January 6, 2011
By: Joe Siegel/TRT Reporter
Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes, along with his partner Sean Eldridge, has given GLAD (Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders) a boost of support in the form of a $50,000 matching gift.
As a Harvard undergraduate, Hughes worked on GLAD’s Legal InfoLine, helping LGBT callers with legal problems. Hughes and classmates Mark Zuckerberg, Dustin Moscovitz and Eduardo Saverin launched the social networking phenomenon known as Facebook in 2004.
Hughes also designed MyBarackObama.com, an online organizing campaign which helped aid the president’s historic election in 2008.
Hughes and Eldridge gave an interview for GLAD’s newsletter, Briefs, where they explained their passion for LGBT equality. They also appear in a YouTube video, which can be seen at GLAD’s web site – www.glad.org.
Eldridge, who is political director for the national organization Freedom to Marry, said, through that interview, “GLAD has proven to do incredibly smart, effective litigation that has really moved the ball forward. We feel indebted to the work GLAD has done and continues to do.”
“I knew that I wanted to volunteer for an organization that was working for GLBT Equality,” Hughes said. “I thought [the InfoLine] was really interesting because I would have an impact on people who were struggling with so many of the issues of what can and cannot be done as a GLBT citizen in New England or even nationally. It was exciting. I felt like I had a really tangible effect on people who were struggling with important problems.”
Eldridge feels that winning full equality for LGBT Americans requires a three-pronged strategy of legislation, public education and litigation, and that GLAD’s work is integral to that strategy.
“GLAD has proven to do incredibly smart, effective litigation that has really moved the ball forward,” he explained. “When we think about the litigation element of the work, GLAD is the first group that we think of and we feel indebted to the work that you’ve done and the work that you continue to do.”
Hughes hopes that his and Eldridge’s year-end donation challenge will motivate others to donate to GLAD.
“GLAD is a phenomenal organization, [that] is working on and prioritizing the issues that are important to both Sean and me,” Hughes said. “[W]e couldn’t be any happier to support you guys.”
Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders is New England’s leading legal organization devoted to ending discrimination based on sexual orientation, HIV status, and gender identity and expression.
