EDGE on the Net

A major gay-rights group said Thursday that Chuck Hagel’s comments on gays and his past votes are "unacceptable," another strike against the former Republican senator’s chances of becoming the next defense secretary.

The Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the nation’s largest LGBT civil rights organization, announced Aug. 6 it would spend $1 million in the four states facing marriage-related ballot measures in November: Maine, Maryland, Minnesota and Washington.

Over 40 locations across the country will be participating. These venues will be able to create a signature cocktail utilizing the Van Gogh Vodka flavor of their choice. For each drink sold, a donation will be made to the Give a Damn Campaign.

Donna Payne, the D.C.-based associate director of diversity for the Human Rights Campaign, as well as a founding board member of the National Black Justice Coalition, closed out March on a celebratory note.

Human Rights Campaign announced a new partnership with RaiseAChild.US, a nonprofit with the mission to promote and encourage the LGBT community to build families of their own through fostering and adoption.

The Human Rights Campaign announced that it has named Chad Griffin (the mastermind behind federal overturn of Prop. 8 and founder of the American Foundation for Equal Rights) its new president.

A major civil rights leader and former head of the NAACP has joined two other prominent African-Americans in making a video promoting marriage equality.

Joe Solmonese, the president of the nation’s largest GLBT equality lobbying organization, the Human Rights Campaign, has not renewed his contract and will be leaving the HRC next year.

The Human Rights Campaign is launching a bus tour to support marriage equality through states that don’t offer protections for gay and lesbian families. But would a conservative Republican’s similar tour have greater impact?

The Human Rights Campaign has partnered with immigration advocacy groups to sponsor workshops in Phoenix, Las Vegas, Long Beach, Calif., Denver, Dallas and New York to help documented immigrants apply for American citizenship.