Hilary Rosen is the former head of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). She was a columnist for The Washington Post, became the first Washington editor-at-large and political director of The Huffington Post, and has provided political commentary for CNN, CNBC, and MSNBC.
Candace Gingrich is an American LGBT rights activist at the Human Rights Campaign. Candace is the half-sibling of former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich.
The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) is an American LGBTQ advocacy group. It is the largest LGBTQ political lobbying organization within the United States. Based in Washington, D.C., the organization focuses on protecting and expanding rights for LGBTQ individuals, including advocating for same-sex marriage, anti-discrimination and hate crimes legislation, and HIV/AIDS advocacy. The organization has a number of legislative initiatives as well as supporting resources for LGBTQ individuals.
Cheryl Ann Jacques is an American politician and attorney who served six terms in the Massachusetts Senate, was the president of the Human Rights Campaign for 11 months, and served as an administrative judge in the Massachusetts Department of Industrial Accidents.
Elizabeth Millen Birch is an American attorney and former corporate executive who chaired the board of directors of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force from 1992 to 1994. She served as the executive director of the Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest LGBT organization, from January 1995 until January 2004.
David Plouffe is an American political and business strategist best known as the campaign manager for Barack Obama's successful 2008 presidential campaign. He is a senior advisor to Kamala Harris’ 2024 presidential campaign. A long-time Democratic Party campaign consultant, he was a partner at the party-aligned campaign consulting firm AKPD Message and Media, which he joined in 2000.
Richard Socarides is founder and CEO of Kozani Capital LLC, a venture capital and corporate advisory firm. Previously, he was head of global corporate communications and government affairs for Gerson Lehrman Group (GLG). Socarides has also led communications at New Line Cinema and has held other senior media jobs at Time Warner, AOL and in government and politics. He is an American Democratic political strategist, writer for The New Yorker, TV commentator and a New York attorney. He was a White House adviser under United States President Bill Clinton from 1993 to 1999 in a variety of senior positions, including as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Adviser for Public Liaison. He worked on legal, policy and political issues and served as principal adviser to Clinton on gay and lesbian civil rights issues. Under Clinton, he was chief operating officer of the 50th Anniversary Summit of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Socarides also worked as special assistant to Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa).
Stephanie Cutter is an American political consultant. She served as an advisor to President Barack Obama during his first presidential term, and was deputy campaign manager for his 2012 re-election campaign. She previously worked in campaign and communications roles for other prominent Democrats including Ted Kennedy, John Kerry, and Michelle Obama. The New York Times described her as "a popular but polarizing face of [Obama's] campaign", and a "soldier who says the things the candidate can't say."
On October 16, 2007, satirist Stephen Colbert officially announced that he would run for President of the United States. This came after weeks of being pressured to do so by the public and stating that he would need a sign, which came from Aragorn giving him the sword Anduril. Although the legitimacy of his campaign was questioned, he maintained that he was serious. Colbert had originally planned to run for both the Republican and the Democratic nomination in his home state of South Carolina. After learning that the fee to file for the Republican primary was $35,000, he abandoned plans to run as a Republican. Although he paid the $2,500 fee to be included in the South Carolina Democratic ballot, he was denied a place on the ballot by the South Carolina Democratic Party executive council. On November 5, 2007, Colbert officially dropped his presidential bid.
The Visible Vote ’08: A Presidential Forum aired live on August 9, 2007 on the TV channel Logo. It was the first-ever live televised forum with U.S. Presidential candidates discussing solely LGBT-related issues. Logo co-sponsored the event, the first live one in its history, with the Human Rights Campaign.
Jeffrey Dunston Zients is an American business executive and a government official in the administration of U.S. president Joe Biden. Zients is currently serving as the 31st White House chief of staff. Earlier in the Biden administration, he served as counselor to the president and White House coronavirus response coordinator from January 2021 to April 2022.
Judy Shepard is the mother of Matthew Shepard, a 21-year-old student at University of Wyoming who was murdered in October 1998 in what became one of the most high-profile cases highlighting hate-crimes against LGBTQ people. She and her husband, Dennis Shepard, are co-founders of the Matthew Shepard Foundation, and advocate for LGBT rights.
On April 4, 2011, Barack Obama, the 44th president of the United States, announced his candidacy for re-election as president. On September 5, 2012, he again became the nominee of the Democratic Party for the 2012 presidential election. Along with his running mate, Vice President Joe Biden, Obama was opposed in the general election by former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, along with various minor candidates from other parties. The election took place on Tuesday, November 6, 2012.
Terrence Patrick Bean is an American political fundraiser, a civil rights activist, and LGBT rights movement activist. He is known for co-founding several national LGBT rights organizations, including the Human Rights Campaign and the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund. As of 2012, he is the CEO and President of Bean Investment Real Estate and resides in Portland, Oregon. Since 2014, Bean had been the subject of sexual assault allegations; all charges were dismissed in January 2022.
Chad Hunter Griffin is an American political strategist best known for his work advocating for LGBT rights in the United States.
SKDK is a public affairs and political consulting firm that specializes in working for Democratic Party politicians. It has offices in Washington, D.C., New York City, Los Angeles, California, and Albany, New York. The firm employs notable figures like former Obama White House Communications Director Anita Dunn, and Hilary Rosen.
Victor Basile is an author and American LGBT rights activist who was the first executive director of the Human Rights Campaign, serving in that position from June 1983 to June 1989.
Steve McMahon is an American lawyer and media consultant who has worked on political campaigns for Democratic candidates including Ted Kennedy, Howard Dean, and Dick Gephardt, in addition to his work with elected officials. He is a founding partner of Purple Strategies, a bipartisan communications firm located in Alexandria, Virginia, and McMahon Squier and Associates, a media consulting firm.
John Rufus Gifford is an American politician, and diplomat, who has served as Finance Chair of the Harris 2024 presidential campaign since July 2024. He was the chief of protocol of the United States from 2022 to 2023. Between 2013 and 2017, he was the United States Ambassador to Denmark.
Executive Order 13672, signed by U.S. President Barack Obama on July 21, 2014, amended two earlier executive orders to extend protection against discrimination in hiring and employment to additional classes. It prohibited discrimination in the civilian federal workforce on the basis of gender identity and in hiring by federal contractors on the basis of both sexual orientation and gender identity.
