At a noon EDT Washington press conference today, National Council for Lesbian Rights executive director Kate Kendell, Human Rights Campaign president Joe Solomonese, and various other gay and lesbian leaders publicly unveiled their recruiting strategy and goals for the first time.
"Considering that grass-roots recruiting has gone so well, we feel that now is the time to ‘come out’," Solomonese said. "We are confident that, with same-sex marriage growing in popularity, more Americans will wake up to the gay."
LGBT citizens are estimated to make up 2-5% of the population. Leaders revealed an aggressive plan to improve that number to at least 10% by 2016.
"We have to improve our power as a political and socioeconomic bloc in this nation," said Kendell. "The best way to do this is through targeted recruitment, and the environment has never been more favorable than now."
Leaders pointed out that, while desirably covert and often effective, grassroots recruiting efforts have little direction, and have occasionally resulted in unexpected conversions. "We weren’t really expecting the kind of Larry Craig moments we’ve had over the past couple of years," Kendell said. "It just doesn’t look good when your highest-profile recruits are Republican bathroom goblins. What next – pictures of Senator Bunning and Karl Rove coming out of a bathhouse? It’s gotta stop."
A staffer then briefly whispered in Kendell’s ear, at which point her eyes widened and she moved quickly to the next question.
Leaders did, however, indicate that they would prefer additional Republican recruits stay in the closet, unless they plan to suddenly stop voting against their own civil rights.
Speculation about recruitment techniques has run amok in right-wing publications in the past, and LGBT leaders said they felt that the best way to put those rumors to rest was to publicize the process and the benefits. "We were really annoyed with Ellen [DeGeneres] for revealing the toaster-oven incentive back in the ‘90s," said Solomonese. "It was funny, and Melissa [Etheridge] put a good face on it when Ellen told us she was going to go public with it, but at the time it really angered a lot of activists." Others noted that DeGeneres has since redeemed herself with her high-profile recruiting efforts over the past several years.
"She’s become an icon," Kendell said. "It’s like she and Portia are converting suburbia all on their own. Tulane was epic." Sources noted that approximately a quarter of that graduating class has since signed up to become gay, further raising DeGeneres’s profile as a star performer for the LGBT community. Some concerns were raised about duplication in recruiting efforts, but after California’s Proposition 8, noted one unidentified staffer, "some reinforcement is clearly necessary."
When asked about Rosie O’Donnell’s talk show, which preceded DeGeneres’s successful franchise, anonymous sources said that Tom Cruise was not considered a desirable recruit, in spite of O’Donnell’s continuous efforts to bring him into the fold.
Leaders were quick to point out that nothing in the recruiting literature is child-oriented, discrediting the continuous message from the religious right that the lesbian and gay movement targets children. Solomonese vehemently denied recruiting children. "We seek adult recruits," he said. "Parents who fear raising gay children should probably stop letting them watch The Wizard of Oz and old Barbra Streisand or Bette Midler movies. My mother was a huge Barbra fan."
Kendell nodded in agreement.
Recruiting incentives were grouped in tiers by performance, and included salon styling products, spa services, gift certificates to Home Depot, Subaru wagons and Volkswagen Jettas, as well as trips to San Francisco, Provincetown [Mass.], Key West, Burlington [Vt.], and other unidentified "fabulous" locations for top performers. When a Politico reporter noted in an offhand comment that Minnesota Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann drives a Subaru wagon, Solomonese stared at Kendell, open-mouthed.
"No," said Kendell, "just no. That wasn’t us."
The official District of Columbia recruiting kickoff will be this Sunday, with a champagne prayer brunch headlined by Rep. Barney Frank, former Republican National Committee chair Ken Mehlman, Rachel Maddow and Wendy Vitter.