Press

Three New Members Join Talented, Diverse National Board

MEDIA CONTACT:
Roberta Sklar, Director of Communications
media@theTaskForce.org
646.358.1465

September 17, 2004, Washington, DC. The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Board of Directors is pleased to announce the election of new officers for 2004-2005 and the addition of three new members. The elections occurred at the organization's September 11, 2004 meeting in Denver.

2004-2005 Board Officers

Jeff Soref was elected Board Co-Chair. He succeeds Loren Ostrow, who served as Co-Chair from 2002-2004. Mr. Soref, a member of the Democratic National Committee’s Executive Committee and Co-Chair of the DNC's LGBT Caucus, has an extraordinary record of accomplishment. From 1991 to 1994, he was President of Gay Men’s Health Crisis in New York. Under his leadership, the organization’s annual budget grew from $14 million to $25 million and the number of full-time employees serving clients doubled to 350. From 1995 to 2002, he was Board Co-Chair of the Empire State Pride Agenda, the nation’s largest LGBT statewide political advocacy organization. He has also served as a Vice Chair of the Finance Committee for Hillary Clinton for U.S. Senate and Co-Chair of the Clinton-Gore Re-Election Campaign's National Lesbian and Gay Leadership Council. Most recently, he co-chaired a June 25, 2004 LGBT event for the Kerry-Edwards campaign, which raised $1.8 million.

Beth Zemsky, an educator and activist in Minneapolis, MN, begins the second year of her two-year term as Co-Chair. Retiring Co-Chair Loren Ostrow, a past Co-Chair of the Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Center, is remaining on the Task Force Board and will serve on its Executive Committee.

Marsha C. Botzer, a noted leader in the national transgender community as well as Seattle’s LGBT community, has been elected to the newly-created position of Vice Chair. Ms. Botzer is a psychotherapist and the founder of Seattle's Ingersoll Gender Center, which has provided direct services, advocacy and information resources around gender identity issues since 1977. She has served as Co-Chair of the Seattle Commission for Sexual Minorities, as a member of the Seattle Women's Commission, and has been a member of the Harry Benjamin International Gender Dysphoria Association since 1984. Ms. Botzer also serves on the Board of Directors of the Pride Foundation, Equal Rights Washington, the LGBT Community Center, and the Safe Schools Coalition. In 2003 she received the Community Service and Leadership Award from the Greater Seattle Business Association. She was elected to the Task Force Board in 2000, and served as Treasurer during 2003-04.

Glenn Carlson, CPA, of Cambridge, Wisconsin, was elected Treasurer, succeeding Ms. Botzer. He is a retired CPA and formerly a partner at Price Waterhouse and Arthur Andersen and is currently the Chair of the Democratic party of the 2nd Congessional District of Wisconsin, home of Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin. He served as a Clinton Administration appointee to the ERISA Advisory Council and was Treasurer of the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center for seven years.

Maureen Burnley, Vice-President for Finance and Operations of the General Theological Seminary of the Episcopal Church in New York, was elected Secretary, succeeding Kevin Williams who will continue to serve on the Executive Committee. A graduate of Bryn Mawr College, she also has an MBA from Zicklin School of Business at Baruch College and a Masters degree from Ohio State. She has served on the Boards of the Lower East Side Harm Reduction Center, the Empire State Pride Agenda, and Unity Fellowship Church.

New Board Members

John Allen, an attorney with Allen Brothers, PLLC Detroit, has been a leader in Michigan’s LGBT community for many years. He currently Co-Chairs the Board of Directors of the Ruth Ellis Center, which provides a wide range of services to LGBT youth in Detroit, including a drop-in center and housing for the homeless. He also serves on the board of the Child Abuse Prevention Council of Wayne County (MI), and is past Chairman of the City of Pleasant Ridge’s Downtown Development Authority as well as its Planning Commission. He is legal counsel to the Triangle Foundation and a member of its Board.

Margaret Burd, of Denver, is President and co-founder of Magpie Telecom Insiders, a software development and consulting firm, and returns to the Board after a one-year retirement. She previously served on the Board from 1996 to 2003, and was Co-Chair in 2003. Ms. Burd is a founder of the ATL Foundation, which provides financial assistance to lesbians with serious health problems. Prior to founding Magpie, Ms. Burd was a Director in Lucent’s Bell Laboratories.

Chuck Renslow, of Chicago, is the leather community's most well-known leader and has been active in the community for more than 50 years. In 1958, he and lover Dom Orejudos (Etienne) opened their legendary Gold Coast Leather Bar. Other businesses have included GayLife Newspaper, Man's Country baths, and several other bars, including Center Stage, Bistro Too, and the Chicago Eagle. In 1979, they founded Mr. International Leather which now attracts more than 10,000 attendees each year. Following Dom's death, he co-founded  the Leather Archives and Museum with Tony DeBlase in 1991, and currently serves as its president. He is a charter member of the City of Chicago Gay and Lesbian Hall of Fame, and the recipient of many awards, including Pantheon of Leather Lifetime Achievement and Forebearer Awards, Gay Chicago Magazine's Hall of Fame and Humanitarian Awards, and the Centurion Leatherman of the Century 2000 Award. He is a past District Deputy Grand Master of Free and Accepted Masons.

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The mission of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force is to build the political power of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community from the ground up. We do this by training activists, organizing broad-based campaigns to defeat anti-LGBT referenda and advance pro-LGBT legislation, and by building the organizational capacity of our movement. Our Policy Institute, the movement’s premier think tank, provides research and policy analysis to support the struggle for complete equality and to counter right-wing lies. As part of a broader social justice movement, we work to create a nation that respects the diversity of human expression and identity and creates opportunity for all. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., we also have offices in New York City, Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis and Cambridge.