Knowing What You Don't Know: A Case Study in Flexible Leadership

The Evelyn & Walter Haas, Jr. Fund Flexible Leadership Awards (FLA) Program, a Tides Center project, recently released a video case study of our work with the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR). The video highlights the importance—and the impact—of investing in social justice leadership.  The video tells the story of how NCLR, in a very short time, grew from a well-respected but relatively small nonprofit to the forefront of the movement for marriage equality. And it shows how—lacking the time or knowledge to create a broader culture of leadership or a solid structure for decision-making—NCLR leaders Kate Kendell and Shannon Minter felt pressure to do it all themselves.

In Sickness and Health: Visitation Rights a Step Towards LGBT Equality

While many in the LGBT community wait for President Obama to exert greater leadership on the issue of marriage equality, others in his administration have already taken significant steps towards recognizing the rights of LGBT couples.  Last week, the Department of Health & Human Services issued a press release titled “Medicare steps up enforcement of equal visitation and representation rights in hospitals… including same-sex partners.”  Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is quoted as saying, “Couples take a vow to be with each other in sickness and in health and it is unacceptable that, in the past, some same-sex partners were denied the right to visit their loved ones in times of need.”  This is welcome news.

30 Years of Fighting HIV/AIDS

As many LGBT Pride celebrations take place around this summer, people around the globe also marked the 30^th anniversary of the first diagnoses of HIV/AIDS—a milestone that serves as a reminder not only of the millions of lives lost, but also the powerful communities that are still standing up to fight HIV and support people living with AIDS.  As a platform for social change, Tides is proud to wear many different hats in addressing this multifaceted and still urgent epidemic, especially as research changes and new demographics become more at-risk.  By providing grantmaking and fiscal sponsorship services to a range of projects, and through the independent efforts of its staff and greater community, Tides contributes to critical work in the field including prevention, support and treatment, and global advocacy.

Leaders in Equality: LGBTQ Youth Honored by Colin Higgins Foundation

It’s not every day that three LGBTQ youth are handed their Colin Higgins Courage Awards from Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos. Phuong Tseng, Daunasia Yancey, and Cyrus Sinai proudly accepted their Courage Awards on June 27th at Trevor Live, a night of awareness-raising and celebration in the Big Apple. The atmosphere was electric after the recent legalization of same-sex marriage in New York City.

Listen: Harvest of Empire

On May 26, Tides was pleased to host our first Tides Learning Community event, Harvest Of Empire: Community Briefing on Immigration, in conjunction with Atlantic Philanthropies, Demos, Ford Foundation, and Open Society Foundations.  The event was held at Demos in New York City and gathered a packed audience from diverse backgrounds in philanthropy, advocacy, journalism, and others.  Panelists included Eduardo López of EVS Communications, Deepak Bhargava of the Center for Community Change, Anthony Romero of the American Civil Liberties Union, and Maya Wiley of the Center for Social Inclusion; the panel was moderated by Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Jose Vargas.  This inaugural Tides Learning Community program highlighted justice as one of Tides’ four primary issue areas for 2011, which broadly includes racial, social, and economic justice.

Celebrating Life and Championing Courage for a Decade

Colin Higgins Foundation looks to communities across the country to nominate and lift up the LGBTQ youth leaders who inspire them and play critical roles in their schools, organizations, and community spaces. Championing the leadership of LGBTQ youth independent of scholastic achievement is especially important when there are so many barriers standing in the way of their success, from schools that compromise their safety and well-being on a daily basis, to the alarming number of youth who get kicked out of their homes and become homeless due to their sexual orientation and/or gender identity.

Vatican shifts blame to homosexuals. Who cares?

Sometimes homophobia makes us wince.  Sometimes it can  bring tears to our eyes.  And sometimes it makes us want to grab the bat  from the basher.   This is  one of those moments.