The National Gay Task Force was the first major national organization dedicated to lesbian and gay civil rights. In addition to successfully pressuring the American Psychiatric Association in 1973 to remove “homosexuality” from its list of mental disorders, the group’s work includes helping to repeal antisodomy laws, and, reflecting its mission to be politically active at the grassroots level, it established the first national gay crisis hotline and conducted the first national survey of homophobic violence.
The National Gay Task Force (NGTF) was the first national gay and lesbian civil rights advocacy organization. NGTF was founded in 1973 by a group of activists including former New York City health commissioner Howard Brown, Ron Gold, Nath Rockhill, and Bruce Voeller, the latter three of whom were involved in the Gay Activists Alliance.
NGTF has played an important role in many of the GLBT movement’s key struggles. In its first year, the organization successfully pressured the American Psychiatric Association
After a period of decline in the late 1970’s, NGTF, under director Virginia Apuzzo, turned its attention to antigay violence and then, in the early 1980’s, to AIDS. In 1982, the organization initiated its Anti-Violence Project
In keeping with the organization’s increasing focus on federal-level work, in 1985 NGTF moved its headquarters from New York City to Washington, D.C. That same year, emphasizing its commitment to lesbian issues, the group changed its name to the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF). Under Jeffrey Levi’s direction, the NGLTF renewed its efforts to repeal state sodomy laws following the U.S. Supreme Court’s Bowers v. Hardwick ruling (1986). NGLTF helped organize the October, 1987, March on Washington,
In the early 1990’s, under director Urvashi Vaid, the NGLTF increasingly devoted itself to grassroots organizing—a shift that began in 1988 with the first annual Creating Change Conference,
In the mid-1990’s, NGLTF went through a period of internal struggle. Three directors (Torie Osborn, Peri Rude Radecic, and Melinda Paras) came and went in quick succession, and the organization’s staff and budget decreased by half. Nevertheless, in 1995, NGLTF launched its Policy Institute,
NGLTF experienced a resurgence in the latter half of the decade. Under the direction of Kerry Lobel, the organization rekindled its emphasis on local organizing, spearheading in March of 1999 Equality Begins at Home, a series of 350 coordinated public forums, demonstrations, and lobbying events in all fifty states. True to her politics of inclusion, Lobel oversaw the adoption of a new vision statement in 1997 that explicitly included bisexuals and transgender people.
In 2000, NGLTF appointed a controversial new director, Elizabeth Toledo,
Along with the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), NGLTF remains one of the two primary national GLBT advocacy organizations. While HRC emphasizes Washington, D.C., politics and national legislation, NGLTF focuses on grassroots activism and coalition building. This emphasis has put NGLTF at the center of various controversies concerning the nature of the GLBT movement as a whole, controversies such as the relative value of moderate “insider” politics versus radical “outsider” activism. A recurring debate revolves around whether the GLBT movement should focus on gay-specific identity politics or on broader, multi-issue social justice activism. The latest round of the debate took place in the fall of 2002, as left-leaning progressives successfully pressured NGLTF to take a stance against the then-impending invasion of Iraq, while more conservative individuals urged the organization to stick to GLBT issues. NGLTF also supports racial and economic justice, reproductive freedom, and abolition of the death penalty.
Over the years, NGLTF has periodically shifted its focus back and forth from national advocacy to local grassroots organizing—and from “insider” to “outsider” politics—and at times has tried with varying degrees of success to maintain a balance between the two. NGLTF now is widely regarded as the national organization representing the progressive wing of the GLBT movement. The NGLTF’s current vision statement, adopted in 1997, unequivocally positions the organization as “part of a broader social justice movement for freedom, justice and equality.”
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D’Emilio, John. “Organizational Tales: Interpreting the NGLTF Story.” In The World Turned: Essays on Gay History, Politics, and Culture. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 2002. -
D’Emilio, John, William Turner, and Urvashi Vaid, eds. Creating Change: Sexuality, Public Policy, and Civil Rights. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2000. -
National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. “Task Force History.” http://www.thetaskforce.org/aboutus/history.cfm. -
Vaid, Urvashi. Virtual Equality: The Mainstreaming of Gay and Lesbian Liberation. New York: Anchor Books, 1995.
1950: Mattachine Society Is Founded
1952: ONE, Inc., Is Founded
1955: Daughters of Bilitis Founded as First National Lesbian Group in United States
May 27-30, 1960: First National Lesbian Conference Convenes
February 19-20, 1966: First North American Conference of Homophile Organizations Convenes
April 19, 1967: First Student Homophile League Is Formed
August 11-18, 1968: NACHO Formally Becomes the First Gay Political Coalition
July 31, 1969: Gay Liberation Front Is Formed
June 28, 1970: First Lesbian and Gay Pride March in the United States
November 28, 1970: Del Martin Quits Gay Liberation Movement
October 18, 1973: Lambda Legal Authorized to Practice Law
March 5, 1974: Antigay and Antilesbian Organizations Begin to Form
1977: Anita Bryant Campaigns Against Gay and Lesbian Rights
April 22, 1980: Human Rights Campaign Fund Is Founded
1989: Vaid Becomes Executive Director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force