HmmmmI’m sorry, but I just can’t resist.  Truly.  Apparently I’ve allowed it to sink into my brain, and so all I can think of to say to this is something that feels like a sucker punch but has a certain amount of pathos to it that I simply can’t ignore…

“Looks like we need to do more educating!”

OR at least that we really don’t matter much.  We are the lowest priority (but still in there, oh joy!).
Flat out, to me, personally, this literally bellows, it screams, it roars and and it hollers, it makes it incredibly clear to me that we need to support our own.
We need to find, train, and put forward candidates that ARE LGBT, not merely allies that place our needs and our human rights and our dignity and our lives at the bottom of the pile.
20 years ago, being in the pile would have been good enough.
IT isn’t today.

I’m frankly surprisedthat public education polled as high as it did.  Gallup’s Most Important Question usually shows education as a VERY low priority for most Americans.
It’s nice to see that most Democrats consider LGBT rights at least somewhat important – but we already knew it would never trump things like health care (shouldn’t that be at like 0% since that bill was salready passed?) and economic development.

the tyranny of the majority rules againTo Hell with doing what is just and good!  All of these issues demand attention, and using a plebiscite to prioritize reflects an inability on the part of the DLCC to articulate why all of them matter.  

If they have to ask……that means they have not been listening or they are afraid that the donations will not flow this year. My guess is that is both.

No different than putting LGBT rights to a voteIf you let the majority decide how things should be it would only be beneficial to the majority.

+1 N/t

Well…It seems they aren’t doing much of anything on any issues considered important in their poll.  The Health Insurance Company Enrichment Act of 2010 was completely half assed…  The energy bill is dead and they want to cut taxes on the rich and cut spending, so economic development isn’t getting any action.  Public education, I really don’t know, I’ve heard practically nothing on it.  Transparency/Ethics?  Don’t make me laugh.  So, I guess the Dems are devoted to equally disappointing everybody.  And they want my support?

Finally, some good newsAs soon as they take care of the economy, health care, solve the energy problem, get the environment taken care of, solve the public education crisis, and clean up all the ethical problems in government, they’ll get around to getting rid of the laws that make us second class.
So close I can almost touch it. It might even happen in my great-great-great-grandchildren’s lifetime. I’ll leave them a note to tell them to be sure and send some campaign contributions as soon as it happens.

In NY, the Dems only conversation in educationis about cutting it ruthlessly
The econ development discussion is limited to taxing the Seneca Nation(in violation of treaties)

Two words: New StrategyThe LGBT community has been strolling along with this Dems/State by State strategy long enough.  It’s time to mix it up a bit.  It’s time to “Close the gAyTM” to the Dems and focus our attention elsewhere.  I say we pour all of the gay dollars into lawsuit after lawsuit until something gives.  If we truly believe in America and we truly believe that we deserve these rights then we have nothing to fear in the Judicial Branch of government since the other two branches let us down so bad.

Nice? Not really.“It’s nice to see that most Democrats consider LGBT rights at least somewhat important.”
I suspect that is only because it was one of the six choices that they were presented with.  If it were an open ended questionnaire where the respondents were given a blank piece of paper and asked to list the 6 most important issues to them I doubt that we would have made a blip.
Notice too that our rights were a top priority of 4% of those responding.  Gays equal what percentage of the population? I bet that that if all the responses from LGBT folks were not counted gay rights would have received a “0″.
 

So…Public Education–Fail
Econ Development–Fail
Transparency/Ethics–Epic Fail
Energy/Environment–Drill, Baby, Drill!
Equal Rights–We know about that one.

Always WonderedI always wondered what the final tallies were for those surveys I fill out. I would think the Democratic leadership would not want these public since it shows how little folks care about GLBT people. Now I wonder what percentage of donations to the Democratic party come from gay folks.  Probably more than 4%.
There is one thing to consider though, most people want a strong economy because it affects almost everyone; most people want good health care because it affects almost everyone.  But most people don’t care about the GLBT community because they are not GLBT.  I am sure that my very supportive family would not put Equal Rights as number one or number two.
To the person who mentioned electing our own – that will only get us to 8-10% who care.
So, what do we do? I think the best approach is to shame them into doing something. I like the get in their face and get their attention comments I have been seeing. That seems to be the only way to make progress.

You are thinking of health insurance reformAbsolutely nothing has been done to change health CARE in this country.

I could have forgiven absolute lack of progresson LGBT stuff if there actually were HCR.  Even the “robust public option” would be better if it were there, although single-payer would have actually gotten forgiveness for not doing anything.

How sweet. Another report, soon to be a memo and then a promise…I’ll take the easter eggs any day. At least they’re real.  

I think this poll…was developed as a tool to show the LGBT population how small a priority our rights are when compared to other issues. This provides the DNC with an excuse to not focus on or follow through with campaign promises if most of those polled do not think equal rights are all that important.  The DNC can show us this poll and tell us how they are trying despite most people not caring.
Of course this is how the poll would come out.  The majority is not going to be that concerned about us.  It is up to us to fight for our rights and to educate those about us on how our daily lives are different from theirs, because we are not afforded so and so. It is necessary to continually point out the inequalities that exist, but that are taken for granted by the majority.  Work locally and close the gAyTM to the DNC.

Public education: Race to the top, enriching charter schools and bleeding dry publiuc schools…That’s sort of the Obama administration’s public education agency.

You underestimate usAnd you underestimate the power of 8 to 10%.

dyss is rightyou have to figure that nearly 30% of us are LCR’s based upon voting in the past and another percentage are independent; neither group of which would figure in and therrefore the percentage reflected would be less than half of the LGBT community

and a shift of that 10% would have changed the primary outcomesand altered history

A Majority of those PolledProbably the majority of those polled are people who already have all the rights that we don’t have. Of course they would put equal rights as low in importance. It wouldn’t affect them so it’s not as important to them. That is the reason health care moved down in the poll from 2009 to 2010. A majority probably feel they got what was needed for them in the health care legislation that passed so health care is no longer as important to them. You are totally right bkmn, and this makes a great case for not putting equal rights for a minority in the hands/voting booth of the majority.

I think that’s more like20-25% of LGBTs are LCR…and it’s been that way with the oldest polling that I’ve ever seen (Dubya got 25% of the gay vote in 2000).
Exceptions, I would think, would have been when the Republican Party really, truly cranked up the anti-homo heat…that is, 1992 and 2004.

that would have atracted moreof the bdsm boys

Yeah, if I were a straight DemocratYeah, if I were a straight Democrat, I’d prioritize everything that affects me above gay rights too. Where is the surprise in this?

This is hardly surprisingPeople who already have their rights and protections care little about those who don’t.  Look at how little the GLB community cares about the rights and protections of trans people in New York and all those other states that have sexual orientation equality but not gender identity.
I have to agree with Dyss, we need more GLB and especially T politicians in office, if only to counteract the lies of the “religious” right.

A few notes about our surveyWe thought we’d join the conversation and make a couple points about our survey:  
1.  It was not a scientific poll – most respondants were readers of either our blog or our email newsletter.  
2.  Equal rights is something we strongly support.  And we’re not shy about saying so – here’s what our Chairman (Iowa Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal) had to say just a few days after the marriage equality ruling in Iowa:  

3.  Part of the reason we did the survey is because it’s simply not enough to tell legislators that we, the DLCC staff, support equal rights (or education or more job promotion, etc.).  It’s so much more powerful if we can show that over 80% of our regular readers are with us, too.  

You should prioritize our rightsNot because they are hard,  but because they are easy.
Yes,  things like the environment and the economy are ‘bigger’  than us, (More important to me, even,)    but that doesn’t mean that we should have to sit around and wait.  
‘Priorities’  is a funny word.   There’s no one solution to the problems we are in,  but if you help free us from having to fight for our own lives,  we can be a big part of the solution to the other things.  
Sweeping the workbench isn’t bigger or more important than the next cabinet you build,   but it’s silly to think you’ll get a better result if you say,  ’I'll just wait till the cabinet’s done to square things up.’  

Draggng out social justice,…not to put too fine a point on it,  may make the Democrats think that as long as we’re desperate,  they have a ready supply of guaranteed votes,    but if the party wants to actually show they can do something,   screw the social acceptance of the Republican base,   get it done.  
Their bigotries and the inustices in the law would be knocking us down and being a drag on the economy, still,  even if everyone was still enjoying the bubble.   In fair economic weather or foul,  this has always been how it is,  whether we ‘work hard and play by the rules’ or not.  
Our equality under the law isn’t some expensive luxury:  it in fact costs nothing and could put five to ten percent of the nation a lot further on the road to recovery.  
The solutions to these big problems aren’t something that can be worked out in one big go, anyway.   Our rights are one of those things:   only the bigotry against us is expensive.  
You want economic recovery and sustainable energy and better education?   Cover us,  so we can get in the game.  

Yes, but you won’t hesitateto take our money, our votes, and our time. In return for this, we get tepid support from you at best (oh, yeah, but the Republicans…)
As if taking our money, our votes, and our time should not entail that you pay more than lip service to our issues and do your part in quelling a lot of the homophobia in your own party.  

Yes! Exactly.I absolutely agree. We’re losing not to the likes of the Family Research Council, or even anti-gay GOP senators and house members. We’re losing to the indifference of our so-called allies. A good friend of mine, and someone I considered an ally, was recently surprised to learn (from me) that we still had DADT. “I thought that’d been repealed.” She didn’t know because she didn’t care enough to follow the issue. She’s not gay. It’s not a problem for her. Being an ally is not enough. You have to have some skin in the game.