HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan To Address Gay Rights Conference
- By
- On Top Magazine Staff
- | January 28, 2012
Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan will address a gay rights conference on Saturday.
Donovan will address the nearly 3,000 people attending the National Conference on LGBT Equality: Creating Change currently taking place in Baltimore. The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Action Fund organizes the annual event.
The 46-year-old Donovan is expected to discuss federal efforts to “advance the rights and well-being of LGBT people and their families at HUD and beyond,” according to a press release.
In November, Donovan delivered the keynote address at the National Center for Transgender Equality's 8th annual Anniversary Awards Ceremony, becoming the first sitting cabinet member to attend a transgender rights event.
Donovan told the crowd that the Obama administration “viewed the fight for equality on behalf of the transgender community not as an issue, but as a priority.”
“HUD has been a leader in the fight … for transgender equality.”
He added that the agency is “conducting the first-ever national study of LGBT housing discrimination – a historic study we designed based on feedback from town halls conducted in communities across the country.”
“No one should ever have to hide their identity in order to find a home – not in America,” he said.
In a separate interview with gay weekly Metro Weekly, Donovan said that passage of a gay marriage law in New York made him proud to be a New Yorker.