Women At The Helm 2011

November 9, 2011 Kat Long

Rachel Tiven: Executive Director, Immigration Equality “Every day, Immigration Equality hears from couples and individuals who, because of our work, literally have a new lease on life,” Rachel Tiven proudly reports. As the Executive Director of Immigration Equality and Immigration Equality Action Fund, the national organization fighting for equality under U.S. immigration law for LGBT and HIV-positive individuals, Tiven (pictured with New York Congressman Jerrold Nadler) has helped to win asylum for more than 100 LGBT people who escaped persecution and violence in their homelands. Immigration Equality was founded with three goals: end the HIV travel and immigration ban, provide LGBT people with full access to asylum in the United States, and allow lesbian and gay Americans to sponsor their partners for citizenship. “In a little more than a decade, we have already accomplished our first two goals,” Tiven says. “Today, Immigration Equality is working to win its final victory, too. That work is based on a simple but profound belief: American citizens should not be told whom they can, and cannot, share their lives and their homes with, and no one should be forced to choose between the person they love and the country they call home.” Prior to her work with the group, Tiven was a reporter and television producer for Bloomberg Business News and an attorney with the Legal Aid Society of New York.

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Gloria Casarez: Director of LGBT Affairs for the City of Philadelphia “I appreciate helping people connect the dots and being able to translate government to community and community to government,” says Gloria Casarez, who acts as the key liaison between Philadelphia’s LGBT community and Mayor Michael Nutter’s office. She makes sure the mayor is informed about the needs of LGBT residents regarding public safety, education, economic development, health and city services. “The community level is where the ideas are generated and where much of the grassroots work gets done. My work in government now is an extension of that,” she adds. A life-long Philadelphian, Casarez has advocated for LGBT youth, for communities of color and on anti-poverty issues including welfare rights and housing for more than 20 years. She is a founding organizer of Philadelphia Dyke March, the former Co-Chair of the Board of Directors of Prevention Point Philadelphia, and currently serves on the Board of Directors of Bread and Roses Community Fund, a public foundation that supports grassroots organizations working for racial and economic justice. Just prior to her appointment to city government, Casarez was the Executive Director of the Gay and Lesbian Latino AIDS Education Initiative (GALAEI). “My biggest contribution to my work in government is to help government see that LGBT people have a stake in every aspect of city life,” she says. “As much as we’ve been reflected in health disparities like HIV and bullying in schools, we also need to be reflected in the positive things happening in the city.”