There are many different Pro-queer advocacy groups represented on the internet in the United States. The largest of which is the Human Rights Campaign. As we browsed this site, we learned that the Human Rights Campaign integrates politics with respect to equality and fairness for Gays and Lesbians. The mission or purpose of this organization (Human Rights Campaign) is to promote awareness and educate the public on Gay and Lesbian issues in a political forum. They do this through the following: lobbying the federal government on Gay and Lesbian issues, AIDS issues, educating the public, participating in election campaigns, organizing volunteers, and finally providing expertise and training at the state and local level.

As we examine the website, we quickly learned that the Human Rights Campaign has a political agenda in its purpose and mission. For example, while browsing the site we discovered that the HRC (Human Rights Campaign) maintains the largest full time lobbying team in the nation devoted to issues of equality and civil rights for Gay and Lesbian Americans. This essentially means that the HRC has a strong influence on Capitol Hill. This organization lobbies congress and the Senate on issues such as: protecting Americans from job discrimination based on sexual orientation, hammering down on hate crimes, advancing sound public policies on AIDS and finally fighting discriminatory legislation promoted by anti-gay extremists. Noting the previous, we see that the strategy of the Human Rights Campaign is mainly a political one, with lobbyists trying to further Pro-Gay and Lesbian legislation.

The Human Rights Campaign takes on more than one perspective in our opinion. As both team members browsed this pro-queer website, we feel that it possesses a critical perspective. In respect to this approach (critical), the website repeatedly mentions and dictates to us the browser (reader) that there are grave injustices in the law pertaining to Gays and Lesbians and that these laws and must be changed. The HRC tries to change these laws by drafting pro-queer legislation that is then viewed by the Congress; also critical of the current order by trying to elect new and more progressive politicians through election PAC’s (political action committees). For example, in the 1996 elections, the Human Rights Campaigns PAC, contributed more than $1 million to help elect fair-minded candidates at the federal level. Of the 170 races in which HRC actively participated, 84% of the HRC-endorsed candidates won--up from 67% in 1994.(www.hrc.org/, mission section, pg.01). In terms of the essentialist/social constructionist debate, the HRC does not argue one or the other. Instead the Human Rights Campaign is solely concerned with the actual civil rights of the Gay and Lesbian individual, rather than arguing about how the person became a homosexual.

While browsing this site both team members felt, that this site portrays Gay and Lesbian activism in the 1990’s. As we have learned in our class, the rise of the Gay and Lesbian movement which essentially started after the Stonewall riots in New York City, was a much more radical and social movement. This movement stressed basic equal rights for Gays and Lesbians in our society. It also wanted to make Gays and Lesbians, and their issues more visible. Today, with the Human Rights Campaign, we see activism in a different light, a political one. The HRC more than anything is a political site that stresses economic, social and constitutional equality for Gays and Lesbians. In contrast to the Radicalism of the 1960’s Gay and Lesbian movements, the HRC is more pragmatic and portrays its ideology through the political spectrum.

In analyzing the Human Rights Campaign in respect to their political agenda we definitely observe that this website has a liberal edge. The website promotes social, constitutional and economic justice. All of the preceding, as we know are associated with a left wing ideology. But, both team members also observed that this organization (Human Rights Campaign) donates money not only to Democrats but also to Republicans and Independent candidates and their respective parties. This makes the analysis of the HRC somewhat difficult. It is difficult because one cannot brand this organization as radical or left wing, due to the fact that the HRC donates regularly to Republicans and Independents. For example, the HRC supported Tom Campbell (R-San Jose) in his 1998 bid for re-election to Congress. Tom Campbell also received an 89 percent rating on the Human Rights Campaign’s legislative bills and issues. This clearly tells us that the HRC tries to reach out to those who might have another perspective or ideology other than a liberal one. On the other hand, the Human Rights Campaign’s main support still lies with Democrats rather than Republicans. For example, Barbara Boxer was endorsed by the HRC in the 1998 election for the Senate. She is a major player for this organization, having had a 100 percent rating, since she became a US Senator in 1993.

In respect to where this organization stands in terms of a strategy against the religious right, the HRC uses the political forum to challenge the religious right . The Human Rights Campaign fights the religious right and other conservatives by trying to change anti-homosexual laws and ordinances such as: sodomy laws (state level), anti-gay measures barring homosexuals from marriage, etc. The religious right’s agenda is in complete contrast to that of the Human Rights Campaign because the religious right favors anti-gay marriage laws such as the Defense of Marriage Act. For example, the religious right stresses the importance of morals and values that are consistent with the traditional nuclear family. As we know, this traditional nuclear family undermines the Gay and Lesbian movement as well as other movements such as the women’s movement. In respect to the "cultural wars", as discussed in class, we see that the HRC and religious right’s war is over values. The religious right believes that heterosexuality is and should be the dominant norm. Groups such as the Christian Coalition defend traditional family values which upholds the hierarchical order with heterosexual, white males at the top. In contrast to this belief, the Human Rights Campaign takes on the critical approach, which tries to dismantle or change the current hierarchical order through pro-Gay and Lesbian legislation.

The educational strategy and focus of the HRC is to promote that Gay and Lesbians are ensured of their basic equal rights. They do this by providing an environment where Gays and Lesbians can be open, honest and safe at home, at work, and in the community. The HRC does this by providing training and seminars at the state and local levels in regards to educating the public on issues of homosexuality. The public is also educated politically through HRC backed candidates showing that homosexuals are regular everyday hardworking people that are entitled to the same civil rights that most Americans have and enjoy. For example, when Senator Barbara Boxer talks about the need for a Hate Crimes law, which protects blacks, Hispanics, Asians, and homosexuals; the public becomes aware of the homosexual and thus educated about who they are in our society. This kind of education promotes the visibility that is needed for the Gay and Lesbian movement to gain support and further its agenda.

The HRC also sponsors, the National Coming Out Project. This project is an ongoing campaign to encourage and empower every Gay man and Lesbian to educate America by letting others know who they are. Education and visibility also further the Gay and Lesbian movement as well as the HRC, by encouraging homosexuals to come out to others. When homosexuals are prevalent within society in mediums such as: the media, politics and other realms the coming out of Gays and Lesbians becomes larger and consequently more diverse. As we have seen in our classroom’s coming out panel, the more educated and accepting the society is of Gay’s and Lesbians, the more likely we are to see diversity as a result of this.

In conclusion, after having done our analysis on the Human Rights Campaign we have determined that this organization, as seen on its website, is political in its strategy. The organization is trying to change the current hierarchical order that we have in our society today. They do this through drafting legislation and bills that empower Gay and Lesbian civil rights. The Human Rights Campaign tries to change the definition of what a Gay or Lesbian person is. The homosexual is your neighbor, co-worker, friend, family member...not the deviant, over-sexual person that is portrayed by our society, through the media and patriarchal family structure. What the HRC is trying to accomplish for the Gay and Lesbian community, is to integrate them into mainstream society with the basic civil rights that every other group in the United States is entitled to.