A longtime leader in the fight for LGBTQ equality, guest Kevin Jennings, CEO of Lambda Legal, discusses why "it's too late for pessimism" when it comes to protecting our Voting, Equal, and Reproductive rights.
He also talks legal precedent, the dangers facing millions of Americans, and how to use your voice, your vote, your time, and your money to make positive political changes.
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https://www.lambdalegal.org In 2019 Kevin Jennings became the CEO of Lambda Legal, the nation’s oldest legal advocacy group fighting for full legal equality for LGBTQ people and everyone living with HIV.
Kevin's background is fascinating. He was the first member of his family to earn a college degree in 1985 when he graduated from Harvard (from which he received the Distinguished Alumni Award in 2019), and helped students create the nation’s first Gay-Straight Alliance club in 1988 while a teacher in Concord, Massachusetts.
He went on to found GLSEN (the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network) in 1990, the first national organization dedicated to fighting anti-LGBTQ bias in K-12 schools. In 1994 Kevin was part of the committee which created LGBTQ History Month, now observed every October, and he authored Becoming Visible, the first textbook on the subject for young people.
In 1996 he helped write and produce Out of the Past, the first documentary on LGBTQ history for young people, which won the Sundance Film Festival Audience Award for Best Documentary.
In 2009 Kevin became the Assistant Secretary of Education for Safe & Drug-Free Schools, where he led the Obama Administration’s national campaign against bullying in schools, earning him the nickname of being the “anti-bullying czar.”
Kevin went on from the Obama Administration to run the Arcus Foundation, the world’s largest private funder of LGBTQ rights, and the Tenement Museum, the nation’s premiere museum dedicated to the immigrant experience.
Most recently he served as an Executive Producer of the 2019 PBS documentary The Lavender Scare, which details the McCarthy-era witch hunts for LGBTQ people, and the 2020 HBO documentary Welcome to Chechnya, which documents the ongoing horrific pogrom against LGBTQ people in the Russian Republic of Chechnya and was short-listed for the 2021 Academy Award for Best Documentary. Kevin also holds an MA from Columbia University Teachers College (from which he received the Distinguished Alumni Award in 2012) and an MBA from New York University/Stern School of Business (where he now teaches as an adjunct professor) and has authored seven books.
