Also honored were tennis legend Billie Jean King, former Amazing Race star Reichen Lehmkuhl and his partner Lance Bass, a former member of the youth band *NSYNC, and heterosexual HRC national board co-chair Michael Berman, who is retiring from his post. The honor of Bass was controversial, since he has only been out a few months, and he was forced to come out before being outed. But the young man introducing the award, Ryan Furnier, president of his Ohio State University student government association, made it clear why Bass’s coming out was so important to his generation.
New LOGO TV stars Jacob and Joshua, twins starting their reality show and band Nemesis Rising, performed, as did Martha Wash. Stars of Noah’s Arc attended, and helped introduce special guests.
HRC Executive Director Joe Solmonese gave a passionate speech about the changing tide in American politics, post-Foley scandal.
Philanthropist Bruce Bastian not only gave HRC his $1 million check for a previous matching campaign, but that night issued a challenge for those at the dinner—and he ended up matching an additional more than $400,000. The recent Republican scandals clearly motivated the crowd, who seemed overwhelmingly convinced that the Democrats had a chance of taking back Congress in November.
Photos by Tracy Baim