Dorothy Height, One of the leading voices of the Civil Rights Movement has Died

The great Dorothy Height has died. She was 98 years old.

Dorothy was a very strong voice in the civil rights movement and an icon to many of us.

Height, whose activism on behalf of women and minorities dated to the New Deal, led the National Council of Negro Women for 40 years. She continued actively speaking out into her 90s, often getting rousing ovations at events around Washington, where she was immediately recognized by the bright, colorful hats she almost always wore.

She died at Howard University Hospital, where she had been in serious condition for weeks.

In a statement, President Barack Obama called her ''the godmother of the civil rights movement'' and a hero to Americans.

''Dr. Height devoted her life to those struggling for equality ... and served as the only woman at the highest level of the Civil Rights Movement -- witnessing every march and milestone along the way,'' Obama said.

Dorothy was also a strong LGBT supporter

Height, chair and president emerita of the National Council of Negro Women (in a photo here by Michael Collopy), has a history of supporting LGBT rights. For instance, Height and her friend Coretta Scott King, widow of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, were among those LGBT allies who worked the halls of Congress in 1996 with Elizabeth Birch, then-president of the Human Rights Campaign, when the Employment Non-Discrimination Act faced its first vote on the Senate floor. Vice President Al Gore was on standby to cast the deciding vote if necessary – but the Senate rejected ENDA 50-49.

She has accomplish so much and will be greatly missed.

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Steele, Man Up!

Head of the RNC, Michael Steele needs some balls. After Rush boasted his power at the CPAC this weekend, Steele was challenged about his leadership.


Then the Kingpin said this:
"So I am an entertainer and I have 20 million listeners because of my great song and dance routine," Limbaugh said. "Michael Steele, you are head of the Republican National Committee. You are not head of the Republican party. Tens of millions of conservatives and Republicans have nothing to do with the Republican National Committee...and when you call them asking for money, they hang up on you. I hope that changes. It's time, Mr. Steele, for you to go behind the scenes and start doing the work that you were elected to do instead of being some talking-head media star."

Okay, so I thought Steele would tell him he's poison to the GOP and they don't need his help. But no, Steele said:
"My intent was not to go after Rush - I have enormous respect for Rush Limbaugh. I was maybe a little bit inarticulate. ... There was no attempt on my part to diminish his voice or his leadership."

What? Leadership? Rush is not seen as a leader in the real world. He's a joke and an embarrassment to the human race. Steele, are you going to let this man mess up any chance of a comeback? Because if folks follow Rush, the GOP is doomed. He brings NOTHING to the table, however Steele, you might. Man up and handle your business.

Rush has not made any strides from GOP party and he never will. So save your party from total destruction, and show everyone who's the true leader.

Leadership under New Management, Please!

No on Prop 8 folks were supposed to steer us through the next phase. They would've kept Prop 8 as a non-threat and educate people about the equality and importance of voting no.

Well, that didn't happen. The campaign failed and with that launched protests, the blame game, and miss opportunities to focus the anger. And as the smoke clears, some new realities pops up.

Advocate did a piece that sheds some light on the major failure, mainly focusing on the inner circle. They include Lorri Jean of the L.A. Gay and Lesbian Center, Geoff Kors of Equality California, the National Center for Lesbian Rights’ Kate Kendell, Delores Jacobs of the San Diego LGBT Community Center, and Michael Fleming of the David Bohnett Foundation.

They claimed that the Yes on Prop 8 was just too big and ready to attack. But we should've been as well. This was and is war. We are fighting for our rights and to protect our rights, the No campaign should've been ready to battle.

Miss Lorri claims that they had a difficult time getting us on the ball. I find that hard to believe, but here's what she said: “If we could have found a way to energize our community faster, we could have competed with them. We experienced enormous complacency in our community until we finally put out the word that we were going down.”

But from the article, the inner circle only worked with the FABULOUS versus the grassroots. Several major donors and supports groups were turned away or not called back.

For an example, in my men's group, In The Meantime, one of our facilitators Jeffery King said he was ignored.

"We told them what should be done, we told them what they shouldn’t do — and they did what they wanted to do.”

Then it was lack of skills that did us in. Most of the inner circle folks haven't ran a campaign this serious and this big. They should reached out to everyone and brought in the overall community. Hell, they could've took a few pages from Obama's book about fundraising and networking.

The fact is they wasn't ready and that foolishness cost us. So now, we need to get new leadership in the No for Prop 8 campaign and give these ice cream social planners the boot. If they knew we were struggling in money raising, support, and vision, they should sought better ideas to get us together. We needed them to be leaders and all we got is a bunch of wanabees. Please, for the sake of our rights, leave; and let the people not celebs, f**kbuddies, or your clique, pick who will lead us through to the next phase.