Rea Carey
″I came out when I was 16 years old in the ´80s, right as the AIDS crisis was exploding,″ remembers Rea Carey, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. ″A lot of my friends died, and it completely shaped my sense of purpose, commitment and vision of us as a community.″ She led the Lesbian Bisexual Alliance while a student at Smith College, then worked as an AIDS educator, lobbyist, and activist in ACT UP/DC. In 2004, she joined the Task Force, the national progressive LGBT advocacy organization, as deputy executive director. She´s held the top role since 2008 and helped to orchestrate the historic shift toward LGBT rights in the military, the workplace and marriage. Carey counts the passage of federal hate crimes and domestic violence laws, achieving marriage equality in a record number of states, and hosting the annual National Conference on LGBT Equality: Creating Change among the Task Force´s successes under her leadership. Says Carey, ″What we are really after is lived freedom. The freedom to walk the streets holding hands without fear, the freedom to be fully out in every single minute of every day, the freedom to proudly say, ´one´ when we check into a hotel and are asked if we want one bed or two. We will reach that freedom!″ -KL
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