What I thought was particularly interesting about this choice was what it confirms about the values of the so-called "outing" campaigns. As I recently and previously blogged, both John Aravosis and Mike Rogers, despite their pronouncements that anyone who used sexual orientation for political gain would be "outed to the rafters", have not outed staffers of antigay Democrats who voted FOR the Federal Marriage Amendment and Marriage Protection Act, while going after Republican staffers whose bosses voted similarly and Republicans like Mark Foley who voted AGAINST both.
The plot thickens with the addition of Solmonese. As the Washington Blade reports:
Last year, Solmonese defended Emily’s List over the gay marriage issue when that group endorsed a pro-choice U.S. Senate candidate who backed a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage. The candidate, Democrat Inez Tenenbaum of South Carolina, received more than $300,000 in contributions from Emily’s List in her race against Republican Jim DeMint, who defeated Tenenbaum in November.
While this action on the part of EMILY'S List provoked outrage and public flagellation from activists for EMILY'S List founder Emily Malcom, who was no longer even directly associated with the group, Solmonese, the then-CEO, remained remarkably untouched and barely even mentioned.
To put this into perspective, I doubt a single one of these screaming activists would let a gay Republican staffer or organizational leader get by with endorsing candidates who endorsed the FMA with excuses about "political reality" or "think of the bigger picture". However, let a Democrat do it, and utter silence fills the air.
One has to wonder...why do these activists cease to care about gay rights when Democrats advocate and support taking them away?
UPDATE: The plot thickens even more in regards to Solmonese's selection. For daring to criticize HRC's choice, gay liberal blogger Michael of GayOrbit was blasted as a "gay right-winger" by RAWSTORYQ -- the "queer" side of liberal gadfly blog RAWSTORY -- edited by none other than Mike Rogers! Back on Americablog, I'm still waiting for John Aravosis to even mention Solmonese's endorsement of FMA-pusher Tenenbaum.
Both Rogers and Aravosis have professed to dislike HRC in the past. Why are they suddenly being such syncophants for it now, especially given Solmonese's past?
UPDATE (10 March): Per Ian S.'s valid point, I have changed the wording of the post to clarify that my evidence shows that Rogers and Aravosis have not outed staffers of Democrats who voted for the FMA and MPA. The possibility exists that there are antigay Democratic legislators as well who are closeted; however, I do not have any evidence to that point. In either case, given Rogers's and Aravosis's "outings" of staffers of Republicans who voted for the FMA and MPA, as well as their pursuit of Republicans like Mark Foley who voted AGAINST the FMA and MPA and who has a higher HRC "gay-friendly" score than most Democrats, it seems safe to say that these "outings", contrary to Rogers's and Aravosis's claims, are almost wholly partisan and have very little to do with gay rights.
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