Press

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

Matt Foreman, Executive Director National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Salutes Mary Francis Berry upon her departure from the United States Civil Rights Commisssion

"Yesterday, Mary Francis Berry stepped down as chair of the United States Civil Rights Commission, ending a quarter century of leadership of this important advisory panel. Throughout her tenure, Dr. Berry served as truth-teller and conscience-in-chief to presidents, governors, members of Congress, and our nation on civil rights issues. Her dedication has been untiring. In fact, some friends have expressed gratitude for her discovery of e-mail, since it allowed them to sleep through the night without phone calls from Dr. Berry with her latest brainstorm for protecting our rights.

Dr. Berry embodies the Task Force's belief that no one is free when others are oppressed. She is someone who truly understands the intimate relationship between sexual freedom, gender freedom, reproductive freedom, racial equality, and economic justice. As Dr. Berry said so eloquently during her keynote address at this year's Creating Change" Conference in St. Louis, "When you're in a movement, you're not just in a movement for yourself, you're in a movement for all the people who can't speak for themselves."

As a nationally recognized leader, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, and as a board member of the Woodhull Freedom Foundation, Dr. Berry will continue to speak boldly for those who can't speak for themselves. We salute her years of service on the Civil Rights Commission, and look forward to her challenging and inspiring us for years to come."

Reporters requiring a high resolution photograph of Dr. Mary Francis Berry speaking at the Task Force's Creating Change" Conference in St. Louis, can download it at http://www.thetaskforce.org/images/ccberry.jpg.

–30–

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.