Good evening and thank you for spending tonight with us. My name is Imani Rupert-Gordon, my pronouns are she/her/hers and I am honored to be the new executive director for the National Center for Lesbian Rights. I’m thrilled to be here. And I want to acknowledge that my heart is in Minneapolis right now, so I want to start with a message to the folks who are a part of the uprising that has spent the last several days demanding justice for George Floyd and for countless black citizens...
Our Voices
Thursday, April 2, 2020Hosted by Center for American Progress[Online Edited Webinar Remarks from Tyrone Hanley, NCLR Senior Policy Counsel] Hello, my name is Tyrone Hanley. I am Senior Policy Counsel at the National Center for Lesbian Rights and Co-Coordinator of the National LGBTQ Anti-Poverty Action Network. I use he/him pronouns. My presentation is on how to ensure federal COVID-19 assistance reaches low-income LGBTQ people and families. It is only meant to be an...
One of our clients was granted asylum earlier this month. He is one of the more anxious clients we’ve worked with. Due to the persecution and past experiences of verbal, physical, and sexual abuse in his home country from those in his life and strangers alike, he finds it extremely difficult to trust people and share his story. Multiple times he’s told us information that he previously withheld because he was afraid of disclosing it. It was harmless things like the fact that he entered the...
The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic has added a new and urgent justification for ending the harmful, ineffective and expensive practice of locking up youth who are in conflict with the law. Youth in custodial settings are at great risk of exposure to a highly contagious virus. Probation personnel, facility staff, attorneys, youth and others enter and leave these facilities every day, increasing the risk of contagion. Youth detention centers and prisons are notoriously unsanitary environments,...
I’ve been waiting 7 months to say this: I work at NCLR! Though I didn’t know what my first message to you would look like, I knew no matter what, I would end it the same way: let’s get to work. When we announced in December that I would be starting in this role, we had no idea that it would be in the midst of a global health pandemic. In an effort to keep everyone as safe as possible during this public health emergency, NCLR is following the guidance of the Centers for...
To all of our NCLR friends and family, It goes without saying that our entire globe is fighting a shared battle against COVID‑19 today. Countries all over the world and most immediately our own communities are closing down, staying inside and reducing or eliminating school, work and events. Today, in particular, we are seeing cities from our home base of San Francisco to New York and many in between pausing activity of all kinds. This news – and what we all need to do in response – seems to...
I recently experienced acute déjà vu when writing our amicus brief in the Supreme Court case June Medical Services v. Russo, which deals with a challenge to a 2014 Louisiana restriction on abortion. That’s probably because the Supreme Court heard a case about an identical state abortion restriction just four years ago. In Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt, the Court found that a Texas law requiring that abortion providers have hospital admitting privileges did virtually nothing to protect...
In May, Shannan Wilber, NCLR’s Youth Policy Director, will receive the Juvenile Law Center’s 2020 Leadership Award. Given to individuals across the country whose work has substantially improved the lives of children in child welfare and juvenile justice systems, this award recognizes what we at NCLR already know about Shannan – she is a fierce and tireless advocate for the youngest and most vulnerable members of our community. Shannan is a career child advocate. She represented individual...
Anyone who met Kyler Prescott knew that he was special. A gifted artist, pianist, and poet, Kyler expressed his creativity through every aspect of his life. He worked hard perfecting his passions and loved to spend any additional free time advocating for animal justice and LGBTQ rights. Kyler Prescott came out as transgender at age 13 and in May 2015, after enduring transphobic bullying and discrimination by peers and others, the Vista, CA teenager died by suicide. He was only 14 years old. A...
NCLR has announced that Imani Rupert-Gordon will be its new Executive Director. Rupert-Gordon is a long-time movement leader and advocate for LGBTQ people of color. Rupert-Gordon will lead the 42-year old feminist LGBTQ legal organization, which is known for tackling the most pressing issues of race, gender, and economic inequality facing LGBTQ people. “Imani is the perfect fit for NCLR’s mission, culture, and commitment to bold leadership,” said NCLR Co-Chair Emily Doskow. “She is a...
