WASHINGTON – March 6 – National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Executive Director Rea Carey was among those participating in yesterday’s White House health-care reform summit convened by President Barack Obama.

Statement by Rea Carey, Executive Director
National Gay and Lesbian Task Force

“The White House Forum on Health Reform was a powerful start to reforming health care and how our country views health generally. With Sen. Ted Kennedy in the room, people couldn’t help but be inspired to focus on solutions. In the coming months, the macro themes and issues raised at the summit will work their way through to concrete policy and funding decisions that will affect the day-to-day lives of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. The Task Force will be working to make sure our needs, lives and families are not left behind. For example, how families are defined will be critical to ensuring full coverage of LGBT people, our partners/spouses and our children. The days when we must pay taxes on domestic partner health benefits must end.

“Other issues of great concern to LGBT people are the need for inclusive services; quality health care for those who are not employed; funding for community-based health centers with culturally sensitive services; addressing the ‘preexisting conditions’ barriers that far too many in our community face by having to move from job to job due to lack of employment protections or barriers faced by transgender people; and the racial and economic disparities that have plagued the existing system.

“Our community has a great deal at stake in the outcomes of this process but we also have a lot to offer in terms of solutions, creativity and engagement – after all, our community created an entire infrastructure of HIV/AIDS care when the government was unwilling to take action in ways that addressed the scale of the problem.”

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The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force builds the political power of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community from the ground up. We do this by training activists, organizing broad-based campaigns to defeat anti-LGBT referenda and advance pro-LGBT legislation, building the organizational capacity of our movement and generating groundbreaking research through our Policy Institute.

That’s not really fair to Richard Burns, after 22 years as executive director of New York’s LGBT Community Center, but I couldn’t resist the headline. Burns has actually shown remarkable staying power, but is moving on in February to become the chief operating officer at the Arcus Foundation, part of whose mission is LGBT rights. The group’s executive director is Urvashi Vaid, who once led the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force.  See LGBT Center Director Burns Out Gay City News

Officials with the Human Rights Campaign and National Gay & Lesbian Task Force are hopeful that Barack Obama’s administration and Democratic leaders in Congress will help orchestrate the passage next year of two gay rights bills that enjoy widespread support.

The Matthew Shepard Act, which would authorize federal authorities to prosecute anti-gay hate crimes, and the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which would ban job discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, are considered high priorities among gay-supportive lawmakers, officials with the two groups said. See Hate crimes, ENDA top priorities for national gay groups
Sovo.com, GA 

INGSTON — Barack Obama’s transition team has reached out to local gay activist Ginny Apuzzo to be part of an advisory team for the new administration.

The Obama team has asked that Apuzzo not go into any details of her new assignment, and she has agreed.

But only someone unfamiliar with Apuzzo’s career would be surprised by the appointment of the long-time community organizer, advocate for people with AIDS, and state and federal administrator to the temporary post.

Apuzzo attended SUNY New Paltz and taught high school history in Marlboro and Newburgh before becoming a Sister of Charity. In 1970, she came out as a lesbian, continued to teach at Brooklyn College, ran unsuccessfully for the state Assembly and won a court battle for what is now the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. She became a national spokeswoman for the effort to win understanding and support for people suffering from AIDS-related diseases.

One of her proudest achievements was negotiating to get Social Security disability payments for people with AIDS.

 See Obama taps Kingston gay activist as part of advisory team
Times Herald-Record, NY -