Urvashi Vaid

Urvashi Vaid was born on October 8, 1958, in New Delhi, India to writer Krishna Baldev Vaid and poet and painter Champa née Bali Vaid.{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2022/05/16/lgbtq-activist-urvashi-vaid-dead/ |title=Urvashi Vaid, forward-thinking rights activist, dies at 63 |first=Harrison |last=Smith |date=May 16, 2022 |accessdate=May 17, 2022}}{{Cite news |last=Risen |first=Clay |date=May 17, 2022 |title=Urvashi Vaid, Pioneering LGBTQ Activist, Is Dead at 63 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/17/us/urvashi-vaid-dead.html |access-date=November 22, 2024 |work=The New York Times}} She was one of three daughters and moved to Potsdam, New York, in 1966 with her family after her father took a teaching position at State University of New York at Potsdam.{{cite book |title= Women's Rights in the United States: A Comprehensive Encyclopedia of Issues, Events, and People |page=221 |first=Tiffany K. |last=Wayne |year=2014 |publisher=ABC-Clio |isbn=978-1610692151}}{{Cite web |last=Recchio |first=Tom |date=May 18, 2022 |title=Urvashi Vaid, Tireless Fighter for Gay Equality, Dies at 63 |url=https://provincetownindependent.org/obituaries/2022/05/18/urvashi-vaid-tireless-fighter-for-gay-equality-dies-at-63/ |access-date=November 22, 2024 |website=The Provincetown Independent |language=en-US}} She was politically active at a young age, writing letters to Richard Nixon in support of the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, participating in anti-Vietnam War marches, and giving speeches during George McGovern's presidential campaign.{{cite web |title=Urvashi Vaid Biography |url=http://www.ailf.org/notable/iaa/ny2000/urvashi.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070324210641/http://www.ailf.org/notable/iaa/ny2000/urvashi.htm |archive-date=March 24, 2007 |access-date=April 11, 2007 |work=American Immigration Law Foundation}}{{Cite book |last=Burns |first=Kate |url=https://archive.org/details/gayrightsactivis0000burn |title=Gay Rights Activists |publisher=Lucent Books |others=Internet Archive |year=2005 |isbn=978-1-59018-599-5 |location=San Diego |pages=82–98 |chapter=Urvashi Vaid: Creating Change}}

Vaid graduated from Potsdam High School in three years, in 1975, and attended Vassar College, where she studied English literature and political science. At Vassar, she was active in a variety of political and social causes, including co-founding the Feminist Union on campus (in the context of Vassar's recent transition to coed) and participating in activism against apartheid. She graduated in 1979. After graduating from Vassar, Vaid moved to Boston, where she interned briefly at the Women's Prison Project and worked as legal secretary before beginning law school at the Northeastern University School of Law. She was politically active while living in Boston, co-founding the Allston-Brighton Greenlight Safehouse Network, a neighborhood anti-violence project, as well as the Boston Lesbian/Gay Political Alliance with Eric Rofes.{{Cite web |last=Stein |first=Marc |title=Urvashi Vaid: The Vassar and Boston Years, 1975-1983 |url=https://outhistory.org/exhibits/show/urv/urvboston |access-date=January 25, 2025 |website=OutHistory}} She was also involved with Lesbians United in Non-Nuclear Action (LUNA), the Boston Food Co-op, the Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders (GLAD), and the Boston Pride March committee. While attending Northeastern, she also worked as a writer at the Gay Community News. She received her Juris Doctor degree from Northeastern in 1983.

From 1983 to 1986, Vaid was staff attorney at the National Prison Project of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), where she initiated the organization's work on HIV/AIDS in prisons.{{Cite web |date=August 20, 2010 |title=About | Urvashi Vaid |url=http://urvashivaid.net/wp/?page_id=2}} For more than ten years, Vaid worked in various capacities at the National LGBTQ Task Force (NGLTF), the oldest national LGBT civil rights organization; first as its media director,{{cite news |last=Levesque |first=Brody |date=May 14, 2022 |title=Legendary attorney, LGBTQ+ activist, & author Urvashi Vaid has died |url=https://www.losangelesblade.com/2022/05/14/legendary-attorney-lgbtq-activist-author-urvashi-vaid-has-died/ |access-date=May 15, 2022 |work=Los Angeles Blade}} then as executive director (1989–1992),{{cite news |last=Ring |first=Trudy |date=May 14, 2022 |title=Urvashi Vaid, Legendary Activist for LGBTQ+ Civil Rights, Dies at 63 |url=https://www.advocate.com/news/2022/5/14/legendary-activist-urvashi-vaid-dies-63 |access-date=May 15, 2022 |work=The Advocate}} and as director of its Policy Institute think-tank. While executive director, Vaid disrupted a presidential press conference being made by George H. W. Bush with a sign "Talk Is Cheap, AIDS Funding Is Not"; she also co-founded the Task Force's Creating Change conference.

Vaid spent ten years working in global philanthropic organizations, serving as executive director of the Arcus Foundation (2005–2010) and deputy director of Governance and Civil Society Unit of the Ford Foundation (2001–2005) as well as serving on the board of the Gill Foundation (2004–2014). She was the Director of the Engaging Tradition Project at the Center for Gender and Sexuality Law at Columbia Law School from 2011 to 2015. The project focused on the way tradition is used in movements for gender and sexuality to inform, enable or limit the movement.

Vaid was the founder of LPAC, the first lesbian Super PAC, which was launched in July 2012 and {{as of|2020|lc=y}} has invested millions of dollars in candidates who are committed to legislation promoting social justice. She was founder of The Vaid Group, a social innovation consultancy that advises individuals and organization working to advance equity, justice and inclusion globally and domestically.

At the time of her death, Vaid was president of the Vaid Group LLC,{{cite web |title=Team |url=https://thevaidgroup.com/team/ |publisher=The Vaid Group LLC |access-date=May 16, 2022}} which worked with social justice innovators, movements, and organizations to address structural inequalities based on sexual orientation, gender identity, race, gender, and economic status.{{cite web |title=About The Vaid Group |url=https://thevaidgroup.com/about/ |publisher=The Vaid Group LLC |access-date=May 16, 2022}}

Vaid believed that lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) equality will occur only when the larger institutions of society and the family are transformed to be more inclusive of racial, gender, and economic difference.{{cite news | url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3693/is_199906/ai_n8834620 |title=The Politics of Intersection |access-date=October 18, 2007}} {{Dead link|date=October 2010|bot=RjwilmsiBot}} Her book Virtual Equality: The Mainstreaming of Gay and Lesbian Liberation (1995) won a Stonewall Book Award in 1996.

File:Urvashi Vaid at the 1993 NGLTF Creating Change Conference.jpg's Creating Change Conference]]

Vaid became executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF) in 1989.{{cite web |url=http://www.arcusfoundation.org/pages_2/news_arch_template.cfm?ID=34 |publisher=Arcus Foundation |title=Urvashi Vaid to Join Arcus |access-date=November 30, 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110716104721/http://www.arcusfoundation.org/pages_2/news_arch_template.cfm?ID=34 |archive-date=July 16, 2011 }} Vaid left NGLTF in December 1992 and wrote Virtual Equality (published in 1995). She returned to NGLTF from 1997 to 2001 as the director of its think tank, the NGLTF Policy Institute.

Vaid worked for five years at the Ford Foundation, and served as executive director of the Arcus Foundation.{{cite web |url=http://www.arcusfoundation.org/pages_2/board_staff.cfm |title=Board and Staff |work=ArcusFoundation.org |access-date=October 11, 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091003051445/http://www.arcusfoundation.org/pages_2/board_staff.cfm |archive-date=October 3, 2009 }} She served on the board of the Gill Foundation from 2004 to 2014.{{cite web |url=http://gillfoundation.org/board-member/urvashi-vaid/ |title=Urvashi Vaid |work=GillFoundation.org |access-date=June 5, 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130408183047/http://gillfoundation.org/board-member/urvashi-vaid/ |archive-date=April 8, 2013 }} Upon the death of former president George H.W. Bush in 2018, Vaid, who had been executive director of NGLTF during his presidency, commented on the Bush's legacy regarding AIDS, saying: "If one was being charitable one could say it was a mixed legacy, but in truth it was a bad legacy of leadership ... He did not lead on AIDS."

Vaid was a staunch sexual liberationist. As Richard Burns, who had been the managing editor of the Gay Community News prior to becoming Vaid's classmate at Northeastern recalled, "If I told her about a sex club, she wanted to go, too," Burns said. "And then we did, and then we were thrown out when they discovered she was not a guy. More than once." A co-worker at the National LGBTQ Task Force remembers in article in the New Yorker, "In 1990, Urvashi gave us a fisting demonstration at our Task Force staff meeting, raising her hand in the air and creating the proper form."

In April 2009 Out magazine named her one of the 50 most influential LGBT people in the United States.{{cite web|url=http://www.out.com/power50/covers.asp?category=50.%20Urvashi%20Vaid |title=Power 50: Urvashi Vaid |access-date=December 5, 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110929031736/http://www.out.com/power50/covers.asp?category=50.%20Urvashi%20Vaid |archive-date=September 29, 2011 }}

File:Kate Clinton and Urvashi Vaid- What Makes Revolutionaries Irresistible- (EXCERPT).webm interviewed by Laura Flanders in 2014]]

Vaid's book Irresistible Revolution: Confronting Race, Class and the Assumptions of LGBT Politics (2012) critiques the racial and gender bias of the mainstream LGBT movement and continues her argument that engagement with social justice is what will enable all parts of the LGBT community to realize equality and justice.{{Cite web|last=Earle|first=Talia|date=March 13, 2014|title=Book review: Irresistible Revolution: Confronting Race, Class and the Assumptions of LGBT Politics, by Urvashi Vaid|url=https://www.glbtrt.ala.org/reviews/irresistible-revolution-confronting-race-class-and-the-assumptions-of-lgbt-politics/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200602233736/https://www.glbtrt.ala.org/reviews/irresistible-revolution-confronting-race-class-and-the-assumptions-of-lgbt-politics/|archive-date=June 2, 2020|access-date=January 20, 2021|website=Rainbow Round Table Book and Media Reviews|language=en-US}}{{Cite web|last=Kerr|first=Theodore|date=November 4, 2012|title='Irresistible Revolution: Confronting Race, Class and the Assumptions of LGBT Politics' by Urvashi Vaid|url=https://www.lambdaliterary.org/2012/11/irresistible-revolution-confronting-race-class-and-the-assumptions-of-lgbt-politics-by-urvashi-vaid/|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=January 20, 2021|website=Lambda Literary|language=en}} Vaid told Curve magazine that her biggest fear was that LGBT communities would get preoccupied by the wins in the fight for marriage equality and slow down their movement. She argued for a more inclusive movement, one that would encompass everyone regardless of race, class, ethnicity, age, or ability.{{cite web |url=http://www.curvemag.com/Curve-Magazine/Web-Articles-2013/Irresistible-Revolutionary/ |title=Urvashi Vaid's Irresistible Revolution |work = Curve Magazine |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130508005016/http://www.curvemag.com/Curve-Magazine/Web-Articles-2013/Irresistible-Revolutionary |archive-date=May 8, 2013}}

Vaid hoped that the future of LGBT communities will accomplish two things. "One is to take care of the parts of our community that are less powerful. That means low-income LGBT people, transgender people and our community's women, whose rights are getting the crap kicked out of them, parts of our community across the board—kids, old gay people" and "The second thing I would love to see happen is for the LGBT community to use its political power and access to create a more just society for all."{{cite news| url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/charlotte-robinson/urvashi-vaid-talks-future_b_5996938.html | work=Huffington Post | title=Urvashi Vaid Talks Future of LGBT Equality and Being Honored by GLAD (AUDIO) | date=October 17, 2014}}

In a conversation between Vaid and Larry Kramer in 1994, Vaid made an argument for intersectional solidarity within HIV and reproductive issues: "What if we tried to identify how [H.I.V.] treatment issues connect with racism…It’s going to express itself differently in your life than in mine . . . . That’s the issue of reproductive choice. It was never about men should march with women because they support women. It was more that men should march for reproductive freedom because we’re marching against the power of the state to tell you and me what to do sexually . . . If the state can say you can’t have an abortion, the state can say you can’t have sodomy."

In an article written in 2014 for the Journal of Lesbian Studies,{{Cite journal |last=Vaid |first=Urvashi |date=January 2014 |title=Chemo Killed the Small-Talk Gene |url=http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10894160.2013.836433 |journal=Journal of Lesbian Studies |language=en |volume=18 |issue=1 |pages=31–42 |doi=10.1080/10894160.2013.836433 |pmid=24400627 |s2cid=32716466 |issn=1089-4160|url-access=subscription }} Vaid called for a greater activist response for and by people with breast cancer. "There’s a clear need for an ACT UP type direct action movement organized around diagnosis, treatment, and care for breast cancer," she wrote. "But they are not organized to mobilize the anger and energy of breast cancer survivors and our families to pressure and demand an improvement in diagnosis technologies, in drug development, in standards of care and treatment, in health insurance coverage, for example."

Shortly after her death in 2022, Vaid was added to the National LGBTQ Wall of Honor at Stonewall Inn.{{Cite web |last=Westman |first=Michael |date=June 21, 2022 |title=FIVE ICONS ADDED TO THE "WALL OF HONOR" AT THE STONEWALL INN |url=https://tylerclementi.org/five-icons-added-to-the-wall-of-honor-at-the-stonewall-inn/ |access-date=November 22, 2024 |website=Tyler Clementi Foundation |language=en-US}}

In 1998, Vaid met political comedian Kate Clinton at a war conference of gay rights activists in Warrenton, Virginia, and the couple married in 2013. She shared homes with Clinton in Manhattan and Provincetown, Massachusetts.{{cite web|url=http://www.glbtq.com/social-sciences/vaid_u.html |title=Urvashi Vaid |date=December 21, 2005 |access-date=April 11, 2007 |work=glbtq.com |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070419120558/http://www.glbtq.com/social-sciences/vaid_u.html |archive-date=April 19, 2007 }}

Vaid died at home from breast cancer on May 14, 2022.{{cite web|url=https://www.losangelesblade.com/2022/05/14/legendary-attorney-lgbtq-activist-author-urvashi-vaid-has-died/ |title=Legendary attorney, LGBTQ+ activist, & author Urvashi Vaid has died |date=May 14, 2022 |access-date=May 15, 2022 |work=Los Angeles Blade}} She had previously been diagnosed with thyroid cancer. Vaid was the aunt of Alok Vaid-Menon, a gender non-conforming writer, performance artist, and media personality.{{cite web |first = Alok |last = Vaid-Menon |url = https://www.alokvmenon.com/blog/2014/6/4/when-representation-isnt-enough-why-all-of-us-arent-proud |title = When Representation Isn't Enough: Why All of Us Aren't Proud |date = June 4, 2014 |access-date = September 9, 2020 }}

• 1996: Stonewall Book Awards{{cite web|url=http://www.ala.org/ala/glbtrt/stonewall/stonewallbook.htm |title=Stonewall Book Awards |work=American Library Association |access-date=April 11, 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070407193541/http://www.ala.org/ala/glbtrt/stonewall/stonewallbook.htm |archive-date=April 7, 2007 }}
• 1996: Lambda Legal Lambda Liberty Award{{cite press release |first1 = Brian |last1 = Simons |first2 =Margie |last2 =Hanssens |date = April 24, 1996 |title = Lambda Legal Defense to Honor Outstanding Efforts to Promote Civil Rights of Lesbians, Gay Men, And People with HIV |url = http://www.qrd.org/qrd/orgs/LLDEF/1996/liberty.awards-04.24.96 |publisher = Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund |access-date = May 16, 2022 }}
• 1997: Asian American Legal Defense & Education Fund Civil Rights Leadership Award{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1997/02/09/style/benefits-534340.html?pagewanted=all|title=Benefits|newspaper=The New York Times|date=February 9, 1997}}
• 1999: City University of New York, Queens College of Law Honorary Degree{{Cite web|url=http://www1.cuny.edu/events/press/grad99.html|title = The City University of New York 1999 Commencement Schedule}}
• 2002: American Foundation for AIDS Research Honoring With Pride Award{{Cite web|url=http://www.amfar.org/in-the-spotlight/awards-of-courage/2002-honoring-with-pride-urvashi-vaid/|title=AmfAR :: 2002 Honoring with Pride Urvashi Vaid|publisher=The Foundation for AIDS Research :: HIV / AIDS Research|access-date=October 14, 2015|archive-date=June 22, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200622184504/https://www.amfar.org/in-the-spotlight/awards-of-courage/2002-honoring-with-pride-urvashi-vaid/|url-status=dead}}
• 2006: National Lesbian and Gay Law Association, Dan Bradley Award{{cite journal |last1=Vaid |first1=Urvashi |title=2006 Dan Bradley Award Acceptance Speech |journal=Tulane Journal of Law and Sexuality |date=2007 |volume=16 |pages=115–122 |url=https://journals.tulane.edu/tjls/article/view/2810 |access-date=May 16, 2022 |language=en |issn=2688-5786}}
• 2008: Gay Men's Health Crisis Lifetime Achievement Award{{Cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcXVtwE2Zmk|title=GMHC 2008 Savor|website=YouTube|date=January 9, 2009 }}
• 2010: Services and Advocacy for LGBT Elders Ken Dawson Advocacy Award{{Cite web|url=https://vimeo.com/16431993|title = Urvashi Vaid, Recipient of the SAGE Ken Dawson Advocacy Award}}
• 2010: CLAGS: The Center for LGBTQ Studies Kessler Award for LGBTQ Studies{{Cite web |title=Excerpt from Urvashi Vaid's Kessler Lecture: 'What Can Brown Do For You? Race, Sexuality and the Future of LGBT Politics' |publisher = CLAGS: Center for LGBTQ Studies |url=http://clags.org/updates/excerpt-from-urvashi-vaids-kessler-lecture-what-can-brown-do-for-you-race-sexuality-and-the-future-of-lgbt-politics/ |access-date=May 15, 2022 |language=en-US}}
• 2013: American Library Association Over The Rainbow project award for Irresistible Revolution{{Cite web|title=Irresistible Revolution: Confronting Race, Class and the Assumptions of LGBT Politics {{!}} Awards & Grants|url=http://www.ala.org/awardsgrants/irresistible-revolution-confronting-race-class-and-assumptions-lgbt-politics|access-date=January 20, 2021|website=www.ala.org}}
• 2014: 33rd Winter Roundtable, Columbia Teachers College, Columbia University Social Justice Action Award{{cite web |url=https://www.tc.columbia.edu/conferences/roundtable/award-recipients/social-justice-action-award/ |title= Social Justice Action Award |work = 33rd Annual Winter Roundtable |publisher = Teachers College, Columbia University |access-date=October 14, 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151020004541/http://www.tc.columbia.edu/conferences/roundtable/award-recipients/social-justice-action-award/ |archive-date=October 20, 2015 }}
• 2014: GLAD Spirit of Justice Award{{Cite web|title = GLAD / Events|url = https://www.glad.org/events/14SOJ|website = Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders|access-date = May 30, 2015|url-status = dead|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150509072852/http://www.glad.org/events/14SOJ|archive-date = May 9, 2015}}{{cite web |url=https://www.glad.org/post/glad-mourns-the-loss-of-friend-and-visionary-urvashi-vaid/ |title=GLAD Mourns the Loss of Friend and Visionary Urvashi Vaid |publisher=Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders |date=May 14, 2022 |access-date=May 15, 2022 }}
• 2015: Honorary Degree Kalamazoo College{{Cite web|url=http://www.kzoo.edu/news/k-commencement-2015/|title = Kalamazoo College Commencement 2015 Will be Held June 14 at 2:15 on the Quad|date = June 10, 2015}}
• 2022: National LGBTQ Task Force, Susan J. Hyde Award for Longevity in the Movement{{Cite news |last=Flanders |first=Laura |date=May 26, 2022 |title=Urvashi Vaid, 1958–2022 |url=https://www.thenation.com/article/activism/urvashi-vaid-obituary-lgbtq/ |access-date=November 22, 2024 |language=en-US |issn=0027-8378}}

• {{cite book |first=Urvashi |last=Vaid |year=1996 |publisher=Anchor Books, Doubleday |isbn=0-385-47298-6 |title=Virtual Equality: The Mainstreaming of Gay and Lesbian Liberation |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/virtualequalitym00vaid }}
• {{cite book |first=Urvashi |last=Vaid |author2=John D'Emilio |author3=William B. Turner |year=2002 |publisher=Stonewall Inn Editions|isbn=0-312-28712-7 |title=Creating Change: Sexuality, Public Policy, and Civil Rights}}
• {{cite book |first=Urvashi |last=Vaid |editor1=Dan Savage |editor-link=Dan Savage |editor2=Terry Miller |year=2011 |publisher=Dutton|isbn= 978-0525952336 |title=It Gets Better: Coming Out, Overcoming Bullying, and Creating a Life Worth Living|title-link=It Gets Better: Coming Out, Overcoming Bullying, and Creating a Life Worth Living }}
• Vaid, Urvashi. (2012) Irresistible Revolution: Confronting Race, Class and the Assumptions of LGBT Politics. Magnus Books. {{ISBN|978-1936833290}}

Her name appears in the lyrics of the Le Tigre song "Hot Topic".{{Cite web|url=https://slate.com/culture/2019/10/hot-topic-lyrics-le-tigre-who-is.html|title=57 Champions of Queer Feminism, All Name-Dropped in One Impossibly Catchy Song|first=Tammy|last=Oler|date=October 31, 2019|website=Slate Magazine}}

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• {{cite book|last1=Gambone|first1=Philip|author-link=Philip Gambone |title=Travels in a Gay Nation: Portraits of LGBTQ Americans (Living out: gay and lesbian autobiographies)|date=2010|publisher=University of Wisconsin|isbn=9781101972342|oclc=940731853}}

• {{C-SPAN|13071}}
• {{Charlie Rose view|4564}}
• {{IMDb name|1002120}}
• {{Cite episode | title = Urvashi Vaid: We Need Progressive, Multi-Issue Movements | url = http://blip.tv/grittv/grittv-urvashi-vaid-we-need-progressive-multi-issue-movements-4569390 | access-date = January 9, 2012 | series = GRITtv | credits = Laura Flanders | network = Free Speech TV | location = New York City | airdate = December 23, 2010 | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20140806074912/http://blip.tv/grittv/grittv-urvashi-vaid-we-need-progressive-multi-issue-movements-4569390 | archive-date = August 6, 2014 }}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Vaid, Urvashi}}

Category:1958 births

Category:2022 deaths

Category:American people of Indian descent

Category:American people of Punjabi descent

Category:American women writers of Indian descent

Category:Indian emigrants to the United States

Category:American lesbian writers

Category:American LGBTQ rights activists

Category:Northeastern University School of Law alumni

Category:People from New Delhi

Category:Vassar College alumni

Category:American LGBTQ people of Asian descent

Category:Stonewall Book Award winners

Category:21st-century American women writers

Category:Deaths from cancer in New York (state)

Category:Articles containing video clips

Category:American LGBTQ lawyers