TIES TO WEAPONS COMPANY: HRC is supported by big donors, including corporate partners like Microsoft, Morgan Stanley, and Target. Among HRC’s Platinum Partners is weapons manufacturer Northrop Grumman.
In 2023 HRC exemplified pinkwashing by awarding two weapons companies, Northrop Grumman and Boeing, its highest Corporate Equality rating for their “treatment of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer employees.” Pinkwashing involves the use of rhetoric supporting LGBTQ+ identity to obscure justifications for violence, war, militarism, or any oppression that materially harms others.
CULTURAL & POLITICAL POWER: HRC is the largest civil rights organization in the United States focusing on “the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people.” Established in 1980, HRC is a uniquely powerful lobby that represents a significant portion of the Democratic Party’s voting base. Insiders say that HRC is the organization that the Biden administration most closely listens to on policy, and leaders of the organization meet with the Biden-Harris administration on a weekly basis.
RESPONSE TO GAZA GENOCIDE: On Valentine’s Day 2024, over 100 protestors gathered outside HRC’s headquarters in Washington, D.C. demanding that the organization call for a ceasefire in Gaza and condemning the organization’s pinkwashing of the war machine.
HRC’s entanglement with weapons companies and the genocide gentry is a key barrier to the organization’s support for a permanent ceasefire.
An ongoing campaign, led by Adalah Justice Project, ACT UP New York, No Pride in Genocide, Writers Against the War on Gaza, and others, is demanding that the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) sever its ties with Northrop Grumman. The campaign calls on HRC to align its policies and actions with its stated values of equality and dignity by advocating for a ceasefire, ending relationships with weapons companies, and supporting Palestinian lives, including those of queer Palestinians.