The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF), which was initially referred to as the National Gay Task Force (1973-1985) is an American non-governmental organization that was founded in 1973 to advocate for the civil rights of the gay, lesbians, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) community. NGLTF later came to be referred to as the National LGBTQ Task Force in 2014, and it was the first national-level non-profit organization of its kind. This organization is mainly focused on mobilizing state-level training of LGBTQ activists, organizers, and community members. At a time when there were extensive grassroots seeking lesbian feminist activism and gay liberation. The Task Force rose to introduce a vehicle to facilitate national level organization. The founding members of the task force included Howard Brown, Barbara Gittings, Martin Duberman, Franklin Kameny, Bruce Voeller, Ron Gold, and Nathalie Rockhill (National LGBTQ Task Force, 2019) . In 1977, the Task Force organized for its first historic White House meeting with the representatives from several gay organizations. It then that it established its primary goal as the creation of a society that gave gay men and lesbians the freedom to live openly and free from discrimination, violence, and bigotry.
Over the last quarter of a century, the National LGBTQ Task Force has organized, lobbied, demonstrated, and educated on full lesbian and gay equality and civil rights, taking on anti-lesbian and anti-gay forces among employers, the media, medical specialists, and the military ( Shusta, Levine, Harris & Wong, 2002) . The National LGBTQ Task Force has paid a particular focus on a number of areas that include:
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Psychiatry – During the early 1970s, the National LGBTQ Task Force staffed the educational booths during the American Psychiatric Association conventions, actively lobbying the APA to cancel out homosexuality from the provided list of mental disorders. In 1978, Ron Gold led the Task Force in urging the U.S. Public Health Service against labelling gay immigrants as people with ‘psychopathic personalities.’
Employment and Military Service – In 1975, the National LGBTQ Task Force pushed the U.S. Civil Service Commission to give gay people the right to serve as federal employees. These efforts were eventually successful in 1985.
Civil Rights – During the 1970s, the National LGBTQ Task Force was active in monitoring the federal, local, and state battles over the enforcement of the gay and lesbian civil rights.
Gays and Lesbians in the Media – The National LGBTQ Task Force realized that there was an outright threat to lesbians and gays in the manner that they were represented by the media. This birthed the Gay Media Task Force that lobbied for an increased coverage of gay and lesbian issues by television networks.
Feminism – The women in the National LGBTQ Task Force were instrumental in winning support for the gay and lesbian rights from the mainstream women’s movement. The successfully campaigned for a resolution of lesbian rights during the national convention of the National Organization of Women in 1975.
AIDS – The National LGBTQ Task Force played a major role in the negotiation of FDA’s approval of the first HTLV-III antibody test in the fight against the rising AIDS-related discrimination.
Anti-Lesbian and Gay Violence – The National LGBTQ Task Force has also played a major role in the prevention of anti-gay violence and bringing attention to the issue ( Shusta, Levine, Harris & Wong, 2002).
Without a doubt, the National LGBTQ Task Force has played a major role in the achievement of the legal and political rights for the LGBTQ community. The group was instrumental in the training of state-level and local activities on strategies to support state legislation that would give the LGBTQ people the right to marry. The Task Force works under the think tank of the Policy Institute to sponsor the research and analysis of issues that matter to the lives of the LGBTQ people and their families.
References
National LGBTQ Task Force. (2019). National LGBTQ Task Force - Be You. Retrieved from http://www.thetaskforce.org/
Shusta, R. M., Levine, D. R., Harris, P. R., & Wong, H. Z. (2002). Multicultural law enforcement: Strategies for peacekeeping in a diverse society . Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
