by Eric Resnick

�What has hurt our movement for about a decade is the lack of an ACT UP for LGBT rights,� said National Gay and Lesbian Task Force director Matt Foreman in a private interview with the Gay People�s Chronicle after his state of the movement speech.

The AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power was known in the 1980s and �90s for direct action demonstrations.

However, �the primary voice in Washington, D.C. has been the Human Rights Campaign, an insider organization,� Foreman said.

�If you�re on the inside, you can�t be beating down the doors,� he noted, adding that there is currently �no LGBT progressive flank pushing the envelope.�

�After the push, the people in suits can walk in and get more,� Foreman said. �That�s how it worked with ACT UP. It was all planned that way.�

Foreman said that during his tenure, the Task Force established a presence on Capitol Hill with four lobbyists in order to bolster the policy work being done there.

�There have only been four earmarks to fund LGBT organizations,� Foreman said. �That�s not enough.�

He noted there are two levels of governmental work that must be done for LGBT rights.

�There�s no disagreement on the statutory part,� Foreman said. �Passing ENDA, ending �don�t ask don�t tell,� passing federal domestic partner benefits, and the repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act.�

�If we had a Congress and an administration dedicated to us, this part could be done rather quickly,� Foreman said.

Foreman said a big reason why that hasn�t happened is that LGBT people working in the electoral arena aren�t asking for enough, are asking for the wrong things, or are looking for political appointments and don�t want to make waves.

�They need to ask for attainable, specific things, not just �do you support such and such legislation,� � Foreman said.

The other piece is policies.

�There are hundreds of things the executive branch could do,� Foreman said, observing that people are not raising these with the presidential candidates.

�For example, every federal agency governs its own minority business procurement policies. A president could, through executive order, say that LGBT people are a minority for procurement purposes.�

�Even if it was only a fraction of money spent,� Foreman said, �imagine the change.�

The LGBT community has been too focused on �marquee issues� and �haven�t picked the low-hanging fruit,� he said.

Foreman said that the LGBT political donor community needs to be more assertive with candidates.

As to why that�s been difficult to do, he commented, �Lots of gays come to this with low self-esteem and low expectations. If the person in power shakes their hand, they substitute that for something tangible.�

�The earlier leaders of our movement had higher expectations than the current ones,� he concluded.