Members of the Board of Directors of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force ( NGLTF ) , which held its rotating meeting in Chicago over the weekend, met with donors and activists at a private fundraiser and party in Lincoln Park May 2. Executive Director Rea Carey ( pictured ) explained the group's work to the assembled crowd as "the grunt work of the movement."
"We train activists, we partner with them, we share expertise," Carey said, stressing the NGLTF's relationship with local organizations such as Equality Illinois, the Center on Halsted and Howard Brown Health Center, for which the NGLTF has worked to secure federal funding for services.
In addition to agitating for same-sex marriage in places like California and Maine, Carey said that the NGLTF is working to ensure the inclusion of a marriage option for same-sex couples in the 2010 census. Under the Bush administration, she said, all same-sex couples who reported themselves as "married" would be automatically "divorced" by the census bureau as it processed data. Similarly, any child of a same-sex couple would be re-classified as the child of a single parent.
"It's an insult to the child," Carey said. Though the NGLTF is hopeful about its chances with this and other issues under the Obama administration, she said, it will not happen immediately: "The spigot has been stopped for eight years, and it's time to turn it back on. And we're doing it."
Talking with Windy City Times, Carey reaffirmed the group's commitment to holding the new administration accountable to the LGBT community. "We are an organization that is not shy about calling out elected officials," she said.