The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, the oldest gay rights group in the United States, has changed its name in the wake of recent court wins to reflect a new mission — an expanded agenda that reaches out to the bisexual, transgender crowd beyond marriage.
The group’s new name is the National LGBTQ Task Force, The Washington Post reported. The acronym stands for lesbian-gay-bisexual-transgender-questioning — questioning, to represent those who are searching or uncertain.
The change may be slight, but it reflects the group’s nod at recent wins over the gay marriage issue, and its reach-out to other social stigmas aligned with gender identification, The Post reported.
“We want to reflect the next era of the LGBTQ movement and our country,” Rea Carey, the group’s executive director, told The Post. “We need to look beyond marriage, to tear down the other barriers for LGBTQ members to participate in society. There’s a lot of issues that face our lives that marriage simply doesn’t portend to.”
She also outlined some upcoming goals of the group.
“We have a vision of things beyond legal equality,” Ms. Carey said, The Post reported. “For example, we have a federal hate crimes law and many states have hate crimes laws that are inclusive of LGBTQ people. But to be able to be truly free would be to walk down the street, holding hands with your partner and not fearing that you’ll be hit over the head with a bottle. Winning marriage doesn’t erase the fact that people will still face violence because of their sexual preference or gender identity.”
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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