Women At The Helm 2011

November 9, 2011 Kat Long

Rachel Tiven: Executive Director, Immigration Equality “Every day, Immigration Equality hears from couples and individuals who, because of our work, literally have a new lease on life,” Rachel Tiven proudly reports. As the Executive Director of Immigration Equality and Immigration Equality Action Fund, the national organization fighting for equality under U.S. immigration law for LGBT and HIV-positive individuals, Tiven (pictured with New York Congressman Jerrold Nadler) has helped to win asylum for more than 100 LGBT people who escaped persecution and violence in their homelands. Immigration Equality was founded with three goals: end the HIV travel and immigration ban, provide LGBT people with full access to asylum in the United States, and allow lesbian and gay Americans to sponsor their partners for citizenship. “In a little more than a decade, we have already accomplished our first two goals,” Tiven says. “Today, Immigration Equality is working to win its final victory, too. That work is based on a simple but profound belief: American citizens should not be told whom they can, and cannot, share their lives and their homes with, and no one should be forced to choose between the person they love and the country they call home.” Prior to her work with the group, Tiven was a reporter and television producer for Bloomberg Business News and an attorney with the Legal Aid Society of New York.

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Betsy Smith: Executive Director, EqualityMaine Since Betsy Smith became Executive Director of EqualityMaine, the statewide LGBT rights organization has experienced tremendous growth, political victories and one crushing defeat at the ballot box. Starting as a volunteer with EqualityMaine in 1992, Smith served as president of its Board from 1996-1999, then returned as its leader in 2002. Smith was instrumental in increasing the nonprofit’s budget from just $75,000 to $1.5 million to support campaigns for statewide trans-inclusive non-discrimination protections; domestic partner benefits including health insurance and inheritance rights; and most dramatically, marriage equality. Maine legalized same-sex marriage in May 2009, but a bitter voter referendum battle led to the law being overturned that November. Despite the setback, Smith is undaunted. “I remember with fond memories the day in 2004, following passage of our domestic partner law, when I watched dozens of happy and appreciative couples line a street in the state’s capital waiting to register as Maine’s first domestic partners. In 2005, I celebrated with a thousand ecstatic Mainers on Election Night after we passed statewide trans-inclusive non-discrimination legislation and then upheld it through a vote of the people at the ballot box,” Smith recalls. “Through our efforts to change public policies by passing statewide legislation, we are making a real difference in the lives of LGBT people and their families in Maine, and we will soon win back the freedom to marry.”