11/19/08

Get the Low Down on What Went Wrong in Prop 8 Fight

Bilerico has something pretty darned cool going on this Thursday at 7 pm EST. He'll be hosting three leaders of the anti-amendment charge, Kate Kendell of NCLR, Nadine Smith of Equality Florida, and Barbara McCullough-Jones of Equality Arizona will be available to answer your questions via Liveblog. Go to his post to leave your questions.

Hopefully, we’ll learn some valuable things about what went wrong and where we go from here in our fight. You can sign up for e-mail alerts regarding the event here: Bilerico LiveBlog Email Reminder

Kate Kendell, esq., is the executive director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights. Growing up Mormon in Utah, Kate learned about the complexities of religion and politics from an early age. After receiving her J.D. from the University of Utah College of Law in 1988 and a few years practicing corporate law, she pursued her real love—civil rights advocacy—and became the first staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Utah. There she directly litigated many high-profile cases focusing on all aspects of civil liberties, including reproductive rights, prisoners’ rights, free speech, the rights of LGBT people, and the intersection of church and state. In 1994 she joined NCLR as legal director, and was named executive director two years later.

Kate and her partner, Sandy Holmes, live in San Francisco with their son, Julian, age 10, and daughter Ariana, age 5. Their family includes Kate’s daughter Emily, age 25.

Nadine Smith, is the executive director of Equality Florida. Nadine Smith has been executive director of Equality Florida since its inception in 1997, and was executive director of its predecessor, the Human Rights Task Force of Florida prior to that. She joined the organization in 1993 after serving as one of four national co-chairs on the 1993 March on Washington and taking part in the historic, first-ever meeting between LGBT leaders and a sitting U.S. president (Clinton) in the White House.

Barbara McCullough-Jones, is the executive director of Equality Arizona. Barbara is a native of Seattle where she got her first taste of activism fighting for domestic partner benefits as a City of Seattle employee in the early 1980’s. After moving to Arizona in 1989, Barbara founded the Lesbian Resource Project which became nationally recognized as a leader in health care provision for lesbian, bisexual women and heterosexual women who found comfort in the progressive organization. In 1997 Barbara was tapped to serve as Executive Director for the Billy DeFrank Lesbian and Gay Community Center significantly increasing fundraising and launching a successful capital campaign. Washington, DC was the site of Barbara’s next post in 2002 as Executive Director of GALA Choruses, the international association of LGBT choruses Barbara worked with an international coalition of partners to present a quadrennial festival in Montreal, Canada which served over 6,000 delegates during an eight-day festival.

Barbara and her partner Sandra currently reside in Tempe.

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