Here’s the whole GSE press releaseBravo Garden State Equality!

Garden State Equality ends giving to political parties, will now contribute only to individual candidates and pro-LGBT non-party organizations
Garden State Equality asks its 65,000 members, who make their own decisions as to individual political contributions, to do the same
Monday, February 8, 2010
Contact:  Steven Goldstein, cell (917) 449-8918
         Sending a bold signal that no political party should take the support of the LGBT community and its allies for granted, Garden State Equality’s Board of Directors has unanimously approved a new provision for the organization’s bylaws that immediately precludes Garden State Equality from giving financial contributions to political parties and their affiliated committees.   Under the new policy, Garden State Equality will make financial contributions only to individual candidates and to non-party organizations that further equality for the LGBT community.
The bylaws provision asks Garden State Equality members, who make their own decisions as to individual political contributions, to refrain from contributing to parties and their affiliated committees.  The complete text of the new policy is below.
“No political party has a record good enough on LGBT civil rights that it can rightfully claim to be entitled to our money on a party-wide basis,” said Steven Goldstein, chair of Garden State Equality.  ”No longer will we let any political party take our money and volunteers with one hand, and slap us in the face with the other when we seek full equality.”
“Our Board of Directors felt so strongly about adopting this new policy,” Goldstein said, “that it unanimously decided to include it in the organization’s bylaws.”
With more than 65,000 members, Garden State Equality is New Jersey’s largest civil rights organization – and one of the nation’s largest.   Garden State Equality’s Board of Directors consists of 85 LGBT and non-LGBT members.  
Since Garden State Equality’s founding in 2004, New Jersey has enacted 210 LGBT civil rights law at the state, county and local levels.   A 2009 year-end survey by eQualityGiving.com ranks New Jersey as #1 in the United States for LGBT civil rights, tied with California, Iowa and Vermont.   Among New Jersey’s LGBT civil rights laws are a comprehensive anti-discrimination law, anti-hate crimes law and anti-school bullying law that all include sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression.   New Jersey and California are the only two states that provide paid family leave for same-sex couples.
The only LGBT civil rights law New Jersey does not have is marriage equality.   After the state Senate voted down a marriage equality bill earlier this year, Lambda Legal announced at a Garden State Equality news conference that our side is going back to court.
Here is the full text of Garden State Equality’s new bylaws provision:
Garden State Equality finds that financial contributions to political parties and their affiliated committees directly or indirectly support candidates who oppose full equality for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community, including marriage equality.  That runs counter to our organization’s mission.
Be it resolved that Garden State Equality shall no longer make financial contributions to political parties and their affiliated committees.  Henceforth, Garden State Equality shall only make financial contributions to individual candidates for public office, or to entities independent of political parties which further equality for the LGBT community through their choice of candidates or issues to support or oppose.
With this resolution, Garden State Equality sends two unmistakable signals to our political parties:  That none should take the support of the LGBT community and its allies for granted, and that none should write off the potential to earn the support of the LGBT community and its allies.
Though Garden State Equality’s members make their own decisions as to individual political contributions, we urge our members to contribute solely to individual candidates for public office, or to entities independent of political parties which further equality for the LGBT community through their choice of candidates or issues to support or oppose; and not to political parties or their affiliated committees.
          Paid for by Garden State Equality, 500 Bloomfield Avenue, Montclair, New Jersey 07042, Robert S. Powell, Treasurer.

SeriouslyI’ve never understood why people give to a generic political party. Our household has never done it.
Case in point would be Michael Reasoner, the Democratic Rep in Iowa proposing a bill to overturn that state Supreme Court’s ruling on Marriage. I don’t want a penny of my hard earned money going into a pool for his re-election campaign. The Reasoner primary challengers will get close scrutiny for a donation because of his incendiary action.
Politics isn’t all local anymore.

A sign of things to come….hopefully

This needs to happenI would hope that Hawaii and New York are next.

Because…Supporting a moderate, pro-gay Republican is fine with one major condition. If supporting that candidate would give control of the legislative body to the Republicans, then supporting him or her is a bad idea. If the GOP controls the legislative body, they control the agenda and refuse to allow votes on our bills even if they have majority support.
The flip side was that it has seemed to make sense at times to try to help Democrats take control of legislative bodies. If we think there are enough moderate Republicans who’ll join with Democrats and pass our bills, it might actually make sense to support Democrats who aren’t gay friendly but who will give control of the legislative body to the Democrats. Once in control, the theory goes, the party can then bring out bills to a vote. After the 2006 elections, for example, a number of legislatures flipped from Republican to Democratic control, and we saw a flurry of new gay-rights laws enacted, including civil rights and civil union laws in several states.
But, lately, the Party has been perfectly willing to have us help them take or maintain control but then try to get out of voting on our bills or going through the motions without putting pressure on enough wavering members to pass them. They aren’t holding up their side of the bargain.

Amen!

“Don’t Ask, Don’t Give”It is precisely for this reason that I have signed “Don’t Ask, Don’t Give” on America Blog.  And, of course, I’ve extended it to state and local politicians.  It means that when I get the (frequent) solicitations from the Democratic Party and its various subgroups, I send back the solicitation with an explanation of why I am refusing to give them money – I fear that if I don’t do that, they won’t realize the reason they aren’t hearing from me.

Againthe assumption is that Democrat automatically = equality. It’s not about the party, it’s about the candidate.

I have been doing this for 8 months now…i also return requests from Environmental, Health Care etc. with the same phrase.NOT A DIME to ANYONE for ANYTHING, until DADT is repealed.