Getting to Know You: Elizabeth Toledo

OutSmart chats with the new executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force
by Clarence Burton Bagby

Elizabeth Toledo: Well, as working mothers, we’ve adopted the "It takes a village" concept of extended family. My partner Cindy Jordan and I both work, but carve out our schedules. We both travel a lot and we really work to maximize our family time. A dear friend lives with us–she’s like an aunt to us. I keep a calendar that’s clear [of everything but] family and job. ... They still have their father in their lives–he sees them every other weekend. There are two things with the kids–if they’re not with us, they’re with someone that’s considered "family"–with a very non-traditional definition. I use every gadget imaginable to make myself efficient. We have two cats and two Chihuahuas. Things work in a different way for us–when I’m working in the West, I often take the kids with me and arrange a layover with their grandparents.

I grew up in Tucson–most of my family is still there and in southern California. I left the desert after high school. Grew up with a large family: four brothers and four sisters. And [I had] young parents–they started when they were 17. It was a time of great change and they were very politically active; they believed family was first and community was second. My mother was escorted to the edge of the Catholic high school campus when it was discovered that she was pregnant. We were brought up Catholic and our family is Mexican-American. I remember growing up thinking everyone was Catholic–as a cultural [reality] as much as a spiritual reality.

I was brought up in Catholic schools and grew to be very resentful. It was very difficult for me to leave the church because of my family–but I was so unwelcome, I can’t bring myself to raise my children there. Cindy and I have been trying to identify a "home" church. We want the children to be exposed to spiritual traditions and hope they feel welcome to explore whatever experience they want to–synagogues, churches, or whatever path they choose. I just won’t accept being treated as anything less than equal or without human dignity ... in any institution or company for that matter. I mean, Cindy’s doctor wouldn’t give her birth control!

She grew up on the East Coast. She used to be a police officer in Montgomery County, Maryland, where we now live. We see people all the time and she says "I’ve arrested that person ten times!" She was formerly NOW’s lesbian rights director. We both work in GLBT political organizing–she now works at HRC.

Well, one, I love politics. Two, I’m committed to the idea that a comprehensive grassroots mobilization strategy is what our movement, the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community, needs. Three, NGLTF is unique–it is the only group with a grassroots strategy and a true progressive philosophy at its very core. Four, the task force values strategic thinking, research, and planning. Five, no one else is doing this work–the foundation of the organization is brilliant. Six, having worked in the feminist community as a leader for more than a decade, I’m very interested in turning my focus and the movement’s focus in a time when we are able to achieve things that weren’t even dreams a decade ago. [There’s a ]potential with today’s combination of legal and cultural influences to bring about fundamental change in the way we live our lives–and to achieve those goals in big steps and strides as never before was possible. I just want to be a part of shaping that. Seven, the hardest thing I’ve ever done was to leave NOW. I was a viable candidate for NOW president. NGLTF is one of the few, if not the only, organization I would have left for. It’s the nation’s premiere progressive GLBT organization and the oldest national group.

We must see an explosive growth in our movement and I believe the NGLTF mantra that the real power is in the states and local communities. We have to create a bigger and better political infrastructure in each and every state. Most states have an infrastructure due in large part to NGLTF and our training institute that Dave Fleisher heads; our field organizers; and most importantly, the Federation of Statewide LGBT Advocacy Organizations that we created and staff; and the annual Creating Change Conference. Our think tank, the NGLTF Policy Institute, produces fantastic papers and materials and leads the movement on research and policy analysis.

But we must do more. We must develop multiple strategies–many state organizations simply don’t have resources so we must facilitate productive sharing of resources. We are identifying cutting-edge ways to find people to become part of movement–the Internet is a crucial part of that strategy of course. I don’t want NGLTF to have a corporate philosophy, but I do want to use some corporate tactics that work–cutting-edge technology for organizing and communication. And we must recognize the power of the media and be able to convey our message to huge numbers of people who otherwise don’t feel invited to participate in our movement.

Yes it is! And that’s part of our message–the urgency–conveying that the time is now. The message of freedom, justice, and equality–that we deserve basic human rights and that by coming into the movement, we can achieve that with those numbers as our strength. With people living lives in this cloud of discrimination, many have lost sight of the fact that we all deserve to live free of discrimination. So many people are not invited to play a role.

Specific ways–capture people on the Internet. Be present with visibility in GLBT and other progressive gatherings–campuses, Prides, social justice gatherings. And through the media, advertising, and generally greater exposure. We are a part of a broader social justice movement: it is our job to convey why that strategy is important. People understand best what they experience every day. The origins of hate and discrimination are not isolated. Homophobic people are usually racist as well. There’s a definite relationship between sexism, racism and ageism. There’s the progressive thing–that all of those things are all connected. When we make that connection for people, that’s when we’ll see huge increases in the number of people involved in our movement.