Task Force’s work to end discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans

From the very beginning, the Task Force has led the effort to secure federal nondiscrimination protections for our community

May 14, 1974

U.S. Rep. Bella Abzug (D-N.Y.), in collaboration with the National Gay Task Force (Task Force), introduces the Equality Act of 1974, a federal bill to ban discrimination against lesbians, gay men, unmarried persons and women in employment, housing and public accommodations.

1975

Abzug introduces the Civil Rights Amendment of 1975 which would add “affectional or sexual preference” to existing civil rights laws, separating sex and marital status from sexual orientation.

1976

Task Force secures 27 co-sponsors for Abzug’s bill; the Task Force launches the National Convention Project to jumpstart LGBT community participation in that year’s Democratic Party primaries and convention, resulting in 600 delegates to the convention signing petitions supporting repeal of sodomy laws.

1977

U.S. Rep. Ed Koch (D-N.Y.) assumes leadership on nondiscrimination bill; Task Force application to join the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights is rejected; in March, Bruce Voeller and Jean O’Leary, co-directors of the Task Force, secure the first-ever meeting of gay and lesbian activists with White House officials, working with President Carter’s liaison Midge Costanza; by April, the nondiscrimination bill has 39 co-sponsors; in July, Voeller and O’Leary meet with leading women’s organizations to discuss collaborative strategy against common, right-wing adversaries; in October, the McDonald Amendment to a congressional funding measure for the Legal Services Corporation is enacted, banning legal assistance in cases about homosexuality or gay rights; Anita Bryant’s anti-LGBT “Save Our Children” campaign repeals Dade County, Fla., nondiscrimination ordinance and goes on the road to other cities in the U.S.

1980

The Task Force reinvigorates the National Convention Project to elect openly LGBT delegates to the Democratic convention; the Convention Project results in support for a federal nondiscrimination bill in the Democratic Party platform; Virginia Apuzzo and others speak at a House briefing on the bill; an October congressional hearing in San Francisco on the bill marks the first time testimony on federal nondiscrimination law is taken.

1981

Senate version of the nondiscrimination bill is preceded by a House vote to overturn the Washington, D.C., Sex Law Reform Act, which would have repealed the district’s sodomy law.

1982

Jean O’Leary and others testify at a U.S. House hearing on the bill; in July, the Task Force application to the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights is accepted, with the agreement that the LCCR would not be asked to take a position on the nondiscrimination bill; the Task Force opens an office in Washington, D.C., under the direction of Mel Boozer.

1983

Virginia Apuzzo, executive director of the Task Force, hires Jeff Levi to assume leadership of the Washington office; in response to the devastation of the AIDS epidemic in LGBT communities across the U.S., Apuzzo and Levi craft a plan to secure federal funding for AIDS research and treatment.

1984

Apuzzo leads a massive demonstration at the Democratic National Convention in San Francisco, demanding protections of the civil rights of LGBT people and full, effective governmental response to the AIDS crisis; Democratic candidates Fritz Hollings, Walter Mondale and Gary Hart all endorse the federal nondiscrimination bill.

1985

The Task Force relocates all operations to offices in Washington, D.C.

1986

The Task Force begins years-long lobbying efforts to fend off viciously anti-LGBT amendments to AIDS funding bills; the amendments prohibit use of AIDS education funding for materials that “promoted or encouraged homosexuality”; the Task Force becomes the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force.

1990

The Task Force and colleague organizations pass the Americans with Disabilities Act, a law banning discrimination against persons with disabilities, including people with AIDS/HIV, in the area of private employment.

1991

The Task Force launches a national campaign against the Cracker Barrel restaurant chain for homophobic employment policy, firing their "obviously" gay employees who were "failing to comply with normal heterosexual values."

1992

The Task Force leads demonstrations at the Republican National Convention in Houston, Texas, where Pat Buchanan declares a culture war on LGBT people; Boycott Colorado Project, in response to the passage of anti-LGBT Amendment 2, launches at Creating Change Conference; the Task Force assists local activists in the defeat of anti-LGBT referendum Ballot Measure 9 in Oregon; the Washington D.C.-based LCCR votes to add “gay and lesbian anti-discrimination legislation” to its priorities.

1993

President Bill Clinton signs into law the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” military policy.

1994

The Employment Non-Discrimination Act of 1994, a bill to supplant the more comprehensive House gay civil rights omnibus bill originally conceived by U.S. Rep. Bella Abzug and the Task Force, is introduced, limiting the scope of protection to employment only; the bill has 107 co-sponsors and garners the support of a broad swath of the civil rights advocacy community; Senate hearings are held one month after introduction; Republicans take control of Congress, dashing hopes for progress.

1995

Transgender advocates commence lobbying gay and lesbian leaders to amend ENDA to include transgender people.

1996

The Task Force ramps up grassroots organizing to support ENDA, which receives its first vote in the Senate when it is amended to the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA); DOMA passes, banning recognition of same-sex marriages in all federal contexts, while ENDA fails by two votes; Task Force Executive Director Melinda Paras calls DOMA a “nightmare of injustice” and urges Clinton not to sign it.

1997

The Task Force continues to support passage of ENDA, despite increasing pressure from transgender colleagues to amend the bill; in September, the Task Force adopts a new mission statement that, for the first time, explicitly includes both bisexual and transgender people.

1998

The Task Force successfully lobbies the Clinton administration for an executive order prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation in the federal workforce.

1999

The Task Force, just weeks prior to the re-introduction of ENDA, declares, “Without the inclusion of transgender people, the Task Force cannot endorse ENDA.” The Task Force re-directs its federal lobbying towards defeating the Religious Liberty Protection Act and other anti-LGBT legislative proposals that gain traction in the Republican-led Congress.

2000

The Task Force launches a project to secure federal funding for LGBT community centers, working in cooperation with the National Association of LGBT Community Centers and Clinton White House official Julian Potter.

2001

The Task Force vigorously opposes the “charitable choice” policy and practice of President George W. Bush’s administration, in which faith-based groups will be allowed to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation; a nationwide effort led by the Task Force results in U.S. Census figures that show same-sex, unmarried partner households in 99.3 percent of all counties in the U.S.

2003

The Task Force actively lobbies for defeat of a federal welfare reform bill that will devote hundreds of millions of dollars to “marriage promotion activities,” and abstinence-only sexuality education.

2004

Task Force Executive Director Matt Foreman, in a three-page statement that notes the Republican lock on Congress has stalled progress on nondiscrimination law, states, “ENDA isn’t poised to be pass and be signed into law anytime soon….Now is the time to make it trans-inclusive, so that when all the conditions come together and make ENDA ready to move at last, it will be the law we can all embrace.”

2005

The Task Force creates a new department of Public Policy & Government Affairs to strengthen the Task Force's voice in federal matters; PPGA staff members begin vigorous lobbying campaign that results in support by LCCR for including transgender people in future versions of ENDA.

2006

Democrats re-take Congress, after 12 years of Republican dominance, greatly enhancing prospects for action on a trans-inclusive ENDA.

2007

The Task Force starts the push again for a trans-inclusive ENDA.