1. Urvashi Vaid was an Indian-born American LGBT rights activist, lawyer, and writer.
24 Facts About Urvashi Vaid
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Urvashi Vaid is the author of Virtual Equality: The Mainstreaming of Gay and Lesbian Liberation and Irresistible Revolution: Confronting Race, Class and the Assumptions of LGBT Politics.
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Urvashi Vaid was born on October 8,1958, in New Delhi, India to writer Krishna Baldev Vaid and poet and painter Champa nee Bali Vaid.
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Urvashi Vaid was one of three daughters and moved to Potsdam, New York, in 1966 with her family after her father took a teaching position at State University of New York at Potsdam.
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Urvashi Vaid received her Juris Doctor degree from Northeastern in 1983.
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For more than ten years, Urvashi Vaid worked in various capacities at the National LGBTQ Task Force, the oldest national LGBT civil rights organization; first as its media director, then as executive director, and as director of its Policy Institute think-tank.
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Urvashi Vaid spent ten years working in global philanthropic organizations, serving as executive director of the Arcus Foundation and deputy director of Governance and Civil Society Unit of the Ford Foundation as well as serving on the board of the Gill Foundation.
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Urvashi Vaid was the founder of LPAC, the first lesbian Super PAC, which was launched in July 2012 and as of 2020 has invested millions of dollars in candidates who are committed to legislation promoting social justice.
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Urvashi Vaid was founder of The Vaid Group, a social innovation consultancy that advises individuals and organization working to advance equity, justice and inclusion globally and domestically.
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Urvashi Vaid believed that lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender equality will occur only when the larger institutions of society and the family are transformed to be more inclusive of racial, gender, and economic difference.
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Urvashi Vaid became executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force in 1989.
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Urvashi Vaid left NGLTF in December 1992 and wrote Virtual Equality.
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Urvashi Vaid returned to NGLTF from 1997 to 2001 as the director of its think tank, the NGLTF Policy Institute.
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Urvashi Vaid worked for five years at the Ford Foundation, and served as executive director of the Arcus Foundation.
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Urvashi Vaid served on the board of the Gill Foundation from 2004 to 2014.
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Urvashi Vaid told Curve magazine that her biggest fear was that LGBT communities would get preoccupied by the wins in the fight for marriage equality and slow down their movement.
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Urvashi Vaid argued for a more inclusive movement, one that would encompass everyone regardless of race, class, ethnicity, age, or ability.
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Urvashi Vaid hoped that the future of LGBT communities will accomplish two things.
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Shortly after her death in 2022, Urvashi Vaid was added to the National LGBTQ Wall of Honor at Stonewall Inn.
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In 1998, Urvashi Vaid met political comedian Kate Clinton at a war conference of gay rights activists in Warrenton, Virginia, and the couple married in 2013.
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Urvashi Vaid shared homes with Clinton in Manhattan and Provincetown, Massachusetts.
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Urvashi Vaid died at home from breast cancer on May 14,2022.
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Urvashi Vaid was the aunt of Alok Urvashi Vaid-Menon, a gender non-conforming writer, performance artist, and media personality.
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Urvashi Vaid's name appears in the lyrics of the Le Tigre song "Hot Topic".