Austin360 blogs > Out & About > Archives > 2010 > March > 24 > Entry
Human Rights Campaign Dinner at Hyatt Regency Austin
As a gay man, who came out almost exactly three years after the 1969 Stonewall Riots; who remembers — like it was last weekend — when, doing so, threatened one’s career and family; when “gay panic” was a free pass in many courtrooms for assault or murder; when daily newspapers ran the names and mugshots of patrons snared in raids of gay bars, thereby putting their reputations in jeopardy; to someone of my age and memories, the Human Rights Campaign is something akin to a miracle.
Rick Payton, Linda Payton and Bishop Gene Robinson
(For those readers who think there’s already too much gay material in a column entitled “Out & About,” please page to another austin360.com blog today.)
Nevertheless, the national civil rights group — and correlated organizations such as Lambda Legal — have come under increased fire for their mainstream, incremental political approach, as they work closely with straight allies to end “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” promote marriage equality and other such still-divisive issues.
It reminds me of periodic criticism aimed at the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, a group explicitly compared to the Human Rights Campaign during a gala dinner at the Hyatt Regency Austin on Saturday.
Lara Deen, Samantha Barnes and Robyn Mabry
The ties among generations of civil rights activists was emphasized during a speech by national Campaign president Joe Solomonese, who informed the full house that, earlier in the day, Tea Party backers had slung racial and gay slurs at Congress members during healthcare reform protests in Washington D.C.
Other incisive speeches were given by Bishop Gene Robinson (whose very existence has split the Anglican communion) and soap opera actor Scott Evans (who plays a breakthrough gay character on “One Life to Live”), before jazz singer Kellye Gray scatted into the night.
(Partners Jill Wilcox and Karen Langsley, along with their children Zach and Kim, earned Bettie Naylor Lifetime Achievement Awards.)
Nathan Michaud and Justin Stephens
Despite the good will emanating from the dais, the Campaign dinner was not without glitches. The following tips apply, not just to this particular dignified and uplifting event, but, in ways, to dozens of other Austin galas this season. (So don’t take it personally, guys and gals.)
Don’t schedule during South by Southwest.
Post more than three volunteers at the sign-in table, otherwise a line stretches to the hotel door.
Don’t position two slow, poorly manned, expensive drink stations so close to the live-auction maze that social mingling is blocked.
And once that mingling comes to a virtual halt, don’t keep guests out on an atrium terrace while guarding the doors to the banquet hall.
Serving salad before the speeches is a good idea — hunger causes crankiness — but why deliver the main course while half the house is out on the terrace socializing, bidding on auction items or — again — waiting in an endless drink line?
This applies to virtually every gala in Austin: In the advice of fictional E! executive Jack, played by Alan Tudyk in the comedy “Knocked Up” — “Tighten … tighten.” I know this is a big moment, but longer than four hours. Really?
Repeat: Don’t schedule during South by Southwest.
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