The Human Rights Campaign: A Historical Snapshot

The Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest national gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender civil rights organization, has long been a resilient voice in the fight for equality.

Early years. The group, originally called the Human Rights Campaign Fund, was founded by Steve Endean in 1980 to raise money for congressional candidates who supported fairness. The organization was created in a response to the recent success of anti-gay groups, including the Moral Majority and the National Conservative Political Action Committee. In its early years, HRCF got the support of public opinion leaders and celebrities, including Tennessee Williams, Joan Baez, Cesar Chavez and Gloria Steinem, and donated more than $200,000 to pro-fairness candidates for the U.S. House and Senate.

In 1986, HRCF thwarted efforts to gut a District of Columbia law that barred insurance firms from denying coverage to people testing HIV-positive. That success marked the first victorious roll call vote on Capitol Hill for the GLBT community. From there, HRCF’s federal legislative work only grew, as it supported federal funding for AIDS prevention education and joined other civil rights groups to help defeat President Reagan’s nomination of Robert Bork to the U.S. Supreme Court. HRCF also partnered with the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force in 1988 to strengthen GLBT visibility at the Democratic and Republican national conventions.

Fighting for our rights. HRCF reorganized in 1989 to become a membership organization with a connected political action committee. The group went on to lobby successfully for the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act, which protects people with HIV/AIDS from discrimination, and for increased federal funding for the treatment of breast and cervical cancer — diseases for which lesbians are at high risk. Later, at the invitation of President George H.W. Bush, HRCF representatives attended the signing ceremony for the Hate Crimes Statistics Act.

In 1992, HRCF endorsed a presidential candidate for the first time. That candidate, Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton, went on to win the election — after GLBT voters contributed $3 million to Clinton’s campaign and voted in a bloc for first time, giving him his 5 percent margin of victory. Following Clinton’s inauguration, HRCF Executive Director Tim McFeeley and other GLBT leaders met with him in the White House for the first meeting between GLBT groups and a sitting president.

The gay ’90s. The Human Rights Campaign dropped the word “Fund” from its name in 1995 and adopted its equal sign logo. That year, HRC also launched a website and quarterly magazine, and it created the Workplace Project, which fights for fair-minded workplace policies in corporate America. Soon after that, Candace Gingrich, the openly lesbian sister of House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., met with her brother on Capitol Hill on behalf of HRC. Candace Gingrich would later become a full-time member of HRC’s staff.

In 1996, HRC fought vigorously in the battle against the anti-gay Defense of Marriage Act. DOMA ultimately passed, but HRC came very close to success with the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which would have banned discrimination based on sexual orientation. ENDA finally lost in the U.S. Senate by a vote of 49-50.

The late 1990s were a busy time for HRC. In 1996, the organization sponsored OutVote ’96, the first national gay and lesbian political convention. The following year, Ellen DeGeneres came out as a lesbian, and HRC ran its first national commercial — on anti-gay job discrimination — during the landmark coming-out episode of her sitcom, “Ellen.” In 1998, following the murder of Matthew Shepard, an openly gay University of Wyoming student, in 1998, HRC led the national movement in support of hate crimes legislation that would protect GLBT Americans.

A new millennium. A crowd of 45,000 came to hear Melissa Etheridge, George Michael, Chaka Khan, Pet Shop Boys, k.d. lang and other artists — and to celebrate fairness — in Washington, D.C., in the summer of 2000. The “Equality Rocks” concert, sponsored by HRC, fell the day before the Millennium March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Equality. The march, also sponsored in part by HRC, drew hundreds of thousands of participants.

Later that year, the organization endorsed Vice President Al Gore in the race for president, and HRC Executive Director Elizabeth Birch spoke before the Democratic National Convention — marking the first time the head of a national GLBT organization had addressed the convention of a major political party.

After the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, HRC worked with the American Red Cross, the Justice Department and the U.S. Congress to ensure that GLBT families who lost loved ones in the Sept. 11 attacks receive assistance.

In the 2002 election cycle, HRC contributed more than $1.2 million to pro-equality candidates and sent more than 25 full-time staffers to work on HRC-endorsed campaigns across the country. The following year, HRC opened its new headquarters at 1640 Rhode Island Ave., Washington, D.C. — marking the first time a GLBT civil rights organization has established its own building in our nation’s capital.

Marriage equality. A series of judicial rulings led to an unprecedented level of discussion across the country about marriage equality for same-sex couples, and HRC led the way in helping to shape that dialogue. In 2004, the anti-gay Federal Marriage Amendment was defeated in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, thanks in large part to HRC’s lobbying and grassroots mobilization. Also that year, HRC endorsed Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., in the race for president, and HRC President Cheryl Jacques addressed the Democratic National Convention. During the 2004 election cycle, HRC contributed $1.8 million to candidates and sent more than 30 staff members to work on campaigns across the United States.

In the following years, HRC expanded its educational outreach. The group launched a Religion and Faith Program and a state-of-the-art research center and produced a groundbreaking handbook on transgender issues and a pro-equality buyer’s guide. And in 2005, the organization’s long struggle for fairness paid off when HRC’s annual Corporate Equality Index found that a record number of companies offered GLBT-inclusive policies to their employees and consumers — and that, as a result more than 5 million Americans now worked for companies that fully supported GLBT equality.

Building the path ahead. Over the coming years, the Human Rights Campaign will continue its work to secure equal rights for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender individuals and families and to build support for fairness among all Americans. With more than 600,000 members and a broad mission that includes advocacy, education and outreach programs, HRC is blazing trails every day in the fight for equality.