and charitable giving whose partner wound up in the hoosegow a few years ago for spending somebody else’s money. Attorneys for the victim attempted to link the clotheshorse to the missing money in a civil suit.
Many already argue that the Human Rights Campaign, GLAAD and other groups are spending entirely too much time partying with celebrities and enjoying the highlife. The groups’ leaders are accused of being out of touch with the interests of the average LGBT person, who likely has little je na sais quoiand doesn’t want to support somebody else’s.
In other words, this might be a good time for some in the nonprofit business to tone it down a little before a lot more people get the idea that you’re charging way too much money for what you do.
David Webb is a former staff writer for the Dallas Voice who lives on Cedar Creek Lake now. He is the author of the blog TheRareReporter.blogspot.com. He can be reached at davidwaynewebb@embarqmail.com.
This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition April 2, 2010.
Rumor has it that Joe’s salary actually does not come out of HRC’s budget but is in fact covered by a few wealthy LGBT benefactors. The anti gay industry (religious right) spends billions of dollars a year fighting against the LGBT community. HRC does a tremendous amount of work toward LGBT equality on a estimated 35 million dollar a year budget.
For years I attended HRC events in San Antonio and Austin however the cost of these events have skyrocketed. I can no longer afford to attend them or many others. What is offered for the rest of us? Nothing but the feeling that we are on the outside looking in yet again.
The sentence in the above View Point “It’s Solmonese’s business how he spends his salary” rings very true. It is his business and no one else’s. I know Joe and many members of the HRC staff personally, the work that they do day in and out, the hours they put in, and most importantly, the difference HRC makes for advancing rights for ALL OF OUR LGBT COMMUNITY–rich, poor, black, white, brown, etc. Check out page 13 to see what HRC is doing for just one item, the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. Check out the website, http://www.hrc.org and find out for yourself exactly how “in touch” HRC really is and what they are doing for all of us.
In the interest of full disclosure I must acknowledge that I shop for my clothing at Ross on Tuesday’s to take advantage of the 10 percent Senior Citizens Day discount.
Who ever said being a gay activist means you have to take a vow of poverty? And what does the recession have to do with gay rights?
The designer names you mention are owned and run by gay people, you know. Gay men have always depended on the fashion industry for employment way before there was such a thing as gay rights.
Openly gay designers Dolce & Gabbana are about as revolutionary as it gets when you get down to gay dollars and cents.
Would there even have been a gay rights movement if Calvin Klein had not plastered every nook and cranny of the US with sexually charged men’s underwear ads in the seventies?
Look. The fashion industry and the people who buy the clothes are the last place we need to look for anti-gay sentiment.
The economy and gay rights are two separate issues.
Me? I’m not giving up the uptown condo, the wardrobe, or the German automobile.
My charity budget is at least 50% of my income.
I consider myself a product of the gay revolution, and I am very aware that young gay people are modeling my behavior: whether it’s getting a good education or making it to the next step of the corporate ladder.
I sincerely hope they don’t read this editorial. You are actually directing gay people to be poor. And not achieve. And not fulfill the promise of their dreams.
Some of the most brilliant gay men of my generation settled for less. They are waiters, flight attendants, hair dressers. They are not wearing bespoke suits; they have no voice; I doubt that most of them even vote. And they are not wearing Dolce and Gabbana.
They are happy. I am not.
When I consider the lost potential, well. Makes me mad as hell.
By the way you misinterpret ‘Je ne sais quoi.’
‘Je ne sais quoi,’ means that without which there is nothing.
And nothing is what you have offered us in this article.
Interesting comment. I’m not sure what “that without which there is nothing” has to do with fashion, which is what the Washington Life article was about. Does that mean without high fashion you have nothing? I don’t speak French so I don’t know if you are correct over Wikepedia, to which I attributed the definition. Other than that, I welcome your opinion. I like to hear about how others view issues. However, I would take issue with your statement that I offered “nothing.” There must have at least been some tiny thing there, even for the elite among us.
I am putting away all my designer clothes right now. I will wear nothing but burlap and I will get the right to marry my sweetie. Get real, sir, I think most people have already figured out we have much more disposable income.