Urvashi Vaid – lesbian and civil rights activist – dies at 63
qvoicenews.comLongtime activist Urvashi Vaid, a leader of many LGBTQ+ and other social justice organizations, has died at age 63. Vaid died Saturday at her home in New York City, according to the National LGBTQ Task Force.
Vaid was executive director of the group, then known as the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, from 1989 to 1992. Before that, she was its media director. (The group did not list a cause of death, but friends on social media and leaders of various LGBTQ+ groups said Vaid died from cancer. – Q Voice News) “We are devastated at the loss of one of the most influential progressive activists of our time,” Kierra Johnson, executive director of the National LGBTQ Task Force, said in a press release. “Urvashi Vaid was a leader, a warrior, and a force to be reckoned with.
She was also a beloved colleague, friend, partner, and someone we all looked up to — a brilliant, outspoken, and deeply committed activist who wanted full justice and equality for all people.” “Her leadership, vision, and writing helped shape not only the Task Force’s values and work but our entire queer movement and the larger progressive movement,” Johnson added. “We will strive every day to live up to her ideals and model the courage she demonstrated every day as an activist and a person.
She will be deeply missed. I miss her already.” Other major LGBTQ+ groups are mourning her as well. “Urvashi Vaid was a visionary whose leadership and analysis inspired a generation of LGBT activists, including myself,” said a statement from Kevin Jennings, CEO of Lambda Legal. “Urvashi’s intersectional approach to liberation made the necessary connections between issues of sexual orientation, gender identity, race, gender, class, and other systems that interact to
