Chad Griffin & Jerome Fallon

[reviews_and_ramblings]

In 2012 the nation's largest LGBT civil rights organization, the Human Rights Campaign, named a new president, Chad Griffin. Griffin, who was appointed in March 2012, is a founding board member of the American Foundation for Equal Rights and played a crucial role in trying to overturn California's Proposition 8. At 19, the Arkansas native worked on President Bill Clinton's communications office and since then he has built an impressive career fighting for equality as well as other social policies. He has been linked romantically for several years to Jerome Fallon, who accompanied him to the March 2012 state dinner at the White House for British Prime Minister David Cameron. In a gesture that set tongues wagging both in the mainstream media and the gay blogosphere, Griffin and Fallon were seated at President Obama's table.

Chad Hunter Griffin (born July 16, 1973) is an American political strategist best known for his work advocating for LGBT rights in the United States.

Griffin got his start in politics volunteering for the Bill Clinton presidential campaign, which led to a position in the White House Press Office at the age of 19. Following his stint in the White House and his graduation from Georgetown University, he led a number of political campaigns advocating for or against various California ballot initiatives, as well as a number of fundraising efforts for political candidates, such as Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.

Following the 2008 passage of California's highly-publicized Proposition 8, which barred the recognition of same-sex marriage, Griffin founded the American Foundation for Equal Rights (AFER) to overturn the law. AFER's challenge, Perry v. Brown was ultimately successful following a decision by the United States Supreme Court in June 2013. In 2012, Griffin was appointed president of the Human Rights Campaign, the largest LGBT rights organization in the United States.


In March 2012 the Human Rights Campaign, named a new president, Chad Griffin. Griffin is a founding board member of the American Foundation for Equal Rights and played a crucial role in trying to overturn California's Proposition 8. At 19, Griffin worked on President Bill Clinton's communications office and since then he has built an impressive career fighting for equality as well as other social policies. Griffin and his partner Jerome Fallon attended a White House dinner in 2012.



Griffin was born in Hope, Arkansas, and grew up 45 miles to the northeast in Arkadelphia. While attending Ouachita Baptist University, he volunteered for the 1992 presidential campaign of Bill Clinton, and, following the election, received a job offer from Dee Dee Myers to join the transition team and administration. Griffin dropped out of college and became, at the age of 19, the youngest-ever member of a presidential staff. He worked as a White House Press Office manager for two years. There, he also acted as White House liaison to the 1995 film The American President, where he met producer Rob Reiner. Griffin went on to lead Reiner's charitable foundation and to work with Reiner on numerous political efforts, including the founding of the American Foundation for Equal Rights (AFER). AFER is a nonprofit organization formed to challenge the federal constitutionality of California's Proposition 8, which limited legal recognition of marriage in California to opposite-sex couples. After leaving the White House, Griffin entered the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, from which he graduated in 1997.

Griffin, who is himself gay, is best known for his work advocating LGBT rights, often citing the elevated rate of suicide among gay teens as motivation. In 2008, Griffin was selected as one of The Advocate's People of the Year, and in 2013, Griffin was placed 16th on Out magazine's "Power 50" list of the 50-most powerful LGBT individuals in the United States, moving up from 20th, 28th and 29th positions in 2012, 2011 and 2010, respectively.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chad_Griffin

Further Readings:

Victory: The Triumphant Gay Revolution by Linda Hirshman
Paperback: 464 pages
Publisher: Harper Perennial; Reprint edition (June 4, 2013)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0061965510
ISBN-13: 978-0061965517
Amazon: Victory: The Triumphant Gay Revolution
Amazon Kindle: Victory: The Triumphant Gay Revolution

Supreme Court lawyer and political pundit Linda Hirshman details the stunning story of how a resourceful and dedicated minority transformed the notion of American marriage equality and forged a campaign for cultural change that will serve as a model for all future political movements. In the vein of Taylor Branch’s classic Parting of the Waters, Hirshman’s groundbreaking Victory: The Triumphant Gay Revolution is the powerful story of a massive shift in American culture. Hirshman offers an insider’s view of the crucial struggle that is leading to change, incorporating her unique experiences and insights and drawing upon new interviews—with movement titans such as Frank Kameny and Phyllis Lyon, with next-generation activists such as Evan Wolfson of Freedom to Marry, and with allies including the likes of New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand—to create a comprehensive, inspiring history of change in our time.

More LGBT Couples at my website: http://www.elisarolle.com/, My Ramblings/Real Life Romance