Urvashi Vaid, 2024
Indian-American LGBTQ+ rights activist, lawyer, and writer
48 x 60 inches
Oil on canvas
“The gay rights movement is not a party. It is not a lifestyle. It is not a hair style. It is not a fad or a fringe or a sickness. It is not about sin or salvation. The gay rights movement is an integral part of the American promise of freedom.”
—Urvashi Vaid
Urvashi Vaid was a brilliant expert in gender and sexuality law and advocated extensively for LGBTQ rights, women's rights, anti-war efforts, immigration justice and health care justice, among other social causes. She published numerous columns, reports and books including Virtual Equality: The Mainstreaming of Gay and Lesbian Liberation, which won the Stonewall Book Award in 1996. She held a series of roles at the National LGBTQ Task Force, serving as executive director from 1989-1992 becoming the first woman of color to lead a national gay-and-lesbian organization. in 2012, Vaid launched LPAC, which is referred to as the first lesbian Super Pac because she wanted to initiate positive change for all but believed that lesbians must step up and lead. In 2014 Vaid called for a greater activist response for and by people with breast cancer. She felt the response needed should be a direct-action movement like the ACTUP movement that arose in response to the AIDS crisis. Vaid herself died of breast cancer on May 14th 2022. She is deeply revered in the LGBTQ+ community as a brilliant and fearless trailblazer and champion.