March with GLSEN at Pride to Commemorate a Remarkable Year

Editor's Note: Learn more about what GLSEN is doing to celebrate Pride under Related Documents on the top right.

"Welcome to Pride," comedian Kate Clinton recently tweeted, "The month formerly known as June." During Pride, event after event commemorates the past year's major milestones in the life of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities across the nation. At GLSEN, June 30 also marks the end of the fiscal year, adding to the sense of reflection and renewal.

This year, we have a lot to commemorate and celebrate. It was a watershed year for GLSEN, as tragedy galvanized public attention and action on our issues at all levels; as we launched our new strategic plan, unveiled a new logo and took our work to scale in ways we could never have imagined earlier in our history; and as our experience and expertise on LGBT issues in K-12 schools enabled us to make the most of new partnerships and new opportunities to champion real progress at the local, state and national level.

We enter our new fiscal year poised to continue our growth in size and impact, and on pace to hit some audacious goals:

• Our Safe Space Campaign has already placed more than 25,000 kits in the field, and will reach more than 75,000 secondary schools nationwide by the end of 2013;
• We've secured funding from the CDC's Division of Adolescent and School Health to undertake comprehensive Safe Schools implementation work in 20 of the nation's largest school districts, serving more than 4 million students, including professional development training for more than 15,000 educators and school staff;
• The new wave of GLSEN's Ad Council ThinkB4YouSpeak PSAs has already reached tens of millions of prime-time viewers in its first month on the air, thanks to our groundbreaking partnership with the NBA and NBA all-stars Grant Hill and Steve Nash;
• Our remarkable local chapter and student volunteers are driving progress in their communities and schools - and their efforts continue to garner well-deserved attention. In just one current example, Ferial Pearson of GLSEN Omaha, GLSEN's 2010 Educator of the Year, will receive the Virginia Uribe Award for Leadership in Civil Rights from the NEA next month.
• GLSEN's Student Ambassadors for 2010-2011 completed a remarkable year as lead advocates in the national media and with decision-makers at the highest levels - and all of our graduating seniors are heading off to college! Read more about this amazing team here, and so many congratulations to them all;
• Our Board elected a slate of remarkable and dynamic new members, adding new talent, expertise and commitment to GLSEN's strong foundation of organizational leadership.

In order to celebrate these achievements in style, GLSEN national will be marching at Pride in New York City for the first time in a very long time. Alongside Safe Space Campaign partner Wells Fargo, we'll highlight the campaign and all of GLSEN's pioneering work to create safe spaces in K-12 schools. Many thanks to Wells Fargo for the leadership support that made the Safe Space Campaign possible, and for their pride in the work that we do together.

Please join us. If you will be in New York City on June 26, we'd be honored to have you march with us. Email us at glsen@glsen.org, and we'll send you more details on where to meet up with us on Sunday morning.

Thank you so much for being part of more than two decades of progress, and for all of your support.