The story, as far as I know, started with this post on TransAdvocate by Ethan St. Pierre:

Early yesterday evening during a phone call conversation, I received a tip from a reliable, anonymous source revealing yet another one of HRC's true colors. According to my source, The Human Rights Campaign donated ten thousand dollars to the log cabin republicans and a big fat goose egg to the National Stonewall Democrats.

Stay tuned as more info comes in.

Naturally my interest was piqued, but HRC, LCR, NSD, and Ethan didn't respond to my emails for a week. So the story wasn't going to make it to TBP. Sorry, folks, it was too convenient to other people's narrative for my taste and I didn't know what proof Ethan had or who his sources were.

Then he emailed me a link to where he posted this email, from Steve Driscoll, Board co-chair of the National Stonewall Democrats:

From: StDris***************

To: _____________________

Cc: jho**************

Sent: Tuesday, August 19, 2008 2:24 PM

Subject: HRC Sucks.

In light of HRC taking the weasel way out - again - I think we should take the lead.

I might also add, that after beginning discussions with HRC in OCTOBER about collaborating on events for the Democratic National Convention (to avoid the the anger and resentment they engendered by their high-handedness in Boston four years ago) as well as requests for sponsorship of the NSD Denver convention, AND following up with phone calls every two months with no return calls, I finally heard from them TODAY that no sponsorship would be forthcoming. When I pointed out to Marty Rouse last week that they sponsored the Logs Convention, his response was "Oh right, we did, didn't we". I then pointed out the obvious, that there were a lot more of us than there were of them - and I got no response when I asked what they got for their purportedly $10,000 to the Logs.

When I called him (twice) today he said that budget constraints were the reason why they would not be giving us a comparable (or any) sponsorship. I siad that there was an inequity here and asked if no one took NSD under consideration when they decided to sponsor the Logs. I then suggested that perhaps they could come up with some other way show support. His response: "there will be couple of HRC staff people in Denver".

I don't know about the rest of you, but I am absolutely furious about this. Not only is this inequitable, it's fuckin dismissive and disrespectul. The task Force is at least giving us a stack of tickets to their Unity Dance. From HRC we're getting bupkiss - and worse.

I, for one, will not attend their concert - and I will not go quietly into that good night either.

Any ideas?

I tried to get a response to this from NSD, LCR, or HRC. Considering that the Unity Dance is co-sponsored by the Task Force, HRC, NSD, and several other organizations, it didn't seem kosher, but I know Ethan and, while I know he's not HRC's biggest fan, he wouldn't just make up emails.

So here's the response Bil finally got out of NSD's comm director John Marble:

I looked into this. Apparently that was a private email which was based on information that is now incorrect. It looks like that HRC did not sponsor the LCR event.

Regardless, we are focused on electing the Obama/Biden ticket and on the dangerous records of Senator John McCain and Governor Sarah Palin. I am always happy to comment on that!

And HRC's comm director Brad Luna adds:

We have not given anything to LCR more than a year. So, I don't know where this is coming from but it's not true.

LCR hasn't responded to requests for comment. I don't blame them.

I'm taking Marble's email as a confirmation that the email Ethan posted is real, but that the organization is backing away from the claims it makes.

The email might have been confused about the $10,000 HRC's 527 donated to "Republicans Who Care," a group of moderate millionaires who want to support non-fundie Republicans (h/t Michael Petrelis). The Nation points out that they probably aren't getting much bang for their buck, although the Republicans Who Care (And Who Have a Junky Website) haven't, as far as I can tell, directly given any money or support to the McCain campaign.

Not that that's either here or there. I have no proof that that's what Driscoll was actually referring to.

It's great, though, that the LGBT community is remaining vigilant and out-spoken. Michael Petrelis said on the phone to Bil just now, "The more eyes that follow the HRC money, the better."