Anyone who knows me knows I run at a pretty high pitch–lots of energy, passion and intensity. You also know how much I love and honor this work. It is a privilege every day to do work that advances the dignity and protection of LGBTQ people. I am almost always thinking about this work and how to do it better and faster. I’ve always seen these attributes as a plus, and they almost always are. But on the Wednesday morning of the rulings knocking out Prop 8 and striking down section 3 of DOMA, my...
Our Voices
When my kids were born. When we won marriage in California. When Sandy and I got married. Today. These are moments I will remember with joy and elation for the rest of my life. Today, in a huge way, in an unprecedented way, our lives and our love were validated by the U.S. Supreme Court. The Proposition 8 and Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) rulings were sweeping affirmations of our right to equal dignity and respect, and everything as we have known it will change forever. This is a new day. It...
Doing the AIDS LifeCycle ride—the seven day, 545-mile bike ride from San Francisco to Los Angeles that began yesterday and raises millions of dollars to fight HIV/AIDS—has always been on my bucket list. But last year I was shocked to realize how close we are to ending the pandemic. How did I not know this? Today, LGBTQ movement leaders from across the country are committing ourselves to ending HIV/AIDS.Read our joint letter, watch the video, and take the pledge to recommit to the fight...
At first, it seemed like a good way to get in better shape for a great cause. But as the months of training rides give way to the first day of the AIDS Lifecycle ride—the 545-mile, seven-day cycling event from San Francisco to Los Angeles—on June 2, I find myself thinking every day about the loved ones my wife Sandy and I have lost to AIDS. They were unlucky enough to be in the first or second wave of infections, during a time when our government turned a blind eye and left our community to...
Five years ago today, the ground on marriage equality shifted permanently. Do you remember where you were on May 15, 2008? I will never, ever forget it. That day, the California Supreme Court ruled that excluding same-sex couples from marriage violated the California Constitution. It was a beautiful morning. A friend snapped a picture of me on the steps of the courthouse in San Francisco, a huge smile across my face, while I held the ruling in one hand and pumped my fist over my head with the...
Ruth and David Waterbury
Ellen Spertus and Keith Golden
Patricia Martel and Beverly Colon
Yesenia and Veronica Olivera-Leon
I, like all of you, have felt the heaviness borne of mindless violence and tragedy in the wake of the bombings in Boston. My birthday was April 15, and now that date will be remembered for yet another national horror. In the days since the attack, I can’t help but think about the very different world my kids are growing up in. Their reality of life in this country is shaped by far too many moments like the nightmare in Boston. Now we, like most every other family blessed with health,...
