LGBTQ Non-Profit Organizations

Kelley Robinson finds reason for optimism amid rising anti-LGBTQ political violence

HRC president delivered remarks at Kettering Foundation conference

Published

1 year ago

January 9, 2024

Human Rights Campaign President Kelley Robinson (Photo Credit: HRC)

Human Rights Campaign President Kelley Robinson addressed the rise in political violence and threats targeting LGBTQ and other marginalized communities during a speech on Tuesday at the Charles F. Kettering Foundation’s Kettering Conversations with Democracy Innovators conference in D.C.

“As we get to that point where freedom becomes more evident for more of us, the violence increases,” Robinson said. “The threats in front of us try to get us to cower and to shirk away and to go back in the closet and to hide — and this is one of those moments where we are again saying, ‘hell no.'”

The nonprofit leader reinforced the message that violence comes with, or perhaps follows, progress toward full equality, which provides reason for hope.

“You cannot tell me progress isn’t happening,” Robinson said, noting that she leads America’s largest LGBTQ group and is “talking to you about how we are going to protect and save our democracy” just two generations after her great aunt, who had “sat at the footsteps of people who were born into slavery.”

Likewise, she said, the lives of LGBTQ people are much better now than they once were.

“Forty years ago, you would be fired on the spot for being out at work. 40 years ago, if you contracted HIV or AIDS, that was a death sentence that took out a generation of gay men. Forty years ago, the idea of marrying the person that you loved, was a dream, let alone planning for it and have a reality television show that could follow you doing it.”

Robinson said that by contrast, today LGBTQ people are serving in some of the highest profile positions in the world, including White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, outgoing Macy’s CEO Jeff Gennette, and Gabriel Attal, who became prime minister of France on Tuesday.

HRC last year issued a state of emergency for LGBTQ people in the U.S., an unprecedented move that came in response to the more than 600 anti-LGBTQ bills introduced across the country, Robinson noted.

The harm caused by these state legislators extends beyond the scope of their laws, whether or not they were passed, she said — harms that, for example, take the form of increased online bullying and harassment of LGBTQ kids along with bias motivated hate crimes.

“As I’ve been traveling the country, it’s been very clear to me that what’s happening isn’t just one state of emergency,” Robinson said. “It’s millions and millions of individual states of emergency that are playing out in our communities every single day.”

“We are living in a moment where a national web of right-wing organizations, grifters, talking heads and power-hungry politicians are working in coordination to hijack the levers of government and wield them as weapons against LGBTQ+ people,” she said.

Robinson then offered another reason to be hopeful amid the escalating violence targeting marginalized people and their allies: “our opposition,” she said, is “a small and dwindling minority”

In conclusion, Robinson outlined “two powerfully important things we can do together, starting today, that can make change.”

First, she said, “lean into the hard work and the hard conversations” because “democracy has always meant being at the table with people you disagree with” and it is therefore necessary to “humanize the fight for progress by being unapologetically visible.”

Second, “use your political power,” Robinson said. “Speak out boldly in the public. Use your relationships with influential business organizations, associations, and elected officials strategically.”

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LGBTQ Non-Profit Organizations

Evan Low named next LGBTQ+ Victory Fund president

Former Calif. lawmaker to succeed Annise Parker

Published

4 weeks ago

March 4, 2025

Christopher Kane

Evan Low (Screen capture: YouTube)

The LGBTQ+ Victory Fund and LGBTQ+ Victory Institute have named gay former California state Rep. Evan Low to serve as its next president and CEO, the groups announced on Tuesday.

“Today, we face an existential crisis,” he said. “The LGBTQ+ community, along with other historically excluded communities, are being systematically legislated out of existence.”

He added, “I am committed to ensuring our voices are not just included, but impossible to ignore—and represented at the highest levels of office.”

Low will succeed former Houston Mayor Annise Parker, who announced in February 2024 that she would step down after leading the organizations since 2017.

The Victory Fund works to increase the number of LGBTQ elected officials serving in all levels of government and “has helped thousands of LGBTQ+ candidates win local, state, and federal elections.” The Victory Institute works to ensure “the success of our LGBTQ+ elected and appointed officials at all levels of government.”

Before his election to the California State Assembly, where he served from 2014-2024, Low was the first Asian American to serve on the Campbell City Council, going on to lead the city as the country’s youngest openly LGBTQ mayor.

In the state legislature, Low “led groundbreaking efforts in marriage equality, LGBTQ+ rights, and economic opportunity,” the Victory Fund said in a press release.

“His leadership and service have been widely recognized, earning him multiple ‘Legislator of the Year’ honors and a proclamation of ‘Evan Low Day’ from then-San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom.”

LGBTQ Non-Profit Organizations

Blade to cover Creating Change conference in Las Vegas

National LGBTQ Task Force convenes movement leaders at a pivotal moment

Published

2 months ago

January 21, 2025

Christopher Kane

National LGBTQ Task Force staff and volunteers prepare registration bags (Photo courtesy of the National LGBTQ Task Force)

The Washington Blade will be in Las Vegas this week to cover the National LGBTQ Task Force’s flagship annual Creating Change conference, Jan. 21-26, where movement leaders will convene at a pivotal moment for LGBTQ rights.

More than 3,000 are registered to attend, nearly a third of whom identify as transgender or gender nonconforming, and more than half as people of color. A livestream of the plenary sessions is available here.

This year’s conference comes days after the inauguration of President Donald Trump, along with his administration’s issuance of executive orders targeting immigration and LGBTQ rights, together with the revocation of his predecessor’s executive actions that established and clarified rights and protections for these and other marginalized communities.

For instance, Trump on Monday signed an order to direct the federal government to recognize only two genders, based on birth sex, which will likely mean that U.S. citizens will no longer be able to select the “X” gender marker for their passports and official documents, though the U.S. State Department has not provided clarity on how that will be enforced.

In recognition of the shifting legal and regulatory landscape — and the need for immigrant and trans or gender nonconforming communities to understand and prepare for changes in the coming weeks and months — the Task Force this year has organized sessions like “Protecting Your Rights: Navigating Legal Systems” with attorneys from the Transgender Law Center, the National Center for Lesbian Rights, and Oasis Legal Services.

Along with covering breaking news from sessions during the four-day program, the Blade will be talking with experts for stories focused on the backlash against diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, the Trump administration’s expected ban on military service by trans people, insights into how major LGBTQ advocacy organizations are preparing to push back against actions by this White House and congressional Republicans, and more.

LGBTQ Non-Profit Organizations

Gov. Tim Walz to headline HRC National Dinner

Tickets still available for event on Saturday

Published

7 months ago

September 4, 2024

Christopher Kane

Gov. Tim Walz (D-Minn.) speaks at the 2024 Democratic National Convention in Chicago on Wednesday, August 21. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

Minnesota governor and Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz will be the keynote speaker at the Human Rights Campaign National Dinner on Saturday, the organization announced on X.

BIG NEWS: We are thrilled to have Vice Presidential Nominee Governor Tim Walz join us at our National Dinner! He has been a steadfast champion for the LGBTQ+ community and will continue fighting for our rights once he is elected to the White House. pic.twitter.com/nRsZfzuMYg
— HRC 🥥🌴 (@HRC) September 4, 2024

Tickets are still available for the event. HRC is also hosting an Equality Convention this week, “a destination for trailblazers in politics, culture, and business who are igniting change and driving LGBTQ+ equality forward.”

When Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic 2024 presidential nominee, announced Walz as her running mate on Aug. 6, HRC President Kelley Robinson said her pick “sends a message that a Harris-Walz Administration will be committed to advancing equality and justice for all.”

The group wrote in a press release: “Governor Walz is a career-long champion for LGBTQ+ people. In 1999, as a history teacher and football coach, Walz sponsored the school’s first gay straight alliance student group.

“He opposed efforts to ban same-sex marriage in the Minnesota Constitution. While serving in Congress, he co-sponsored legislation to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), voted to repeal the discriminatory ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ law, voted for the Matthew Shepard/James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act and introduced legislation to protect LGBTQ+ service members from discrimination in benefits.

“As Governor, Tim Walz signed an Executive Order banning the dangerous practice of ‘conversion therapy’ in Minnesota.”

HRC in May pledged $15 million to organize in key battleground states for the Democratic ticket. Just days after President Joe Biden stepped out of the race and backed Harris as the presumptive nominee, the group raised more than $300,000 for her campaign in a virtual fundraiser.