News & Stories

The National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) may not seem like the typical organization we tend to support here at the Leonard Litz LGBTQ+ Foundation. But in fact, in a global climate where ominous levels of hate speech, discrimination, and violence have fueled an understandable impulse to censor hateful ideas and to “cancel” hateful speakers, our Foundation’s mission to uplift and empower the people whom words often seek to disparage hopefully demonstrates that even a small expression of love and support can go a long way toward countering even the most insidious hate. That is the sentiment expressed by none other than Nadine Strossen, recipient of the Judy Blume Lifetime Achievement Award for Free Speech at the 2023 NCAC Benefit: Let Me Speak. The John Marshall Harlan II Professor of Law Emerita at New York Law School, first female President of the American Civil Liberties Union (1991-2008), and a Senior Fellow with the Foundation for Individual Rights and Education, Nadine is a leading expert and frequent speaker/media commentator on constitutional law and civil liberties, who has testified before Congress on multiple occasions. She serves on the advisory boards of the ACLU, Academic Freedom Alliance, Heterodox Academy, National Coalition Against Censorship, and…

Elliot and Roger have shared previously about the personal fulfillment they get from the Leonard Litz LGBTQ+ Foundation’s partnership with the City University of New York (CUNY). As a CUNY graduate himself, Elliot is thrilled to be able to help expand access and opportunity to LGBTQ students who are poised to become future leaders. So it was a real treat when Elliot was invited to be a guest speaker, along with our Executive Director Colin Hosten, as part of the “Conversations in Leadership” series at The Colin Powell School for Civic and Global Leadership housed at City College. Moderated by Dean Andrew Rich and attended by a several dozen students, the conversation focused on LGBTQ+ Advocacy. Both Elliot and Colin shared their personal and professional perspectives on what it means to be an effective advocate, but, unsurprisingly, it was the students who shined with their thoughtful questions and comments about how they could make a difference in the world. As Elliot said, it’s all about being able to recognize and seize opportunities. The rest is a lot of hard work, and a little bit of luck. Huge thank you to the CUNY staff and students for inviting us to be…

The Leonard Litz LGBTQ+ Family has added a new member! We are pleased to announce the addition of our newest Trustee, Anthony Crisci. Anthony may be new to Leonard Litz, but he is practically a household name in Connecticut. He is the President and CEO of Circle Care Center (CCC), a healthcare organization based in Norwalk, CT, with a mission of providing affordable, accessible, and inclusive LGBTQ+ affirming and sex-positive primary care and sexual health services. Anthony joins the Foundation at an opportune moment, just as we are partnering with members of the Greater Bridgeport Pride Committee to establish a permanent Pride Center in Bridgeport. Before working at CCC, Anthony served as the first-ever Executive Director of Triangle Community Center (TCC), where he grew the organization to six full-time staff and expanded its programs and services to offer case management, financial assistance, and housing navigation for the LGBTQ+ community during his five-year tenure. Anthony grew up in Norwalk, CT, and is passionate about his time working at both TCC and CCC, creating new programs and services to make Norwalk and greater Fairfield County a better place to live for LGBTQ+ people of all ages.  In his free time, Crisci enjoys…

This past February, members of the Leonard Litz team traveled to San Francisco to attend the Creating Change Conference, hosted by The National LGBTQ Task Force. It is one of the most comprehensive gatherings of LGBTQ+ leaders and advocates across the rainbow spectrum, and provided a valuable opportunity for us to amplify our work among leaders and organizations working on effective community-building and LGBTQ advocacy, With that in mind, we recently took part in two other noteworthy conferences. Unity Through Diversity was hosted in Albany, NY, this Fall by our very own Leonard Litz grantee, In Our Own Voices. The conference seeks to center and empower LGBTQIA+ BIPOC communities by convening a diverse group of people from across the country to discuss topics related to health, wellness, and social justice disparities among queer communities of color. In addition to learning about new, data-driven ways to support these communities, the Leonard Litz LGBTQ+ Foundation was proud to sponsor scholarship packages that helped expand access to attendees with financial restraints. In September, Executive Director Colin Hosten traveled to the Dominican Republic to take part in the Opportunity Collaboration, a summit “focused on solutions to global poverty and injustice.” As the Foundation continues…

What are you thankful for this year? For too many LGBTQ+ people, Thanksgiving can be a fraught time, a regression to suppressing our identities around relatives who may not accept us, at least not in a way that allows us to be our true selves. We at the Leonard Litz LGBTQ+ Foundation are forever thankful for our chosen families. We may not share a genetic connection, but we embrace one another fully. We create a space where we all belong. We are connected by a bond stronger than blood, a birthright that is both a trial and a privilege. This bond was brilliantly displayed throughout the many celebrations of Pride this summer, particularly right here in Connecticut and New York, where the Leonard Litz LGBTQ+ Foundation partnered with Circle Care Center to support Pride celebrations in over two dozen suburban communities. The result was a kaleidoscope of happy smiles, warm hugs, fabulous drag performances and story hours, movie nights, art shows, and a plethora of parades. We truly had a gay old time. Unfortunately, this year’s Pride was not immune to prejudice. Pride organizers throughout New York and Connecticut remained on constant guard over potential threats to the safety of…

In some ways, there has never been more LGBTQ+ Pride in greater Westchester County and Connecticut. From flag raising ceremonies, to family-friendly comedy shows, to street festivals and parades, there’s a little something for everyone. Pride is a celebration of joy and acceptance, a radical expression of love for ourselves and for each other. Nothing, and no one, can take that away from us. But some folks are really trying to, aren’t they? The LGBTQ+ community is under vicious attack throughout the country. It’s tempting to try to fight fire with fire, give the haters a taste of their own venom. But actually one of our greatest weapons in this movement is Pride. Pride is not just about marching in parades. Here in the greater Westchester County and Connecticut, it can mean attending a Pride Flag Raising Ceremony in Norwalk, or Easton, Greenwich, or Waterbury. There are parades and street festivals planned in places like Rye, Yorktown, Putnam, Yonkers, New Rochelle, and Mount Vernon. Movies nights in Middletown, and Drag-Queen Story Hour in Darien. A Pride Color Run in Pound Ridge, and a Drag Gospel Fest in Waterbury. This February, local Pride organizers from across Connecticut and New York convened…

In an age of nonstop information and misinformation, we know that the messaging can be just as important as the message when it comes to telling our stories as LGBTQ+ people. That’s why the Leonard Litz LGBTQ+ Foundation has been honored to support a very important initiative aimed at developing and supporting storyteller voices in our community. The first annual Writers and Artists Grant from The Gay & Lesbian Review is intended to help bring new, diverse perspectives, ideas, and voices to the literary marketplace by encouraging and supporting emerging and unpublished LGBTQ+ writers, thinkers, scholars, and artists. After a rigorous application and evaluation process, three amazing graduate students have been selected for this first cohort. Cait N. Parker (she/her) is a Ph.D. Student in American Studies with a concentration in Women’s, Gender, & Sexuality Studies at Purdue University, whose project is titled “Don’t Let Them Bury Us: Lesbian Revolutionaries in the Prison Abolition Movement.” Gervais Marsh (they/them), pictured above, is a PhD Student in Performance Studies at Northwestern University, and their project is titled “Intimate Notes: Patric McCoy’s Archive of Black Gay Life in Chicago.” They will focus on artist Patric McCoy’s photographic archive as a meditation on the…

A significant part of our long struggle to achieve equal dignity and rights as LGBTQ+ people has been to enact and advance equal protections under the law. The folks attacking us at Stonewall over 50 years ago were not random thugs. They were police officers. And while we’ve come a long, long way since then, many of us know firsthand that we still have a long way to go. But, even when we have allies in positions to create and advance public policy (which, itself, requires constant vigilance these days), it is increasingly difficult to make any progress without robust data underpinning your arguments. We know inherently that LGBTQ+ people receive disparate treatment under the law, but it is crucial to quantify that disparity in a way that helps both LGBTQ+ policy-makers and our allies make the best decisions for our community. Enter Lambda Legal, and the 2022 Protected and Served report. Funded in part by a Leonard Litz Advocacy Grant, the report builds on Lambda’s groundbreaking work in 2012 exploring government misconduct and harm by police, prisons, school security, and courts against LGBTQ+ people and people living with HIV in the U.S. As the report notes, “Our hope is…

It feels frustrating, alarming, and sad, and scary that this still needs to be said in 2023, but here we go, once again, for the record: Trans. Rights. Are. Human. Rights. Some so-called “leaders” throughout the country have decided that the transgender community makes an easy target as political pawns in their hate-filled culture wars. Which is why it is more important than ever for the LGBTQ+ community and our allies to stand up boldly on behalf of our transgender family. Allies like Senators Megan Hunt and Machaela Cavanaugh of Nebraska, whose courageous stand in the legislature led to every single bill being filibustered until an insidious proposal blocking gender-affirming healthcare for youth is dropped. They know as well as we do: There is no LGB without the T. Do not for a second delude yourself into thinking that this attack on the transgender community is “not your fight.” These zealots have no love for cis-identified gays and lesbians, either. Already your favorite drag queens are being targeted in places like Tennessee and Arizona. Legislators in Iowa this year proposed a ban on same-sex marriage. And Florida’s now infamous “Don’t Say Gay” law has spawned copycat legislation in more than a…

Three years in to our work of supporting nonprofit organizations that protect and uplift the LGBTQ+ community, one lesson has become especially clear:  there is more work to be done in this movement than any one organization can do alone. To that end, we at the Leonard Litz LGBTQ+ Foundation have been grateful for the opportunity to convene with other like-minded individuals and organizations in our community to share best practices, discuss capacity-building, and collaborate on ways to enhance our collective impact by working together. In February, Leonard Litz traveled to San Francisco, CA, to take part in our first ever Creating Change Conference, hosted by The National LGBTQ Task Force. In addition to attending seminars about effective community-building and trans-specific outreach, we invited attendees to the inaugural Leonard Litz Leadership Reception, which provided a fun and educational opportunity for LGBTQ+ nonprofit professionals to network, amplify their work, and elevate their own potential. With a focus on  heart-centered leadership, we hope to work toward a future where our community’s leaders are equipped for both organizational success as well as self-compassion. Huge thank you to Jacob Rudolph of The Pride Network for his collaboration on the event production. In April, Executive…