Coward Deanpeace fires Dems' gay outreach chief; Shakeup follows criticism by partner
Mood:
chatty
Topic: Lib Loser Stories
Donald Hitchcock (left) was fired May 2 as the Democratic Party's gay outreach adviser. His partner, Paul Yandura, said the move was in retaliation for a letter Yandura wrote accusing DNC Chair Howard Dean of failing to take adequate steps to defend gay rights. >>>>>
Dean fires Dems' gay outreach chief
Shakeup follows criticism by partner; Bond named replacement
Democratic Party Chair Howard Dean fired the party's gay outreach adviser Donald Hitchcock on May 2 less than a week after Hitchcock's domestic partner, Paul Yandura, a longtime party activist,
accused Dean of failing to take adequate steps to defend gay rights.
Dean immediately hired gay
former Democratic Party operative Brian Bond to replace Hitchcock as executive director of the party's Gay Lesbian Leadership Council, according to DNC spokesperson Karen Finney, who called Bond a "proven leader."
Bond served from 1997 to 2003 as executive director of the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund, a bipartisan national group that raises money and provides training to help elect openly gay candidates to public office.
"It was not retaliation," Finney said of Hitchcock's dismissal. "It was decided we needed a change. We decided to hire a proven leader."
Hitchcock confirmed that Dean informed him May 2 through a surrogate that he had been terminated. He said he was considering consulting an attorney to decide whether to contest the firing.
"This is retaliation, plain and simple," said Yandura. "This shows what they think about domestic partners."
Yandura said Dean was using Hitchcock as a "scapegoat" for problems of Dean's own making.
"All I did was ask questions about what the party and Dean are doing about its GLBT constituency," Yandura said. "I have yet to see any answers."
Hitchcock's dismissal came after Yandura created a stir among party activists, both gay and straight, by sending an open letter on April 20 to gay Democrats criticizing Dean and the party for not getting involved in state ballot measures seeking to ban gay marriage.
Yandura charged that the DNC failed to counter efforts by Republicans to promote the anti-gay ballot measures as a wedge issue to win elections. He suggested that gays withhold donations to the Democrats until the party formally addresses issues he raised.
Finney said Dean and party leaders were developing plans to address efforts by Republicans to push for constitutional amendments banning same-sex marriage. She said Dean and DNC high-level staffers met last week with officials from national gay rights groups to discuss strategy for opposing the ballot measures.
Longtime party activists
Yandura and Hitchcock have been a well-known couple in Democratic Party circles for many years. Both were involved in the presidential campaigns of Bill Clinton and Al Gore. Yandura served in the Clinton White House and held posts with the DNC. He currently operates a political consulting firm in partnership with former Clinton White House adviser Marsha Scott.
Hitchcock has worked at the Human Rights Campaign and, most recently before his DNC post, was executive director of the National Coalition of LGBT Health.
Bond worked on Bill Clinton's 1992 and 1996 presidential campaigns and headed the DNC's gay outreach office before becoming executive director of the Victory Fund. He has been living in New York City since 2003.
"I look forward to returning to the Democratic National Committee at this time of such great challenge and opportunity for our community," Bond said in a DNC statement. "Chairman Dean continues to listen to the needs of the LGBT community and stands as a leader in our fight for equality."
Bond could not be reached for further comment by press time.
Bond 'snatched away'
Dean's decision to hire Bond startled some board members of the National Stonewall Democrats, which represents gay Democrats and gay Democratic clubs throughout the country.
According to two sources familiar with Stonewall, the group's board had offered Bond the position of its executive director, and Bond was expected to accept the offer. The sources spoke on condition that their names be withheld because they want to remain on friendly terms with Dean and the DNC.
"In effect, he snatched Bond away from the NSD," said one of the sources.
The other source called Dean's decision to fire Hitchcock an overreaction.
"They are using Donald as a scapegoat," said the source. "What Dean should have done is bring in someone to help Donald."
Both sources said Dean scrambled over the weekend to offer the DNC outreach post to Bond and then called prominent gay Democrats on May 2 to inform them of his decision to replace Hitchcock with Bond.
A third DNC insider, who also requested anonymity out of concern for sounding critical of Hitchcock, said Dean and other DNC officials decided several months before Yandura's public criticism of the party that Hitchcock "was not the best fit" for his job.
"This was not necessarily Donald's fault," said this source. "He never received the confidence of Dean and high-level DNC officials that someone like Bond is certain to receive," the source said.
Hitchcock disputes this assessment. "I never had any bad performance review or anyone telling me I was not doing a good job," he said.
He said DNC officials Tom McMahon and Leah Daughtry said at the time they informed him of his dismissal on May 2 that the decision to let him go "was not in the works for several weeks" but had been made within the past few days.
Hitchcock said the firing came after McMahon and Daughtry asked him to resign and he refused.
More clout in DNC?
John Marble, a spokesperson for the National Stonewall Democrats, said the group would have no immediate comment on Hitchcock's firing. Marble said the group was hopeful, however, that the DNC would respond to concerns expressed by Yandura and other gay Democrats.
"This presents the DNC with the opportunity to lay out a good plan to encourage GLBT participation in the 2006 election cycle and a plan to combat anti-gay ballot initiatives," Marble said.
Andy Tobias, the DNC treasurer, considered the party's highest ranking openly gay official, said he was sorry to see Hitchcock leave his post at the DNC, but declined to comment on whether his departure was a form of retaliation by Dean.
"Donald is terrific," Tobias said. "I will miss working with him, and I'm really sorry this didn't work out," he said. "Brian is also terrific, and I think he'll bring our community even more clout within the DNC, which we deserve. Now, let's go out and win some elections."
Tobias said he respects and admires Yandura's work for the party in the past and understands his frustration over the Republicans' use of anti-gay ballot initiatives as a device to win elections.
"Paul is terrific, but I deeply disagree with his approach," Tobias said. "Paul and I have talked several times, and I let him know we are eager to receive all suggestions that will enhance the dignity and rights of the GLBT community, and at the same time enhance our chances of winning the elections or at least not diminish the chances."
According to Tobias, Yandura has responded to his inquires by repeatedly saying the party has to figure out on its own how to respond to the anti-gay ballot measures.
"It's not so easy to come up with these answers. But we are all ears," Tobias said. "We welcome anything he or others can suggest."
Dean's latest gay headache
The flap over Yandura and Hitchcock is on the latest headache for Dean and the DNC on gay issues.
Last year,
Dean upset some gay Democratic activists by eliminating the DNC constituency desk system, including the GLBT outreach desk. He said he replaced the desk system with a new system of integrating constituency outreach work throughout all DNC offices and programs
.
Dean said the new system would be an improvement over the previous system, and that the party would expand its gay outreach efforts.
But some gay Democrats were
further angered in February, when the DNC released its "Annual Report to the Grassroots," which omitted any mention of gays or the party's gay outreach efforts. Activists pointed to a similar grassroots report issued a year earlier by Dean's predecessor, Terry McAuliffe, which included a detailed account of the party's gay outreach program
.
DNC officials insisted then that the six-page grassroots report issued by Dean was intended to be a brief, preliminary account of Dean's plan to rebuild the party by strengthening its field operation in all 50 states.
Then, six weeks ago, gay rights leaders met with eight prominent Democratic senators to
air their complaints about the party's "tortuous" positions on marriage and other issues.
Dean's trouble with gay Democrats comes after gays were credited with playing a crucial early role in the former Vermont governor's 2004 presidential run, raising large sums and generating word-of-mouth support based on Dean's role signing into law his state's landmark civil unions law in 2000.
Southern Voice Online ~ Lou Chibbaro Jr. ** Dean fires Dems' gay outreach chief
Posted by yaahoo_2006iest
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Updated: Friday, 5 May 2006 1:14 AM EDT