
GLAA lobbies the D.C. Council; monitors government agencies; educates and rates local candidates; and works in coalitions to defend the safety, health and equal rights of LGBT families. GLAA remains the nation's oldest continuously active gay and lesbian civil rights organization.
President Richard J. Rosendall
previously served as president of GLAA for three years ending in January 1999, vice president for political affairs from 2000 through 2012, and secretary in 1981. He received GLAA's
Distinguished Service Award in April 1999. He is a columnist for the Boston gay newspaper
Bay Windows
and for Washington's Metro Weekly.
His work has appeared in
Huffington Post,
Salon.com,
and
Liberty Education Forum.
He co-founded the Gay Men's Chorus of Washington, DC (GMCW) in 1981,
served as its public relations director from 1985 to 1996, and received its Circle of Excellence Award
in 1992. He was active with the
Gay and Lesbian Association of Choruses in the 1980s and 1990s,
and attended its first five choral festivals. He produced benefit performances by the gay male vocal quintet
The Flirtations for the
Sexual Minority Youth Assistance League in 1991. His interest
in international activism led him to persuade both GLAA and GALA Choruses to join the
International Lesbian and Gay Association (ILGA),
whose conferences he
attended in 1993 and 1994. In 1996 he launched world wide web sites for GLAA and
GMCW, and he continues to administer the GLAA site. He was a member of the NAACP-DC
Metropolitan Police and Criminal Justice Review Task Force (1997-2010). He participated
in "celebrity roast" fundraisers for DC's
Black Lesbian and Gay Pride Day in 1996
and 1997. He is a member of the Gertrude Stein Democratic Club. He wrote and officiated at a gay wedding
ceremony for friends in October 1994. He was named a Community Pioneer by the Rainbow History Project in 2009,
and received an award for Outstanding Service from The DC Center in 2011.
He is a native Washingtonian.
His personal webpage is at
www.holdingthecenter.net. (Photo by Patsy Lynch)
Vice President for Political Affairs Charles Butler
[bio in preparation]
Vice President for Administration Kevin Davis
has been a GLAA member since 1998. He previously served as president and secratary. Kevin is employed by Host
Hotels & Resorts, Inc., a Bethesda based real estate investment trust company.
Kevin is an "Unsung Hero" awardee for the Mautner Project (2006). Mautner is a national lesbian health organization. Volunteering since 1999 and in 2001-present Kevin has helped coordinate Mautner's annual GALA benefit. Mautner educates all women on women's health issues regardless of sexual orientation.
Secretary Alison Gardner
is an independent activist in Washington, D.C., who is applying her background as a publicist and teacher to the struggle for universal equality rights and the sexual liberation of all humankind. In 2010, she and her life partner of nearly 40 years, Dan Massey, launched a new digital platform, venusplusx.org, to promote a future free from discrimination based on race, sex, gender, or sexual practice between consenting adults.
Alison and Dan raise tens of thousands of dollars each year by creating fundraisers in their home for their favorite causes and political candidates. Working with grassroots, direct action, and traditional organizations, Alison has been a vocal advocate for a range of issues, such as global sexual freedom rights; national employment and housing non-discrimination legislation; exposing American fundamentalists who work against equality, here and abroad; ending police bias against sexual minorities, especially against people who are transgender and gender-nonconforming; and, bringing about the legalization of sex work by the establishment of a legitimate sexual healing industry.
Alison serves on the Advisory Council at Woodhull Sexual Freedom Alliance, the Policy Advisory Board at Gender Rights Maryland, and VenusPlusX is a member of the U.S. Human Rights Network's Sexual Rights and Gender Justice Working Group. Along with GLAA, where she is the newly elected Secretary, Alison is an active supporter of the Victory Fund, the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force, Truth Wins Out, Helping Individual Prostitutes Survive, DC Trans Coalition, Planned Parenthood, and Southern Poverty Law Center.
Alison's radicalization began in her teens as an anti-war activist, eventually working with Vietnam Veterans Against the War in the late 60s. She graduated from Kean College in 1970 and spent a few years as a special education teacher before turning her interest to marketing and PR, tools Alison believes play an important role in achieving full human rights everywhere.
Treasurer Gary Collins
is a native of Columbus, Ohio. He spent twenty years in the United States Navy deployed on aircraft carriers and worked as an a P-3 Orion aviation flight crew engineer, retiring from active duty in January 2000. He currently works at Joint Services Base Andrews as a commercial truck driver and fuels lab technician.
Gary has attended Service Members Legal Defense Network Lobby Days to advocate for the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, and as a member of American Veterans for Equal Rights (AVER), served as treasurer for AVER’s DC Chapter. He has been a member of GLAA for the last four years. Gary lives in Northeast Washington, DC, with his partner of 14 years.