The National LGBTQ Task Force – the country’s oldest LGBTQ advocacy group – will celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2023, honoring 50 years of advancing freedom, justice and equality for LGBTQ people.

The milestone year will recognize and celebrate the task force’s history of driving progress within the LGBTQ community, from its early days lobbying the American Psychiatric Association to remove homosexuality as a mental illness and advocating for AIDS funding to longstanding campaigns to Queer the Census, Queer the Vote, work for trans rights, fight for reproductive justice and bring an intersectional approach to the LGBTQ movement. Beginning with Creating Change, the task force’s flagship conference for training and mobilizing queer organizers, the upcoming year serves as an opportunity to reimagine what queer activism can look like.

“Our anniversary comes at a time when those in power threaten to undo our 50 years of progress – but we’re meeting these threats with more strength, unity and support than ever before,” said Kierra Johnson, executive director of the National LGBTQ Task Force. “We take an intersectional, proactive approach to our advocacy, underscoring our fundamental interconnectedness. The Task Force is everywhere because queer people are everywhere. As we look towards the next 50 years, we will evolve and expand our work to positively impact LGBTQ folks’ ability to thrive.”

The primary goal of the Creating Change Conference is to build the LGBTQ movement’s political power from the ground up to secure our overarching goal of full freedom, justice and equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people in the U.S.

Since 1988, Creating Change has created opportunities for thousands of committed people to develop and hone their skills, celebrate victories, build community and to be inspired by visionaries of the LGBTQ movement and allied movements for justice and equality.

Various events will mark the National LGBTQ Task Force anniversary throughout the year, including several conferences, a festival and a gala.

For information, visit thetaskforce.org.