Chad Griffin Named President of HRC

Chad Griffin Named President of HRC
By Andrew Harmon

Chad Griffin WASHINGTON — Chad Griffin, the Los Angeles-based
political consultant whose central role in the Proposition 8 lawsuit
turned him into a national LGBT rights figure, has been named
president of the Human Rights Campaign.

A major fundraiser for the Obama campaign who began his career in the
early days of the Clinton White House, Griffin will replace current
president Joe Solmonese at the helm of the $40 million organization on
June 11, HRC announced Friday following a board of directors vote.
Solmonese, who joined HRC as president in 2005 and said in August that
he would leave after his contract expires at the end of this month,
will continue in his role until June. Solmonese was named a national
co-chair for the Obama campaign last month.

In its pick of Griffin as president, HRC has chosen someone who was
shaped from an early age by Washington political culture yet who is
not defined by it, having spent the vast majority of his career
outside the Beltway. Griffin, 38, is a fervent supporter of President
Obama with personal ties to White House officials, but has pushed the
bipartisan case for marriage equality, notably hiring former George W.
Bush solicitor general Theodore Olson to co-lead the Prop. 8 suit and
aligning with conservatives including gay former Republican National
Committee chair Ken Mehlman, who has raised money for the legal
effort. Griffin has been openly critical of the president's evolving
position on marriage equality, calling Obama's indicated support for
states' rights on deciding who can marry "a step backwards." And,
central to the job, Griffin has a proven ability to be a formidable
fundraiser.

"While there's no doubt that we've made tremendous progress on the
road to equality, we must not forget that millions of LGBT Americans
still lack basic legal protections and suffer the consequences of
discrimination every day," Griffin said in a statement. "Today's
generation of young people, and each generation hereafter, must grow
up with the full and equal protection of our laws, and finally be free
to participate in the American dream. As HRC president, I'll approach
our work with a great sense of urgency because there are real life
consequences to inaction."

Griffin will take over at HRC just five months prior to the November
elections in a year both precarious and promising for LGBT rights.
Anti-marriage equality referendums loom in multiple states following
huge victories in the Washington and Maryland legislatures. Meanwhile,
political candidates including Wisconsin Rep. Tammy Baldwin, who's in
a tight race to become the first openly gay U.S. senator, are vying to
add greater diversity among elected officials.

And Griffin's position at the organization will require a broader
focus on issues beyond marriage, from employment discrimination to
health care disparities faced by gay, lesbian, bisexual, and
transgender Americans.

Griffin will remain on the board of the American Foundation for Equal
Rights (AFER), the organization he co-founded in 2009 to organize,
publicize, and fund the Prop. 8 lawsuit. Bruce Cohen, a fellow AFER
board member and an Academy Award-winning producer whose films include
American Beauty and Milk, applauded the announcement, saying that
Griffin's new position "makes a very strong statement on behalf of HRC
that they chose him to lead."

"Chad thinks big. And then he goes out and accomplishes his goal,"
Cohen said. "If AFER is any blueprint, then I think we have exciting
things to look forward to. And for those who haven't felt that they
had a home at HRC, I believe he'll make them feel that they do now."

In the past, Griffin hasn't shied away from resisting the prevailing
strategy of national LGBT groups — including HRC. Against the public
position of HRC and LGBT legal groups, two gay couples represented by
AFER's legal team filed the lawsuit against Prop. 8 in May of 2009,
based on the argument that gays and lesbians have a constitutional
right to marry. The groups have since reconciled, while organizations
such as Lambda Legal and Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders continue
their own targeted litigation strategy against the Defense of Marriage
Act, one that has led to significant court victories on both coasts.

Griffin began his career in the West Wing at age 19, working under
Clinton White House press secretary Dee Dee Myers. As a political
strategist in Los Angeles, he has waged pro-environmental and
anti-tobacco campaigns, the latter with Hollywood director Rob Reiner.

A founding partner in the consulting firm Griffin Schein, Griffin's
former business partner, Kristina Schake, was tapped as First Lady
Michelle Obama's communications director last year.

HRC's executive search, a very private process over the past few
months, "included the consideration of over one hundred diverse and
extremely well-qualified candidates from the worlds of business,
academia and activism," according to a Friday HRC news release.

The search was co-chaired by HRC board members Joni Madison and Dana
Perlman. Both Perlman and Griffin are top bundlers for the Obama 2012
campaign, raising thousands of dollars through their personal and
professional networks.

"In Washington, there's a deep institutional bias against doing
anything that would rock the boat. But we're fighting for our lives
and for our freedom, and as far as I'm concerned, you've got to rock
the boat," said Richard Socarides, who served as a White House special
assistant during the Clinton administration. "I think Chad is someone
who's proven that he's willing to do so. In some ways, it's an obvious
choice. He's a great fundraiser and a great communicator. It's a very
exciting development for our movement."

Chad Griffin Named President of HRC
By Andrew Harmon

Chad Griffin HRC Names Chad Griffin as Organization's New President

Nation's Largest LGBT Rights Group Selects Visionary Leader of Prop. 8 Lawsuit

WASHINGTON – Chad H. Griffin was appointed today as the next president
of the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the nation's largest lesbian, gay,
bisexual and transgender (LGBT) civil rights organization, by the
organization's Board of Directors. Griffin, a national communications
and policy strategist, is widely credited for being the mastermind
behind the federal lawsuit to overturn California's Proposition 8,
which has now been ruled unconstitutional by two federal courts.

Griffin's appointment follows an extensive six month search by the
board that included the consideration of over one hundred diverse and
extremely well-qualified candidates from the worlds of business,
academia and activism. Griffin will assume his new responsibilities on
June 11, 2012. Current HRC president Joe Solmonese will continue to
lead the organization until that time.

The founding partner of strategic communications and campaign firm,
Griffin|Schein, Griffin has taken on entrenched, well-financed
interests like Big Tobacco, Big Oil and the far right, and shaped
national policy debates around equal rights, clean energy, universal
health care, stem cell research, and early childhood education. He has
also led groundbreaking ballot initiative campaigns including the
largest ballot initiative ever recorded, Proposition 87: California's
Clean Alternative Energy Initiative; the Proposition 10 campaign,
which generates $600 million a year for early childhood education; and
Proposition 71, which secured billions of dollars for stem cell
research despite the Bush Administration ban.

Griffin is a founding board member of the American Foundation for
Equal Rights (AFER), the sole sponsor of the Prop. 8 lawsuit. He is
personally responsible for recruiting the legal dream team of Theodore
Olson and David Boies to successfully argue the case. Griffin will
remain on the board of directors of AFER.

A veteran of the Clinton White House communications team, and a native
of Arkansas, Griffin was highly motivated by young people in taking
this new endeavor. "All over this country in big cities and small
towns, there are families and young people who long to be accepted for
who they are, and who want be treated with the same dignity and
respect as everyone else," said Griffin. "I'm honored by the board's
confidence in my ability to lead HRC. While there's no doubt that
we've made tremendous progress on the road to equality, we must not
forget that millions of LGBT Americans still lack basic legal
protections and suffer the consequences of discrimination every day.
Today's generation of young people, and each generation hereafter,
must grow up with the full and equal protection of our laws, and
finally be free to participate in the American dream. As HRC
president, I'll approach our work with a great sense of urgency
because there are real life consequences to inaction."

HRC Co-Chair Tim Downing and HRC Foundation Co-Chair Sandra Hartness
spoke on behalf of their colleagues on the Board of Directors, "We're
ecstatic to have someone of Chad's caliber as our next president. His
superior credentials and achievements, both as a visionary and
strategist, make him uniquely qualified to lead this organization
forward. Chad has a proven track record of consistently delivering
results during his career. That's something that our community rightly
expects and deserves."

With over a million members and supporters, HRC works to secure equal
rights for LGBT individuals and families at the local, state and
federal levels by mobilizing grassroots supporters, lobbying elected
officials, proactively educating and changing the hearts and minds of
fair-minded Americans, and investing strategically to elect
fair-minded officials. Founded in 1980, HRC seeks to improve the lives
of LGBT Americans by advocating for equal rights and benefits in the
workplace, ensuring families are treated equally under the law and
increasing public support among all Americans through innovative
advocacy, education and outreach programs.

HRC consists of two separate non-profit organizations: the Human
Rights Campaign Foundation, a 501(c)(3) organization that focuses on
research, advocacy and education and the Human Rights Campaign, a
501(c)(4) organization that focuses on lobbying Congress, state and
local officials for support of pro-LGBT bills, and mobilizing
grassroots action amongst its members. The combined annual budget of
both organizations was approximately $40 million in 2011.

More:
http://www.advocate.com/News/Daily_News/2012/03/02/Chad_Griffin_Named_President_of_HRC/

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Together, we can change the world, one mind at a time.
Have a great day,
Tommy

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Together, we can change the world, one mind at a time.
Have a great day,
Tommy

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