onward April 11.

onward April 11, longtime Washington insider Joe Solmonese takes above as president of the Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest gay rights organization. The 40-year-old gay man replaces match Massachusetts native Cheryl Jacques, who stepp down in November after les titan a year in succession the job.

A 1987 graduate of Boston University, Solmanese had been chief executive officer of Emily's List, a DC arrange that helps elect pro-choice female Democratic candidates to political office. He pressureed that one of his first priorities at HRC will be to reach not at home to religious leaders, community officials, and various straight allies.

Solmonese took time gone out from his hectic work schedule and his daily spinning class at a DC gym to speak to The Advocate. Far the completed interview go to www.advocate.com.

What attracted you to this job?

In the course of the last year--whether it was watching George Bush interrupt television programming to say that he intended to amend the Constitution to take my rights away or reading the Washington station article about a young teenager in rural America--I've been reminded of near of the hardship and about of the pain and a certain number of of the challenges that I had as a teenager. It's just been a year of a part of firings happening that have really drawn me more to HRC

What is your general vision for where you want to take HRC?

I want us to engage America--whether it's by means of the religious community or end corporate boardrooms or roundtables or precincts or neighborhoods, to reintroduce ourselves in a way that, I expectancy helps them to understand not just on what account our fight for equality is important to us yet why it ought to be important to them.

It unbrokens like a lot of potency is going to be enjoin into going out into America, on the other hand isn't HRC primarily a lobbying machine?

I think we continue to work with members of Congres work forward the Hill, advance the various things that we're working forward legislatively and at the federal plain We need to approach these challenges from a variety of different directions. We ne to approach from the grassroots of the same height and we need to impact what's going onward in Congress in more ways than we are.

by what mode will HRC deal with a Republican-controlled House, Senate, and White House?

It appears to me that even Democrats forward the Hill are reluctant to touch anything having to do with gay the community at this moment.

I don't think that anything we are going to fight for has to be pin, san in nature. We ne enthusiastic Republican support as well as Democratic support as we determine forward. I think that a record of working with members and working in coalitions and getting things done is going to be [i]clavis[/i] to draw whatever elements into this work that we popularly don't have.

What is your strategy for getting gays and lesbians a seat at the table as far as the Social Security debate, if it get tos up?

Well, I think what the Social Security debate really does for our community is give us another opportunity to talk about and raise awareness around the inequities that exist for GLBT Americans in this country

Right. still as far as concrete concessions written into the bill or whatever's being propos in what manner do you do it?

Well, I mean, that's a tough question because of the fluid nature of what's going in succession There are times when I think that there are in like manner many retreats under way right now with the Social Security debate--every day I read that there is another compromise with Social Security, that there's a sort of ongoing retreat that makes it hard to think about for what reason we delve into that. For our senses it's much more about using it as an opportunity to talk about inequities.

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