Skip to main content

2009 Human Rights Campaign Houston Gala


Very nice evening -- although a bit low-key from an entertainment standpoint, which I suppose is a sign of the times. (See tweets on the right.)

Highlights:

Mayor Bill White gave an uncharacteristically impassioned speech about being on the right side of change -- that those who stand in the way of equality and civil rights for GLBT people are on their way out. He started out the speech (accepting the HRC Political Courage Award) with a great quote, "I've received many awards for a variety of reasons. I hope that we get to a time where we no longer need to give awards for simply treating people with dignity and respect."

Christine Baranski was bright and funny and entertaining -- ably weaving her personal story into the theme of the evening.

Not-so-highlights:

The fund-raising aspect of the evening was particularly heavy-handed. The hard-press is somewhat understandable given the climate for non-profits -- and HRC did just recently lay a bunch of staff off and Solmonese did take a pay cut. My problem wasn't so much with the need to raise money -- that's what these events are for -- it's the continuing lack of acknowledgment by the national organization for how much money from Houston (and the other Texas chapters) carries HRC. A little nod of the head towards that would go a long way to perhaps opening up the wallets a bit more. (We expect a little more than a thank-you reciept as an ATM.)

Congratulations to Shell -- glad you could catch up to the rest of us. Irksome quote: "We didn't want to just put some language in our policies, but to take a careful approach..." or something along those lines. Somehow implying that its peer energy companies -- namely Chevron and BP America -- are just giving lip-service... Newsflash, Shell wouldn't have been able to make the transgender-inclusive changes to its policies without Chevron's sharing of data on our experience in implementing the policy back in 2005. (And the Transgender Guidebook that I authored.) But enough grousing. If it took them this long to get to where we were in 2005, I wonder if they'll be able to move quick enough to keep that 100% score on next-year's survey.

All in all, a fun evening -- I even picked up some trinkets for my Mom's birthday in the silent auction. It was especially nice to see "my peeps" from work all decked out in snappy attire.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

More On Energy: Supply, Demand and the Not-so-free Market

Speculators in the market have, rightly, been targeted for thier use of the Enron-loophole to basically compete (unfairly) in a market that is mixed between highly-regulated (see integrated oil companies) and unregulated players (see commodity brokers). This imbalance of power has led to the free flow of capital to a market from sources that a decade ago largely abandoned investment in oil companies -- in favor of the speculative bubble of the dotcom boom. That lack of capital infusion -- and the capital-intensive nature of the oil & gas business -- led to the mega-mergers of 1999 - 2001. Bear in mind that even with all that merger activity among the multi-nationals, their true competition is with national oil companies -- basically branches of their nation-state governments: Pemex (Mexico), Petrobras (Brazil), Pedevesas (Venezuala), Saudi Aramco (Saudi Arabia), Cinoco (China) ... you get the picture. On the one end, you have national oil companies -- either in OPEC or non-aligned ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Looking back...

It being "the thing to do" on New Years Eve, here are some of the things that came to my mind about the last decade: Houston & the Weather Tropical Storm Allison flooded Houston causing more than $5.5 B in damage and 41 deaths -- as usual, the story was overlooked by the national media because a) it was happening in Houston and b) they were manically covering the Timothy McVeigh execution countdown.  Were it not for 9/11, Allison would have been the largest disaster of 2001. Hurricane Katrina devasted the central Gulf Coast, flooding New Orleans with water and Houston with evacuees.  While the nation watched the Bush Administration fail in its duties, Mayor Bill White and the people of Houston stepped into the void -- providing shelter and a path forward for countless "new" Houstonians. Hurricane Rita taught us that our own hurricane plans were inadequate. Hurricane Gustav taught us how quickly a major storm could develop. Hurricane Ike showed how re...
Post a Comment
Read more

Just Desserts: Double Peanut Butter Bars

This recipe takes the simple peanut butter cookie and "raises the bar"... with three layers: Peanut Butter Cookie on the bottom Rich peanut butter icing in the middle Topped with a chocolate shell Delicious and decadent! For the cookie base: Preheat oven to 350F.  Grease a 9x13 glass baking dish. 1 1/4 cup sugar 1 tablespoon dark molasses 1/2 cup creamy peanut buter 1/4 cup shortening 1/4 cup butter, softened 1 egg 1 1/4 cups flour 3/4 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 teaspoon baking powder 1/4 teaspoon salt Prepare peanut butter cookie dough (per normal recipe)  but do not refrigerate.  Instead, spread dough evenly on the bottom of the prepared baking dish. Bake for about 15-18 minutes.  Remove from oven and allow to cool completely.  For the middle layer: 1/2 cup butter, softened 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter 1 tablespoon milk 1 teaspoon vanilla 2 cups powdered sugar In a small bowl, beat the butter, peanut butter, milk, vanilla...
5 comments
Read more