Date: Tue, 19 Nov 96 16:21:54 EST From: ngltf@ngltf.org Subject: Elvis Has Left The Building ********************************************************************* National Gay and Lesbian Task Force PRESS RELEASE Contact: Robert Bray 415/552-6448 rbray@ngltf.org pager 800/757-6476 Kerry Lobel 202/332-6483 x3307 klobel@ngltf.org Don Hazen, IAJ 415/284-1420 2320 17th Street NW, Washington, DC 20009 http://www.ngltf.org ******************************************************************** ROBERT BRAY TO LEAVE NGLTF AFTER NINE YEARS OF SERVICE TO GAY AND LESBIAN MOVEMENT; WILL LAUNCH NEW PROGRESSIVE MEDIA CAMPAIGN AT INSTITUTE FOR ALTERNATIVE JOURNALISM Washington, D.C. Nov. 19, 1996...Long-time gay activist, director of communications for the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF), and self- described "media queen and movement spinmeister" Robert Bray will leave NGLTF after nine years of pitching stories to the press and shaping public opinion on gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender issues. Bray, 41, has been NGLTF media director and field organizer for the past eight years. Prior to that, he was the first media director ever hired by the Human Rights Campaign Fund (now HRC). Bray is one of the most widely quoted and visible gay activists in America today. He has appeared on virtually every major mainstream and gay television, radio, print and internet media outlet -- dating way back to his first media showdown with anti-gay arch-enemy Rev. Lou Sheldon of the Traditional Values Coalition on the Phil Donahue Show. Bray's departure was announced at the 9th Annual NGLTF Creating Change Conference held Nov. 6-10 in the Washington, D.C. area. It is effective at the end of this year. Starting in January of next year, Bray will join the Institute For Alternative Journalism (IAJ), where he will launch a new media campaign he has co-devised called S.P.I.N. -- Strategic Progressive Information Network. The campaign will provide media trainings to progressive activists from a variety of social change movements around the country, and organize progressive public relations operatives into a media information network. "I'm delighted to have the opportunity to do the work of building a progressive coalition of PR people and using my 17 years of corporate and non- profit media experience to give community activists the tools they need to shape public opinion through the press," said Bray. "At the same time, leaving NGLTF is bittersweet," he added. Bray joined NGLTF in 1988. "I will miss the excitement of fast-breaking media dramas, all of which I delighted in spinning. I will remember the compelling personal stories of liberation by gay people that I can never resist pitching to reporters. I will fondly recall my role in the ongoing struggle to overcome the silence and shame of the closet and tell the truth about our lives to the press." Bray added he is pleased with new NGLTF executive director Kerry Lobel's commitment to increasing visibility for g/l/b/t issues in the media. Prior to joining the gay movement in 1987, Bray was a public relations executive for the IBM Corporation. He came out publicly -- almost by accident - - on national television during the March on Washington for Gay and Lesbian Rights in 1987, at which he volunteered to handle media at the Supreme Court sodomy protest. Since then, Bray has been at the forefront of almost every major g/l/b/t initiative. He helped make numerous controversial issues into major media stories and political debates, including gays in the military, domestic partner rights, the federal government response -- or lack of -- to AIDS, the growing political power of gays, censorship attacks on artists, anti-gay ballot initiatives, same-sex marriage, corporate America's recognition of gay and lesbian employees, the emerging visibility of bisexuals and transgenders, the growing power of people of color within the gay community, and more. "Robert has dedicated his professional life to change how society views and treats gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people," said Kerry Lobel, NGLTF executive director-designate. "His goal has always been to advance a progressive agenda of justice and equality for all. He is driven to expose the lies and myths perpetrated against us by our opponents, and in the process shed light on our stories and our lives in the media. We will miss him but know he will not be going that far away." "We're tremendously excited about having Robert join us," said Don Hazen, IAJ executive director. "IAJ is behind the effort to open up space in the mainstream media for a greater plurality of opinions and messages. Robert is a perfect match for our mission." IAJ, based in San Francisco, is a national organization that works with independent and alternative media makers to ensure a greater diversity of opinions and stories in the press. It sponsors the annual "Media and Democracy" Conference. Along with Urvashi Vaid, former executive director and media director of NGLTF, Bray co-directed gay media operations at the 1988 and 1992 Democratic and Republican national conventions. He co-founded VOICE (Voters Organized in Coalition for the Elections), which marshaled activists and focused public attention on gay and AIDS issues during the presidential elections. VOICES was resurrected this year at the GOP convention in San Diego by local and national activists, and sponsored a media action center that Bray worked. In 1990 he helped launch an annual six-city media campaign, "Count and Counter Hate Crimes," to publicize the shocking pervasiveness of homophobic violence. He also publicized the passage of the Federal Hate Crimes Statistics Act, one of the first pieces of federal legislation to positively include gays and lesbians. Bray was invited to the White House by the Bush Administration for its signing. Bray has been centrally involved in promoting some of the largest g/l/b/t public events in American history, including the 1987 March on Washington, the 1993 March on Washington, the Stonewall 25th Anniversary march in New York City in 1994, and other events. In recent years Bray conducted media workshops and Fight the Right training conferences around the country. Since 1993, he has traveled more than 100,000 miles to some 40 states and 50 towns and trained more than 4,000 activists. Bray's field work has taken him to where only fledgling, if any, openly gay or allied groups exist. This included a 10-day, first-ever National Coming Out Week tour of South Dakota, where he helped stage possibly the first gay photo-op in that state in front of the Mt. Rushmore national monument. Besides thousands of press releases, statements and position papers, Bray authored NGLTF's gay marriage activist kit, "To Have and To Hold: Organizing For Same-Gender Marriage." He is currently producing for NGLTF a comprehensive media activist kit. Bray won the 1996 Institute for Alternative Journalism's "Top Ten Media Hero" Award. He sits on the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Advisory Committee of the City of San Francisco Human Rights Commission. While at IAJ he will remain based in San Francisco, where he lives with his life partner, John Church. NGLTF's Lobel said a national search will be conducted for a new media director. ###