The Texas Stonewall Democratic Caucus has brought in some big names for its first biennial statewide convention in Austin this weekend, including openly gay Congressman Jared Polis and longtime LGBT activist Matt Foreman, former head of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force.
But Dan Graney, president of TSDC, said he’s disappointed thus far with the response from the group’s members. Graney said only about 60 people had registered for the convention by Tuesday, Feb. 24, including only a handful from Dallas, which has the state’s largest Stonewall chapter.
Registration for the convention is $75, which includes lunch on Saturday and brunch on Sunday, as well as admission to a cocktail party and fundraiser for Polis on Saturday night. The convention will be followed by Equality Texas’ Lobby Day at the state Capitol on Monday.
For more info or to register for the Stonewall convention, go here.
$75 ain’t that much but Graney might consider the fact that there’s this little thing going on called a recession. On top of a $35 suggested donation to the campaign and “the special group rate for these rooms is $109/night (not including local taxes) for a queen-queen or king” at the DoubleTree, the event turns out to be a bigger burden on the wallet than a mere $75. People probably don’t want to spend their money like that.
I am fairly surprised by the “handful” from Dallas since Jesse Garcia will be honored and perhaps that will increase. But conventions need to be a bit more modern. Do all this online with a smaller fee and a password to the online goings-on and perhaps more people will attend or participate.
I will pay them the 75 bucks if they will tell us:
What have you done for us lately?
Show be a breakdown of where the money is going?
What did you do about the Cinemark issue?
Which group of Jesse Garcia is he being honored for?
What has he done for us lately?
My suggestion, go buy yourself some Church’s Fried Chicken, and drop of the rest of the cash at a democratic congressman/senator that is doing the work they should be doing for us.
Cut out the rubber chicken middle man.
I can’t speak to Jesse’s political activism, but I can say that he is an important supporter of Resource Center of Dallas and our nutrition center/food pantry. He has organized food donations to our program, invited us to come and discuss our programs with his employer and took time off of work to help us move into our new location.
“Not Rich,” or whoever you are, what have you done?
I was standing next to you unloading and packing in the food for the resource center like I have been doing for the last 8 years. Since it seems to be against the law to question the motives of those that ask for our money without a snarky reply, perhaps the Stonewall would like to open the books to let us know what will be the total loss of $ if this is not a sell out. Perhaps they will let us know why Mr. Foreman and Mr. Polis need to fly in first class?
We need to find ways to get the money to those who need it without so many middle men and so many rubber chicken dinners.
So your choice Mr Rafael of not answering the questions poised, that are very legitimate, and instead attacking the messenger, just lost you two of your biggest cheerleaders.
Just to be clear, Jesse doesn’t speak of his political activism either.
Not Rich,
Thank you for your volunteer service. It is valued and appreciated, and I do not mean to minimize it in any way. Nor, do I want to discourage you from asking questions. I’m not the person to answer them, though.
What I wanted to express is my concern over the level of personal sniping and enmity that I’ve seen in the past few months since the Prop 8 loss. As individuals, we may disagree on tactics and strategy, and there may be personality conflicts. But in my view the end goal, whether it’s Stonewall, Log Cabin (in the interest of full disclosure, I am not a member of either) or any other group, is to achieve full equality for the GLBT community. This can be direct protests, lobbying the halls of power from Marilla St. to the U.S. Capitol, volunteering with community groups or anything else in between. The end goal is the same, even if the means are different. Too often we get caught up in what “we” are doing, and because somebody else chooses to do something else we minimize or discount those efforts. I’m just as guilty as the next person when it comes to this. We can do better–and we should.
In the days of Madoff and Stanford, it is remarkable that someone would snipe at the person who is asking for financial data or background. Even more remarkable that the person doing the sniping is so responsible for getting needed goods to needy people. Your snap brings more questions than answers and I hope that the Dallas Voice will follow through.
I just wanted to respond briefly to “Not Rich’s” comments. This person seems to imply that there is some financial shenanigans or something taking place at Stonewall Democrats. As the current Vice President of the organization, I can assure you that this is NOT the case.
We are a non-profit all volunteer organization. No one is paid. The dues we collect, a mere $ 35 per year, go for administrative costs to pay for our website, mailings, advertisements that run in
the Dallas Voice, etc. He also infers that we are not only paying to fly Mr. Foreman and Mr. Polis to the conference this weekend in Austin, but doing so First Class !
Not only are we NOT paying their airfare, but we would certainly not be paying for First Class travel. I have no idea where “Not Rich” came up with something so ludicrous.
As far as opening up the books, our finances are published monthly and a balance sheet is presented to the membership at each of our monthly meetings. It’s no secret.
However what I most took offense to was the fact that he impugned Jesse Garcia, who is a
tireless servant of our entire community. The time and personal resources that Mr. Garcia has
given not only to Stonewall, but to LULAC, Valiente, Young Democrats, the Resource Center,
AIDS Arms, and others is truly impressive and I’m proud to call him a friend.