I wish Joe Solmonese would just go away.

Mr. Solmonese has morphed into a true lightning rod of a public figure due to last year's ENDA debacle. Wherever he goes now, he's a reminder that the HRC flip-flopped horribly on basic civil rights legislation for all of their stated gender variant constituencies — constituencies which include transgender people.

But he's not going away — He's staying very visible. In fact, the San Diego Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, And Transgender Community Center sent out an email indicating he's coming here to my hometown of San Diego on Thursday evening to talk about marriage equality — but oddly, when I checked online on Wednesday afternoon, the event wasn't listed on The Center's community calendar.

Due to his public statements on ENDA over the past year, I'm one who believes that if there ever is an HRC operative that has zero credibility on equality issues, it's Joe Solmonese.

Frankly, with the possible exception of David Smith, I believe pretty much any other HRC operative could come to San Diego from the Washington DC office to talk about marriage equality and speak with some credibility. But Joe…Joe…to me, he really is a special case because he was the mouthpiece of the HRC's flip-flopping on only supporting a fully inclusive ENDA.

With perhaps some true irony, on Monday I received an email from the San Diego Democratic Club (SDDC) with a subject line of A Transgender Inclusive Democratic Platform - Make It Happen! The email announced a meeting that will discuss the adding of a plank to the Democratic Party Platform in support of transgender civil rights. This event is scheduled for the same day as Joe Solmonese's talk on ENDA.

I talked to people at both the SDDC and The Center, and apparently neither was aware of the other's event. Fortunately, the meetings are scheduled at different times during the day Thursday, so at least I don't have to choose whether basic civil rights for transgender people or marriage equality is the more important issue to me — frankly, both issues are extremely important to me.

But I did learn something about myself when I was thought I was going to have to choose between which of these events I was going to attend. And, what that was: I found I may have mixed feelings about the HRC and their mixed record with their gender variant constituencies, but I have no mixed feelings at all about Joe Solmonese. I would have attended the SDDC meeting not because I felt it was the more important of the two meetings, but it's because I really, really dislike like Joe Solmonese on a very, very personal level.

There. I said it. I'm not proud of myself for saying it; I'm not happy to realize how much I don't like Joe and how much that impacts my objectivity regarding the HRC. But it is what it is.

It isn't up to me, but if it were — well, I honestly wish Joe Solmonese would just go away. As a public voice of the LGBT activist community, he’s just become too much of a controversial, lightning rod of a public figure within the LGBT community to be a truly effective voice for LGBT people within and without the LGBT community. Plus, after all of his ENDA flip-flopping last year, I don’t believe a word that passes through his lips — he has absolutely zero credibility with me.

I'm not proud of saying that either.