This past weekend was the Family Equality Council’s annual awards dinner, where we celebrate and recognize the tremendous work of our supporters and allies. The 2013 LA Awards honorees were Project 10 Pioneer Virginia Uribe, Minnesota Vikings punter Chris Kluwe, and NBC Chairman Bob Greenblatt. Family Equality’s Executive Director, Jenn Chrisler, used this occasion to reflect on her eight years at the organization’s helm and articulate our future goals:
“We find ourselves in a remarkable moment – where the levels of our equality are unprecedented. The results of the [2012] election have settled without question our power and our progress as a community… Every day, Family Equality Council is moving our equality forward, is changing the way the American public feels about LGBT families, and guaranteeing a brighter future for the more than two million children being raised by the one million parents who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. And even with this incredible momentum we know that there is so much we have to do.”
Chrisler eloquently summed up the Family Equality Council’s core mission: we must ensure equal treatment for every child. But this is not just a matter for those million LGBT parents. Rather, she said, this “must become the wish of everyone in this country if we are to achieve true equality for LGBT people.”
Looking forward to making this dream “a reality,” Chrisler laid out initiatives we will be backing in courts and legislative chambers, in communities, and in amplifying the voices of young people with LGBT parents. “In this next year, Family Equality Council will take us closer to that dream, advancing every day an aggressive plan to change laws, to change policies, and most importantly to change hearts and minds.”
These past eight years, Jenn Chrisler has observed an “extraordinary change” in our own organization, as well as the national movement. A change “that has brought the issue of our families to the forefront, change that has armed millions of people with the truth about our families, change that has opened the hearts and minds of people, from the most rural parts of our country to the President of the United States. Change that will stop our opponents in their tracks.
Together – we have made this change happen.”
Many thanks to everyone who attended and made this event possible!
And don’t forget to check out photos from the event: