Out Spotlight

Today's Out Spotlight is a leader as the executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality, the largest transgender rights organization, and a leading activist in the transgender community. Today's Out Spotlight it Mara Keisling.

Mara Keisling was born Mark Keisling September 29, 1959 in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, one of seven children to the governor’s chief of staff (his father).

Mark was a reserved and quiet as a boy growing up. "During junior high, I was shy to the point where I feared giving a book report in front of the class."

Keisling became more extroverted after joining the school's Model U.N. Club, where he found his calling in the political arena. He graduated from Penn State University, and then went on to pursue post-graduate work in American Government at Harvard University.

In the 1990's, after Keisling had told friends and family he'd felt like a woman since childhood, he began his transition to Mara. Then soon turned to activism after seeing the discrimination transgender people face. Keisling co-chaired the Pennsylvania Gender Rights Coalition and served on the steering committee of the Statewide Pennsylvania Rights Coalition.

In 2003, seeing the need for a cohesive voice in Washington for transgender people, Mara Keisling founded the National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE), a social justice organization dedicated to advancing equality through advocacy, collaboration and empowerment. It was the first professionally-staffed transgender-specific organization working at the national level in the United States.

NCTE gives a voice to the transgender community and works to strengthen the transgender movement and individual investment in this movement, to advocate for its members, maintains a federal transgender activists' network, monitors federal activity and communicates and educates it's members.

Keisling and NCTE were among the leaders of UnitedENDA, a coalition of more than 400 GLBT organizations lobbying for a trans-inclusive Employment Non-Discrimination Act.

Keisling has over 25 years of professional experience in social marketing and opinion research. She has received numerous awards from PFLAG, the Equality Forum, GayLaw, the Transgender Law Center, the Harvard Bisexual, Gay, Lesbian, Transgender and Supporters Alliance and Out for Work, among others, and is a frequent speaker at events, colleges, and government agencies. In 2005, Harvard University named Mara Keisling Outstanding LGBT Person of the Year.

Keisling continues to serve as executive director at NCTE, which is now the largest transgender rights organization in the world. She is also a working parent.

"What's important is that transgender people are respected as members of the community—that they are safe from discrimination and violence and disrespect."

http://nctequality.blogspot.com/

http://www.transequality.org/