GLAD

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Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders
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"GLAD" redirects here. For other uses, see Glad.
Not to be confused with Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation.

Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders (GLAD) is a non-profit legal rights organization in the United States. The organization works to end discrimination based on sexual orientation, HIV status, and gender identity and expression.
John Ward founded GLAD in 1978 and filed its first case, Doe v. McNiff that same year. An early victory came in Fricke v. Lynch (1980), in which GLAD represented Aaron Fricke, an 18-year-old student at Cumberland High School in Rhode Island, who won the right to bring a same-sex date to a high school dance.[2]

GLAD is based in Boston, Massachusetts, and serves the entire New England area of the United States. Services it provides include litigation, advocacy, and educational work in all areas of LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) civil rights and the rights of people living with HIV. The organization also operates a telephone hotline and website.
In 2003, GLAD received national attention for its work in winning marriage rights for same-sex couples in Massachusetts. In Goodridge v. Department of Public Health, it successfully argued before the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court that to restrict marriage to heterosexual couples was a violation of the state constitution.

On November 18, 2008, the fifth anniversary of Goodridge, GLAD, working with other statewide groups, launched a project called the "Six by Twelve" campaign that aimed to bring same-sex marriage to all six New England states by 2012. The campaign began a week after same-sex marriage was brought to Connecticut, and the campaign is striving for New England to be a "marriage equality zone." The campaign has been working primarily through state legislatures, and looking towards the future the campaign sees this as a road map for the rest of the country in 2012. Within six months, same-sex marriage laws were passed in three more states, but the Maine was repealed by the voters on November 3, 2009.

Beginning in March 2009, GLAD has filed Federal Court challenges to Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act that prevents the federal government from providing certain federal rights and benefits and assigning certain responsibilities to individuals in same-sex marriages,[6] including Gill v. Office of Personnel Management, Massachusetts v. United States Department of Health and Human Services, and Pedersen v. Office of Personnel Management.

On June 30, 2011, EqualityMaine and GLAD announced plans to place a voter initiative in support of same-sex marriage on Maine's November 2012 ballot. The voter initiative passed, making Maine the first state to legalize same sex marriage through a ballot vote.

SOURCE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gay_%26_Lesbian_Advocates_%26_Defenders