Task Force Executive Director Rea Carey attends White House Forum on Health Reform

MEDIA CONTACT:
Inga Sarda-Sorensen
Director of Communications
(Office) 646.358.1463
(Cell) 202.641.5592
isorensen@theTaskForce.org

“In the coming months, the macro themes and issues raised at the summit will work their way through to concrete policy and funding decisions that will affect the day-to-day lives of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.”
— Rea Carey, Executive Director, National Gay and Lesbian Task Force

WASHINGTON, March 6 — National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Executive Director Rea Carey was among those participating in yesterday’s White House health-care reform summit convened by President Barack Obama.



Statement by Rea Carey, Executive Director
National Gay and Lesbian Task Force

“The White House Forum on Health Reform was a powerful start to reforming health care and how our country views health generally. With Sen. Ted Kennedy in the room, people couldn’t help but be inspired to focus on solutions. In the coming months, the macro themes and issues raised at the summit will work their way through to concrete policy and funding decisions that will affect the day-to-day lives of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. The Task Force will be working to make sure our needs, lives and families are not left behind. For example, how families are defined will be critical to ensuring full coverage of LGBT people, our partners/spouses and our children. The days when we must pay taxes on domestic partner health benefits must end.

“Other issues of great concern to LGBT people are the need for inclusive services; quality health care for those who are not employed; funding for community-based health centers with culturally sensitive services; addressing the ‘preexisting conditions’ barriers that far too many in our community face by having to move from job to job due to lack of employment protections or barriers faced by transgender people; and the racial and economic disparities that have plagued the existing system.

“Our community has a great deal at stake in the outcomes of this process but we also have a lot to offer in terms of solutions, creativity and engagement — after all, our community created an entire infrastructure of HIV/AIDS care when the government was unwilling to take action in ways that addressed the scale of the problem.”

Top Task Force staffer on hand as President Obama signs executive order creating White House Council on Women and Girls

March 11, 2009

MEDIA CONTACT:
Inga Sarda-Sorensen
Director of Communications
(Office) 646.358.1463
(Cell) 202.641.5592
isorensen@theTaskForce.org

WASHINGTON, March 11 — President Barack Obama signed an executive order today creating the White House Council on Women and Girls. The council is designed to provide a coordinated federal response to the challenges confronting women and girls, and to ensure that all cabinet and cabinet-level agencies consider how their policies and programs impact women and families. National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Deputy Executive Director Darlene Nipper attended today’s signing at the White House.

The White House Council on Women and Girls will be chaired by Valerie Jarrett, a senior adviser to the president, and the day-to-day operations will be run Tina Tchen, currently director of the White House Office of Public Liaison.

Statement by Darlene Nipper, Deputy Executive Director
National Gay and Lesbian Task Force


“Women and girls have made great strides in the United States, but challenges clearly remain. The highest echelons of government need to be aware of and actively engaged in finding solutions to critical issues affecting women and girls — issues like pay equity, threat of violence, work-life balance for working women, and access to affordable health care and child care. Women and their families are particularly vulnerable on all these counts during an economic downturn. Lesbian, bisexual and transgender women face additional obstacles because they are unprotected by most nondiscrimination employment laws and family recognition laws. This new council will hopefully ensure the voices of women and girls are heard and that these issues remain front and center in the White House.”