Urvashi vaid biography of martin
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Vaid, Urvashi
BORN: October 8, 1958 • New Delhi, India
American activist; attorney
Urvashi Vaid's name is not widely known outside of civil rights circles, but she was the first woman to head a national gay rights organization in the United States. Since the 1980s, she has worked to make America a more accepting and tolerant place for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and trans-gendered (GLBT) men and women through her work as an attorney, author, and activist. She was still active at the beginning of the twenty-first century, but had adopted a broader approach, one that rejected what she called "single-issue" agendas. Instead, Vaid argued, gay rights activists should seek out and work tillsammans with other social-reform groups.
"I have never been a single-issue individ. I feel that I have always been a progressive individ who happened to be working in the gay and lesbian movement."
Arrives in the United States
Urvashi Vaid was born in New Delhi, India, on October 8, 1958. When the U
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Attorney, LGBTQ activist and author Urvashi Vaid dies
Urvashi Vaid, a powerful longtime influential attorney and LGBTQ activist whose career spanned from the early days of the AIDS pandemic to the contemporary battles over equality and equity for the LGBTQ community died today at her home after a bout with cancer in New York.
Vaid, 63, known for her extensive career as an advocate for LGBTQ rights, women’s rights, anti-war efforts, immigration justice and many other social causes, had served as the executive director of the National LGBTQ Task Force from 1989-1992 and served prior to that as the organization’s media director.
“We are devastated at the loss of one of the most influential progressive activists of our time,” said Kierra Johnson, current executive director of the National LGBTQ Task Force. “Urvashi Vaid was a leader, a warrior and a force to be reckoned with,” continued Johnson, “She was also a beloved colleague, friend, partner and someone we all looked up t
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In 1992, Urvashi Vaid, a thirty-three-year-old Indian American lesbian activist, was campaigning for the South Asian Lesbian and Gay Association to be included in the annual India Day Parade in New York City. Vaid went to the Queens office of one of the parade organizers to make her case. As she told the story, the organizer claimed that the reasons the association had been turned away had nothing to do with homophobia. As evidence, he offered—and, at this point, Vaid would turn on a distinctly Indian English pronunciation, “an Indian woman is the head of all the gays.” Vaid was so confused that the man had to repeat his claim. She realized that he was, unknowingly, talking about her.
Vaid, who died of cancer on May 14th, in Manhattan, at the age of sixty-three, wasn’t the head of all the gays, but only because that job does not exist. She was, almost certainly, the most prolific L.G.B.T.Q. organizer in history. For a decade, she was affiliated with the National Gay and Lesbian Tas