Thursday, June 23, 2011

And Then There Were Eight. More Resignations at GLAAD

GLAAD, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation serves an important role.  I am somewhat attached to this organization since I served on the board of the local chapter here in Dallas many years ago during the organizations formative years.  Back then, the local chapters were really a grass roots effort to monitor the media and attempt to change the way LGBT people were portrayed.

Today GLAAD seems to be more about Hollywood celebrities and media money.  Just look at the current scandal that has decimated the Board of Directors of the organization.  So far eight members have resigned over the AT&T letter campaign to the FCC in which GLAAD directors sent letters that seemed to be against "net neutrality".  Is this an LGBT issue?  Maybe.

More startling was the letter to support the merger of AT&T and T-Mobile. Other than AT&T being a corporate sponsor of GLAAD this one seems a real stretch and it is what brought the board down. 

For me the most important resignation was that or Troup Coronado. He resigned voluntarily, stating that he wanted "to do what was in the best interest of GLAAD."  Troup must feel awful about it, but I have serious questions about his loyalties since he previously served with the Heritage Foundation, a far right organization that has a well known anti-gay stance.  He also worked for Orin Hatch of Utah and his work helped put several judges backed by George W. Bush on the bench.  I would pretty much classify Mr. Coronado as a "mole" who has infiltrated the LGBT  political scene with questionable motives or perhaps he is working deep cover in the GOP, however that seems pretty remote.  This is all speculation of course, and I seriously doubt if we will ever know the whole story.

Welcome to LGBT politics!

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