[This column appears in the Sept./Oct. 2024 print issue of Boston Spirit magazine. Subscribe for free today.]
Ricardo Martinez took the helm as Executive Director of GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders (GLAD) September 4.
Ricardo served the past five years as CEO of Equality Texas, in one of the key battleground states in the current wave of anti-LGBTQ legislation.
He joins us as GLAD adds four new attorneys to our legal team – doubling down on our commitment to challenging anti-LGBTQ+ laws and securing civil rights protections for LGBTQ+ people and families across New England and the U.S.
As he prepared to move from Austin to Boston this summer, Ricardo shared the following remarks about his vision for the future:
I’ve been doing this work for over 25 years. I grew up in New York City, and fell into this work following a class field trip to the Gay Men’s Health Crisis. There I learned about ACT UP, civil disobedience, and the power that people have to change and transform communities.
That lesson followed me all the way to Texas, a state where LGBTQ+ people don’t have much institutional power, but where 75% of the people believe that discrimination against folks based on sexual orientation and gender identity is wrong. I believe it’s our job, whether at GLAD or at Equality Texas, to make organizing and advocacy irresistible for everyone. Because no matter where we are, we have a tremendous amount of power to decide what is permissible in terms of how we treat each other.
Texas is a bellwether. If we pay attention there, we get invaluable insight about danger that may come knocking at our door. We are in the midst of a multi-layered attack on LGBTQ people across the country. It includes an unbelievable amount of anti-LGBTQ legislation. It includes the weaponization of state agencies against queer people and disinformation used to fearmonger against our community. It includes the infiltration of safe spaces like Prides, vigilantism, and intimidation of people who are courageously living their truth. It includes school board attacks and anti-LGBTQ court rulings.
That is all occurring in Texas, and many of those same things are happening in New England. In fact, 3 anti-LGBTQ bills were just signed into law in New Hampshire.
Despite the attacks, our community continues to fight.
The legacy GLAD carries in nearly 50 years of fighting for LGBTQ+ rights is incredible. I am energized at the opportunity to support GLAD’s inspirational team now, when the defense of LGBTQ+ civil rights in the courts is more critical than ever.
When I think about the promise that this country has, and that New England has for anyone who lives within its states, I think about myself as a poor kid in Brooklyn, NY, where my mom cleaned houses and worked at a bakery and my dad was a dishwasher.
The idea that a poor kid from Brooklyn who didn’t speak English when he was six years old can stand as the next Executive Director of GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders is the promise of the American Dream. Everyone should have the opportunity to live out their greatest potential. I’m incredibly grateful to be trusted to lead this organization into the future.
So, what am I all about? Hope. In this moment when we can sink into despair really easily, it’s important to remember that we all have power as people, what we do, how we vote, and how we show up for each other. That’s the hope that we need.
I’m about respect for all people. I think we have innate dignity and divinity that we need to respect about each other, even the people who may not like us. And I know that’s hard. I’m about pushing people to think a little bit differently about what is possible. Not too far that you lose them, but just far enough so that they can learn along with you. Bring them along.
I’m about expressions of love and gratitude. The work that folks like GLAD and Equality Texas staff do, the commitment of board members and volunteers and community supporters – those are acts of love.
I’m about power building and strategy, and I think that everyone can contribute. I’m about civility, but I’m also about winning.
What is my vision? I want to create a world where we can love without fear, where we can dream without limits and contribute to our communities 100% as ourselves.
I look forward to meeting many of you soon, and building that world together.
To learn more about Ricardo Martinez, about Richard Burns who has served as GLAD’s Interim E.D. since October, and the four newest GLAD attorneys, visit glad.org
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