LGBTQ+ Rights
-
Bringing Trans and Non-Binary Rights to the Everyday Classroom
Tags Share Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights and the Human Rights Campaign made history this spring, as the organizations partnered to release a free classroom resource aimed at making students better allies of the LGBTQ+ community in their everyday lives. Laura Osterndorf, training manager for RFK Human Rights’ Speak Truth to Power program, was a…
-
Jamie Nabozny
Jamie Nabozny was born in 1975 in Ashland, Wisconsin, a small town on the south shore of Lake Superior. From a young age, he knew he was gay and confided in his family, but he didn’t come out to friends and classmates. Nonetheless, in middle school he was the object of physical violence and degradation,…
-
Frank Mugisha
Mugisha knew he was gay when he was a young teenager, but his Catholic faith told him to pray those feelings away. When he finally came out to his family, they tried many times to “cure” him. And though they were eventually accepting, they continued to wish he would not be so open with others.…
-
Andrea Jenkins
Born in 1961, Andrea Jenkins was raised on Chicago’s West Side by a single mother from a working-class community. Her father battled addiction and was incarcerated through much of her childhood, but her mother was loving and emphasized the importance of a good education. Jenkins discovered literature and poetry at a young age, along with…
-
Gavin Grimm
Gavin Grimm grew up in Gloucester, Virginia. He came out as transgender in 2014 during his sophomore year at Gloucester High School. With his principal’s permission, he used the boys’ restrooms at school for several months without any problems, before a handful of parents went to the school board to complain. A public meeting was…
-
Laverne Cox
Laverne Cox was born in 1972 in Mobile, Alabama, and she and her identical twin brother were raised by a single mother and grandmother. At age 11, Cox attempted suicide—she was developing feelings for her male classmates and being bullied for not acting “the way someone assigned male at birth was supposed to act.” Cox…
-
Jacob Tobia
Jacob Tobia (they/them) was born in 1991 and raised by a Methodist family in Raleigh, North Carolina. In high school, Tobia was president of the Gay-Straight Alliance and participated in student government. They applied and were accepted to Harvard but chose to attend Duke University, where they graduated summa cum laude with a degree in…
-
Schuyler Bailar
Schuyler Bailar was born in New York City in 1996 and raised in McLean, Virginia. He was solo swimming before his first birthday and competing in the Junior Olympics by age 10. Five years later, he ranked as one of the top 15-year-old breaststroke swimmers in the United States. In 2012, Bailar broke his back…
-
Patria Jimenez
Biography: Mexico’s first openly homosexual member of Congress, Patria Jiménez Flores was elected in 1998 at the age of forty-one. The ninth of ten children in a conservative Catholic family, Jiménez overcame her own family’s prejudices to confront the bigotry of society at large. She works on issues of homophobic violence, violations of basic rights,…
-
Lakshita Kanhiya
From the shadows of discrimination, Lakshita Kanhiya emerged as a beacon of resilience and justice. Her early encounters with systemic bias fueled her passion to stand as a human rights advocate, dedicated to dismantling discrimination and violence against sexual and gender minorities. She turned adversity into an unyielding commitment for a more inclusive world. Robert…
-
Organizational Statement about today’s court ruling allowing discrimination of LGBTQ Americans by business owners
Tags Share In a shameful coda to Pride month, the Supreme Court majority has stripped LGBTQ Americans of their right to freedom from discrimination by businesses owners. The decision follows sustained legislative attacks on transgender people across the country. By speaking out against hate with bravery and compassion, LGBTQ people have expanded the meaning of…
-
Pride’s #BookBan Legacy: Speaking Truth to Power
Tags Share Pride has long been known as a joyous celebration of queer life and love, a time for the LGBTQ+ community to come together without fear. Unfortunately, Pride 2023 has felt like less of a celebration and more of a reminder: the struggle for queer existence is not over. From drag bans to policies…
Share