Joe Solmonese, the president of the Human Rights Campaign, will not renew his contract and is expected to depart the nation's largest LGBT rights group by next spring.
Solmonese's departure caps a turbulent tenure that saw the organization help to repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" but also saw it come under withering attack from the community for not supporting a transgender inclusive Employment Non-Discrimination Act in 2007.
HRC made the announcement in a news release issued Saturday, August 27. Pam Spaulding first reported the news on her blog last Friday evening.
Solmonese's contract expires March 31, the agency said.
Rebecca Tillet, a co-chair of HRC's board of directors, noted in the release that the board had asked Solmonese to give it six months notice before leaving his position, "and he's done that."
Solmonese did not respond to a reporter's request for an interview but said, in the HRC statement, "Leading HRC has been an inspiring experience and a complete privilege."
"I could not be more proud of our staff, our volunteer leadership and of the extraordinary progress we've made together as a community," said Solmonese.
"HRC has never been stronger and after nearly seven years, this is the right moment for me to move on," he said.
Solmonese took the helm of HRC in 2005, following an 11-month stint by his predecessor, Massachusetts state Senator Cheryl Jacques. Jacques followed a nine-year tenure by Elizabeth Birch. Prior to Birch, the organization was led by its founder, Steve Endean; its first executive director, Vic Basile; and Basile's successor, Tim McFeeley.
Solmonese hinted he would be exploring "new professional possibilities" and would continue to be involved in such activities as fighting marriage bans and "ensuring President Obama is re-elected for a second term."
That latter comment will almost certainly fuel speculation by some that Solmonese is bucking for a position with the Obama White House or the re-election campaign.
HRC formally endorsed Obama's re-election in May.
In HRC's press release, Anne Fay, a co-chair of the HRC Foundation Board of Directors, called Solmonese an "outstanding leader" and credited him with putting HRC in "the best place the organization has ever been."
"Not only has our community secured historic victories," said Fay, "but our membership is larger and more active than at any time in our history, and our financial health is secure even in these difficult economic times."
The press release also credited Solmonese with leading HRC at a time when the LGBT civil rights movement has seen many gains – including repeal of DADT, passage of hate crimes legislation, and passage of a marriage equality law in New York.
Critics, no doubt, will also point out that, with Solmonese at the helm of the largest and most influential LGBT political organization in the country, there has been little to no real movement on the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, stinging ballot box losses on marriage equality in California and Maine, and no prospects for building significant Republican Party support for LGBT issues at a time when control of Congress is split between the two major parties.
ENDA flap
Solmonese faced some of his sharpest criticism in the fall of 2007, when openly gay Representative Barney Frank (D-Massachusetts) determined that there were not enough votes to secure passage of ENDA if it included gender identity protections. The House was controlled by Democrats at the time, and HRC stood silently on the sidelines for several days before finally issuing a statement that reaffirmed its 2004 position of supporting a trans-inclusive ENDA. But the statement also said that HRC would not lobby members of Congress against voting for the version of the bill that at the time contained protections only based on sexual orientation.
The House ultimately approved the gay-only ENDA, but there was not a vote in the Senate.
The current ENDA legislation is trans-inclusive, but now the House is controlled by Republicans and the bill is unlikely to come up for a vote.
Scott Wiener, who served on HRC's national board at the time of the disagreement, publicly broke with the organization over its stance and called for the legislation to be trans-inclusive.
Over the weekend, Wiener, now a San Francisco supervisor, praised Solmonese's leadership in a post on Facebook.
"He's been a strong leader for the organization, including through some very challenging situations, and I'm proud to call him a friend," Wiener stated.
Growth
According to the press release, HRC's membership grew from 750,000 to "more than 1,000,000" under Solmonese.
It's 2009 annual report, the latest available on its website, listed a combined income for HRC and its foundation at $45.79 million. Solmonese's salary, according to HRC's 990 tax forms for 2010, was listed at $288,190.
The organization issued the press release a day after Spaulding (at http://www.pamshouseblend.com) posted an entry saying that she had learned "from a trusted source in a position to know" that Solmonese would leave in December. The HRC statement indicated the organization has formed a search committee to select a new president. The press release does not indicate when Solmonese will leave.
HRC has a deep bench on staff. Managing director Susanne Salkind, the organization's number two, is an experienced attorney with political and management experience. She has served as deputy for the 2004 campaign to defeat the Federal Marriage Amendment, is liaison between the staff and boards, and has been heavily involved in electoral programs.
HRC national field director Marty Rouse has been responsible for mobilizing the group's one million supporters and members to take action at the local, state, and federal levels. Before joining the HRC staff in 2006, he headed MassEquality.
David Smith served as communications director for the organization from 1995 to 2003, then became vice president for programs, directing policy and strategy for the organization. He has experience on Capitol Hill, as a former aide to the late Senator Edward Kennedy, and deep ties to other national LGBT groups, including the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, and the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center.
Longtime HRC official and supporter Hilary Rosen said she thinks HRC now needs to be both a "visionary" and a "political strategist."
"Elizabeth [Birch] was a visionary who shone a light to the straight world at a time when we were more invisible," said Rosen, who used to be Birch's partner. "Joe was a political strategist at a time when we had a president and a Congress who wanted to work with us to get things done. The next leader," said Rosen, "will have to be able to do some of both. ..."
The HRC statement said the organization's four volunteer co-chairs will select the search committee and hire an executive search firm to help with the effort.
Cynthia Laird contributed to this report.