My Pal Joe

[July 5th, 2006] Big GLBT news: Rising political star Joe Solmonese came to P-town last week. He's been making waves nationally with everyone from Hillary Clinton on Capitol Hill to union workers in Pittsburgh. Appointed president of the D.C.-based Human Rights Campaign just last year, Solmonese, a 42-year-old, 5-foot-8-inch man-child, is a bundle of intense, controlled and focused energy. He needs it: He oversees this nation's largest gay-rights political organization, with 650,000 members and a budget of $30 million. Working the Beltway to the Bible Belt and all points in between on the behalf of GLBT rights, during his first six months in office Joe-on-the-go visited 35 cities in 22 states. Last week alone, he was in Portland, Salt Lake City, Milwaukee, Dallas and Kansas City, Mo.

But this is not the Joe I know.

I met Solmonese some 14 years ago. That's when he came from back east to work on Les AuCoin's senatorial campaign (before and during the Packwood scandal). I was a young punk then, and so was he. Off the clock, we loved nothing more than getting into mischief. Solmonese was as comfortable on a Sauvie Island nude beach as he was at a gay bar. When he left town after the election, he left me his bed (which I have to this day). After that, other than a short visit while he was executive director of the women-focused political organization Emily's List, we'd basically lost touch.

So imagine my surprise when I heard that Solmonese had become the top dog, at least politically, of the queer nation. I'd tried to contact him when he got the gig, but we never connected until last week, when he came to Portland to announce HRC's support of Basic Rights Oregon's plan to, as Solmonese says, "change the face of the Legislature in Oregon."

I'd never in a million years have thought Solmonese would end up in such a staid and powerful position. He wouldn't have expected it, either. Although he did tell me, when we had a chance to sit down and visit, that he had had an inkling of his future, even when he was in Oregon.

"The great thing about living in Oregon [during the AuCoin campaign] was, it was the first time I saw the GLBT community mobilize in such an effective way against a discriminatory ballot measure ['92's notorious Measure 9 would've added hate to our constitution by not allowing the state to 'promote, encourage or facilitate homosexuality']." This was also during the campaigns for Oregon U.S. Rep. Elizabeth Furse and President Bill Clinton. Solmonese was impressed how everyone put aside individual agendas and "worked for the greater good of the state."

He says one thing he's learned in his past 20 years in politics is that "you learn more from the ones you lose than the ones you win."

Given the state of gay rights—each week it seems there's one more ballot initiative around the country or in Congress seeking to curb those rights—I'm happy my friend has learned that lesson, and I'm confident my pal Joe just might be the guy to reverse our losing streak.