GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders, Inc. (GLAD)
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
Founded in 1978, GLAD came into existence as a public interest law firm created to ensure that the LGBTQ community in New England could speak in its own voice in the courts about issues that concerned our community.
Today, we continue to employ strategic litigation, public policy advocacy, and education to press for social change, both in New England and nationally.
We work specifically to expand and defend the rights of vulnerable segments of our community, including youth and students, elders, people of color and indigenous people, immigrants, those in prison, and those who are economically disadvantaged. Our GLAD Answers service is a free service that is open to callers from New England and around the nation. GLAD works closely with national partners to provide litigation support, strategize, and file amicus briefs in cases around the country.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Civil Rights Project
Civil Rights Project (CRP): The CRP focuses on ending discrimination against LGBTQ people and families. The CRP's most significant victories include bringing marriage to all six New England states, filing the first cases to challenge the discriminatory Defense of Marriage Act, and securing marriage equality for the country after arguing at the Supreme Court. The CRP advocates for full parental rights for non-biological LGBTQ parents and does legislative and policy work and education on the many ways LGBTQ couples form families, including in-vitro fertilization and surrogacy. The CRP is researching the specific needs of LGBTQ elders. The CRP is also combating employment discrimination against same-sex married couples and is deeply engaged in work around religious exemptions.
The Transgender Rights Project
The Transgender Rights Project (the TRP) focuses on ending discrimination based on gender identity and expression. The TRP uses impact litigation to ensure that protection from discrimination based on gender identity and expression is respected and enforced. The TRP also: 1) works on the local, state and national levels to challenge and eliminate the wide variety of insurance exclusions that inhibit health care access for transgender people; 2) works closely with administrative and regulatory offices to promote administrative regulations and/or guidance that assist transgender people in areas such as obtaining documents consistent with their gender and ensuring appropriate implementation of existing law; 3) works in coalition to pass transgender inclusive legislation on the state level; and 4) works on the federal level to pass federal legislation that will provide employment protections to LGBT people, as well as working on national policy issues that affect transgender people.
The AIDS Law Project
AIDS Law Project (ALP): The ALP fights discrimination based on HIV status, and for the privacy, health, and other rights of those living with HIV/AIDS. The ALP's largest current case challenges a large national long term care insurance company's refusal to cover an applicant taking pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) medication to prevent contracting HIV. Disability antidiscrimination laws protect those who are treated adversely based on false beliefs about a health condition. We also argue that the insurance company's discriminatory action was based on the unfounded and biased assumption that gay male sexuality is inherently risky and unhealthy.
Public Affairs and Education
GLAD's website, GLAD Answers - our free legal information and referral service, publications, and workshops ensure that individuals know their legal rights and how to assert them. Using print and online media, we tell the stories of LGBTQ people and how the law affects them. The department oversees GLAD's speaking opportunities and webinars. It recruits and trains approximately 40 volunteers each year to staff GLAD's information and referral service, GLAD Answers. It maintains a Lawyer Referral Service of more than 250 New England attorneys who understand the service needs of the LGBTQ and HIV-positive communities. Working with GLAD's legal team, it updates and distributes over 20 unique publications on the legal rights of LGBTQ and HIV-positive people in New England.
Where we work
External reviews
Videos
Our Sustainable Development Goals
Learn more about Sustainable Development Goals.
Goals & Strategy
Reports and documents
Download strategic planLearn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
Founded in 1978, GLAD came into existence as a public interest law firm created to ensure that the LGBTQ community in New England could speak in its own voice in the courts about issues that concerned our community. We sought to educate judges, lawyers, and the public about our lives and our need for legal protections. Today, we continue to employ strategic litigation, public policy advocacy, and education to press for social change, both in New England and nationally. As we live in a nation committed to the rule of law as the means of guaranteeing that all citizens are treated equally and with dignity, our goal is the same as the words etched over the U.S. Supreme Court building: equal justice under law. GLAD presses for change and expansion of rights under four main initiatives: the Civil Rights Project, the Transgender Rights Project, the AIDS Law Project, and the Youth Initiative. One of GLAD's experienced attorneys directs each project. GLAD comprises four departments - Legal, Public Affairs and Education, Development, and Finance and Operations. As impact litigators, our efforts and successes extend to all people burdened by the unfair policies, unconstitutional laws, and discriminatory practices that we challenge. While GLAD's target populations are the LGBTQ communities of New England and those people affected by HIV, the institutional reform and social change achieved by our work benefit hundreds of thousands of people in New England and beyond. We work specifically to expand and defend the rights of vulnerable segments of our community, including youth and students, elders, people of color and indigenous people, immigrants, those in prison, and those who are economically disadvantaged. Our GLAD Answers service is a free service that is open to callers from New England and around the nation. GLAD works closely with national partners to provide litigation support, strategize, and file amicus briefs in cases around the country.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
GLAD employs strategic litigation, public policy advocacy, and education in making our world more just, inclusive, and affirming. We work toward a society in which our identities are simultaneously irrelevant to our opportunities in life and celebrated as part of the broader diversity of American society. What we are able to achieve first here in New England through impact litigation and first-of-their kind cases, such as second parent adoptions in the 1990s and marriage equality in the 2000s, sets the standard and creates the template for progress across the country. Our legal info line and connections to private law firms nationwide allows us to stay up-to-date on, and respond immediately to, the real legal issues LGBTQ people face every day. As such, GLAD is nationally recognized as being a leader in the LGBTQ movement. We are not only uniquely positioned to change law and policy, we are changing hearts and minds through a proven education strategy of one-to-one contact with key decision-makers and influencers, far-reaching media coordination, and community outreach efforts.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
GLAD's legal team consists of nationally renowned experts on LGBTQ law. Civil Rights Project Director Mary Bonauto is nationally acknowledged as the chief strategist of the marriage movement. She is also recognized as a movement leader around issues of parentage and family law. Jennifer Levi, the director of the Transgender Rights Project, is a nationally distinguished expert on transgender legal issues and has served as counsel in a number of precedent-setting cases establishing basic rights for transgender people, including groundbreaking work on healthcare access issues and gender markers in identification documents. Bennett Klein, director of GLAD's AIDS Law Project, has litigated cases in state and federal trial and appellate courts establishing legal protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people and people living with HIV, including the successful argument before the Supreme Court in GLAD's 1998 Bragdon v. Abbott case that stated people with HIV can be protected from discrimination via the Americans with Disabilities Act. Janson Wu has served as GLAD's Executive Director since December 2014, following eight years as a staff attorney. During his time at GLAD, Janson has been deeply involved in the breadth of GLAD's work, including the rights of LGBT elders, family law and parentage, employment benefits, transgender rights, DOMA, and marriage equality. He served on the legal teams of many of GLAD's significant cases, including the DOMA challenges Gill v. OPM and Pedersen v. OPM, and the successful asylum case of Ugandan activist John Abdallah Wambere. In 2012, in the case In re Madelyn B, Janson successfully argued before New Hampshire's highest court that a non-biological lesbian mother should be recognized as a parent. Together, GLAD's small legal team brings more than 100 years of combined experience.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
How we listen
Seeking feedback from people served makes programs more responsive and effective. Here’s how this organization is listening.
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How is your organization using feedback from the people you serve?
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Which of the following feedback practices does your organization routinely carry out?
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What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
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- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
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Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders, Inc. (GLAD)
Board of directorsas of 01/18/2024
Shane Dunn
Ed Byrne
Project 10 East, Inc.
Joe Metmowlee Garland
The Miriam Hospital
Lee Swislow
Self Employed
Marlene Seltzer
Retired
Jean-Phillip Brignol
Federal Reserve Bank of Boston
Mario Nimock
Morgan, Brown, & Joy LLP
Beth R. Meyers
Burns & Levinson, LLP
Dallas M. Ducar MSN, RN, PMHNP-BC, CNL
Transhealth Northampton
Shane Dunn
Rosie's Place
Annika Bockius-Suwyn
DangerLaw
Ray Cheng
Deloitte Tax, LLP
Sarah Kaplan
Institute for Gender and the Economy (GATE)
Jacob Smith Yang
Advancing Justice – Asian Law Caucus
Jamie Bergeron
Ernst & Young
Alexandra Chandler
Protecting Democracy
Rachel Goldberg
Rachel A. Goldberg, Attorney at Law
Inga Bernstein
Zalkind Duncan & Bernstein LLP
Board leadership practices
GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.
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Board orientation and education
Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? Not applicable -
CEO oversight
Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? Not applicable -
Ethics and transparency
Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? Not applicable -
Board composition
Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? Yes -
Board performance
Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? Not applicable
Organizational demographics
Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? Candid partnered with CHANGE Philanthropy on this demographic section.
Leadership
The organization's leader identifies as:
Race & ethnicity
Gender identity
Transgender Identity
Sexual orientation
Disability
No data