Trevor, GLAAD and HRC get a whole lot of press — and for good reason. But they are by no means the only organizations out there tirelessly fighting on our behalf.
Here are five that you may not know as much about who deserve all the accolades we can offer. Click the links to learn more about the work each one is doing every day behind the scenes to build a better, more inclusive world.
Pride Law Fund promotes the legal rights of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community, and people living with HIV and AIDS, by funding legal services and projects and by sponsoring education and outreach.
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
Each year, PLF awards the Tom Steel Legal Fellowship, a $30,000 grant, to a new lawyer to build an innovative civil rights project on behalf of the LGBT and HIV/AIDS communities.
Most recently the award went to Daniel Faessler of Brooklyn Law School, who will head up the creation of a new bilingual legal clinic for transgender people in the San Francisco Bay Area.
In past years they’ve spearheaded projects dealing with LGBT domestic violence, LGBT elder advocacy and youth outreach.
But it’s not all business — they also throw great fundraising events throughout the year like trips to the Russian River and an annual boat cruise around the Bay.
Their’s is a simple mission — you call, they help.
Utilizing a diverse group of GLBT volunteers, they operate two national hotlines, the GLBT National Hotline and the GLBT National Youth Talkline, as well as private, volunteer one-to-one online chat, that helps both youth and adults with coming-out issues, safer-sex information, school bullying, family concerns, relationship problems and a lot more.
The people who call the help center often live in rural and conservative parts of the country and are frequently feeling severely isolated, closeted and despairing, with literally no one else else safe to talk to.
3. Soulforce
Soulforce believes in you and your soul, and works tirelessly against the religious right’s venomous anti-gay message.
They believe the actions and rhetoric of Christian fundamentalism lead to the loss of jobs, healthcare, educational access, financial security, and social inclusion for LGBTQ people.
They seek to challenge this oppression and help create a more inclusive society through programs like the Equality Ride, where a bus full of passionate activists visit distinctly Christian colleges and universities with onerous anti-LGBTQ policies. They’ve visited 101 schools and contributed to 14 school policy changes and the growth of over 30 student and alumni groups.
4. National Center for Lesbian Rights
NCLR is a non-profit, public interest law firm that litigates precedent-setting cases at the trial and appellate court levels; advocates for equitable public policies affecting the LGBT community; provides free legal assistance to LGBT people and their legal advocates; and conducts community education on LGBT issues.
Some of their recent work has been to lift Medicare’s ban on necessary procedures for transgender patients, and fighting to protect the health and safety of LGBT prisoners.
Glamorous? Perhaps not, but all the more reason to support this great organization.
ALRP is the only institution in the San Francisco Bay Area solely dedicated to providing free and low-cost legal assistance and education on virtually any civil matter to persons living with HIV/AIDS.
Assistance is offered on a diverse set of issues, including housing, bankruptcy/credit, immigration, employment, insurance, confidentiality matters, family law, government benefits, and public accommodations.
It’s handled over 65,000 cases since it was founded in 1983, and their commitment to bettering the lives of its clients hasn’t faltered a bit.
blondeboyz
You never heard of Lambda Legal?
Vegas Tearoom
You never heard of the NGL Task Force?
Vegas Tearoom
You never heard of the Victory Fund?
Ronbo
HRC is a wealthy corporate group designed to vacuum up cash and ensure that things stat the same… so that they can continue to vacuum up cash. Their “go-slow and make no waves” M.O. PLUS their opposition to every successful activist group (from ACT-UP to Bash Back to Fight OUT Loud to Truth Wins Out, etc…) has stalled the movement at just about every junction.
DON’T GIVE MONEY TO HRC. Put it to use HELPING our cause!
Bryguyf69
CORRECTION: #2 should be “GLBT National HELP Center.” While it does provide very basic health information and health-related referrals, that is not the focus or mission of the organization. Please change the word, “HEALTH” to “HELP.”
Polaro
@Ronbo sorry, but this trite moaning about HRC is ludicrous. HRC is one of the main reasons DOMA was defeated in the Supreme Court. They funded it. Watch the movie about it. Chad Griffin is in every friggin’ group scene because he was there as part of the team. They had the money to fund it. It just kills me that everyone else took the opportunity to point out other worth groups, and you decided to go after one of our allies. This is why we lose…two steps forward and one backwards because there is always a bitchy queen in the group who has her panties in a bunch.
Bryguyf69
@Vegas Tearoom: You and blondeboyz need to read carefully. The description states, “Here are five that you MAY NOT HAVE HEARD OF who deserve all the accolades we can offer.” In other words, these are LESSER KNOWN groups. The three groups you guys cited — Lambda Legal, NGLTF and Victory Fund — are well-known. So your complaints are invalid.
I will say, however, that The GLBT National Help Center (erroneously listed as “…Health Center”) is not “out there tirelessly fighting on our behalf,” per se. “Fighting” is not their mission. They are a service organization, not a political or activist group. But that doesn’t mean that they’re any less important to the community. Indeed, for an individual, they are more important and have a more immediate impact.
jayj150
Any group with the ‘T’ in it cannot be considered an ally of gay folks. Trans-controlled groups such as GLAAD are among the most rabidly homophobic groups in the country.
jockboy1986
@jayj150: @jayj150: Please explain. For example, how is GLAAD “among the most rabidly homophobic groups in the country”? Please provide data. And tell me why GLAAD ranks among The Westboro Baptist Church, Family Research Council, KKK, etc — all of which are indisputably “among the most rabidly homophobic groups in the country.” Thanks.
Little-Kiwi
@jayj150: know what i love most about your comment? that you prove me right: anti-trans gay men are the biggest fucking wimps and losers. anonymous little brats who, ironically given their pathetic anti-trans beliefs, don’t have the balls to make their statements from a place of visibility. you’re a coward. all anti-trans gay men are cowards.
i’ve been heavily involved in LGBT activism and advocacy for nearly 15 years now. i, with my family, stand proudly with our trans brothers and sisters. why? simple: we’re better people than you and your shit family and friends.
stop being mad that trans people are stronger and braver than you’ll ever be.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJom6vyRtQc
Little-Kiwi
@jockboy1986: don’t expect logic – jayJ is an Anonymous Troll – they’re transphobic, from a place of anonymity, because they’re fucking wimps with no lives. that’s it, that’s all
vive
@Ronbo, “HRC is a wealthy corporate group designed to vacuum up cash and ensure that things stat the same…”
Agreed. They considered their previous director’s major achievement to have been the promotion of the corporate brand. In other words, the equality sign flags and stickers you see everywhere. Completely useless of course for anyone but themselves – we already had (and have) the rainbow flag.
maxdadmark
@Polaro: word!
lstacyb
Gay are always bitch about something! Case in point read above! Get a life
Bellamy
They forgot about these tireless fighters of freedom:
TruthWinsOut.org
GayChristianSurvivors.com
Lvng1tor
@Little-Kiwi: Well said about standing with our Trans family. I am a facilitator for a LGBT youth group here in Michigan and our Trans kids deserve the same respect everyone gets. Their road is so much harder than many others and they face it with strength I’ve never had to muster. Why LGB people don’t understand our shared history, why T is included or that some T are LGB is beyond me. Pure willful ignorance and self hate if you ask me.
Little-Kiwi
@Lvng1tor: yup. the good news, – the anti-trans gay men are, like i said, the Anonymous Troll Brigade.
they spew their hate from a place of cowardly anonymity. simply put – they’re angry that trans people have the courage to live out loud while their cowardly trolling selves CANNOT.
ggreen
My experiences with ALRP have been quite different, if they are referring you to an outside pro-Bono attorney there is rarely a problem but if you need then to do something in house (like HIV/AIDS discrimination) they greet you with silence especially if it’s a case against one of their corporate donors or a client for ANY of the attorneys that do pro-Bono work for them. So that’s nearly every corporation, business and organization in San Francisco.
Ronbo
@Polaro: Chad Griffin joined HRC in 2012 – long after any court battles were started. Perhaps you didn’t realize that time follows an actual time-line. I will forgive the foolishness – as you don’t understand propaganda and how HRC secures their corporate funding.
redcarpet30
Ya’ll forgot the LGBT elders! We are all getting older and we all need help as we age.
Come on now: http://sageusa.org
Bellamy
@Little-Kiwi:
Wow, I had no idea there was so much hatred toward gay people who are a bit upset that transgender people have been crammed in with the G/L cause. Personally, I never had an issue with people who are transgendered; I just always considered them to be completely different subjects. It’s like throwing Eskimos in with the Black Civil Rights Movement.
Regardless, I will always stand in defense of EVERYONE’S right to free speech – even if I disagree with that speech. It’s called being American.
Lvng1tor
Couple quick things its not “YOU GUYS FORGOT….” It’s “Here’s a few more worth mentioning….”
And @Bellamy: if it were just “I don’t understand trans, or the trans being with LGBT” that’s a teachable moment…when it’s the venom these cowards are spewing at our Trans family then screw it we will fight back and call out the dip Sh!ts for their ignorance, self hate and damage they do.
Also…called being an American..they can speak their filth…and we will read them for it!
I’d also like to think that although I am a proud American….I’m also a citizen of the world…Like @Little-Kiwi: (seriously it’s in his name…Kiwi…not LiLCornHusk or LILMeat&Potatoes or LilApplePie)
Little-Kiwi
@Bellamy: while you’re busy “being an American” you might want to attempt for once in your life to also be a decent human being. #youfuckingmoron
😀
Also, I’m Canadian. so, yeah,
you show me and anti-trans gay man and i’ll show you someone who will deserve every ounce of the anti-gay hatred they’re destined to receive in life.
Bryguyf69
@Bryguyf69: @Bellamy: Well, it looks like the Editors are responsive, although I can’t be certain that t was my post that effected the correction. Although the entry is now correctly listed as “The GLBT National Help Center,” the TAGS still has to be corrected.
Also, it looks like The Pride Law Fund requested a photo change. The original photo posted this morning was much less preppy and “respectable.” 🙂
jd2222248
Would like to know how we can support (give time and/or donate money) for these heartfelt causes
Aaron
…
After reading the article I was expecting at least one person to be pleased with the fact that Queerty decided to post something worth of value amongst a sea of chiseled bodies and self-loving “fame whores.” Instead we have readers who rather fight for who deserved to be on a subjective list made by a gay online magazine. This isn’t Forbes nor is it Consumer Reports. Why can’t we just celebrate that these organizations (named or not) are working their asses off to make our lives comfortable.
Big Bill
What about Lambda Legal. Guess who got the Presidential order for hospitals to recognize same gender partner or who fought Texas on declaring sodomy laws illegal. Who Lambda Legal!!! You’re to west coast centered
apollonia666
@Polaro You are mistaken. HRC wasn’t at all involved in the case that got DOMA struck down. That was an American Civil Liberties Union case: Windsor v. United States. The case you’re probably thinking about is the American Foundation for Equal Rights case trying to get California’s Prop. 8 struck down. HRC didn’t fund that case either. Chad Griffin was the director of AFER, the group that did fund the Prop. 8 case, but then he left that organization and is now the director at HRC.
apollonia666
Should have said: The AFER case DID get Prop. 8 struck down, to be fair. But that ruling only applied to California and, again, didn’t do anything to the federal DOMA.
Cam
@Polaro: said…. ” sorry, but this trite moaning about HRC is ludicrous. HRC is one of the main reasons DOMA was defeated in the Supreme Court. They funded it. Watch the movie about it. Chad Griffin is in every friggin’ group scene because he was there as part of the team.”
__________________-
Actually you have just shown how dangerous HRC is and how much they try to rewrite history.
HRC for YEARS fought against the gay community pushing for marriage equality. They tried to prevent couples from filing court cases, they claimed that it would create a backlash and that we should all sit back and let them work on ENDA.
Well, 15 years later and they STILL haven’t managed to pass ENDA.
As for the claim that “They Funded It” that is a flat out lie. The Edie Windsor case, was the main case that gutted DOMA and they were not the funders or the main pushers of that case.
The case YOU are referencing the “Prop 8” case, was NOT filed or pushed by HRC, they at first did not want it filed, and they stayed out of it until it won at the district court level. When that happened HRC tried to come in and join it and the lawyers in charge of the case told them to go F**k themselves.
Chad Griffin, whom you claim was everywhere in the film about it, didn’t work for HRC at the time. Even better he was a professional publicist. Not surprising that he was in every shot.
HRC had gotten a bad rap for basically working against the gay community on major issues, so what did they do when Joe Solomnase was finally kicked to the curb after damaging their reputation even more and losing them huge amounts of donation? They went out and HIRED Chad Griffin so they could then Claim that HRC had been a part of the Prop 8 case.
Remember, when the fight for DADT repeal and for marriage went over social media and that new group Get Equal sprung up and called for a March in DC, HRC was all over the blogs fighting against it, saying marches were a waste, when they couldn’t prevent it SUDDENLY the day of the march they were out there selling their flags to people so it would look like they were a part of it.
And before the HRC-bots come in here screaming and calling me names and going into hysterics a word of advise. If you are going to take issue with what I have just posted, point out EXACTLY where any of it’s points are false. If you cannot do that, which you cannot, then I suggest you spend your time more wisely, perhaps figuring out how not to waste all of your money promoting large scale parties and actually doing something to help the gay rights fight move forward. Although frankly it seems to have done ok without you.
msfrost
HRC, only cares if you are white and rich.