QUEER QUOTE: Executive Director Rachel Tiven Discusses Lambda Legal

Wow! I don't know how I missed this news when it came out in early May (must have been distracted by the end of the 2015-16 academic year, moving across the country and starting a new job with the federal government) but Lambda Legal has named a new executive director, and it is someone I know quite well, Rachel Tiven, the former executive director of Immigration Equality.

I found out about the change from this article by Kerry Eleveld at Daily Kos where she interviews Rachel.

Kerry Eleveld: What do you see as Lambda Legal's biggest growth opportunity over the next five years?Rachel Tiven: Visibility! We are the oldest and largest LGBT civil rights organization, but for too long we have been the movement’s quiet authority.  Our obligation is to become better known, and assert more influence on the public conversation.  Post marriage equality, the country is increasingly discussing what it means for LGBT people to be part of public life, to go to work, to get health care, to be safe in our homes. Lambda Legal’s perspective is critical to those conversations.
We need every LGBT and HIV-positive person in America to know that they can call Lambda when they have a legal problem.  Everyone who contacts us gets an accurate, respectful, free-of-charge answer from our amazing Help Desk—and those inquiries are how we stay two steps ahead of what our community needs.  The best advocacy is directly tied to service, which is why we are committed to expanding our Help Desk in the years ahead.

Definitely feel more confident about the future of the LGBTQ movement with people like Rachel Tiven at the helm of one of its key resources, Lambda Legal.