The appointment last week of Lea Gilmore as political director of Equality Maryland would seem like a stroke of genius for an expanding gay rights advocacy group. Gilmore is straight, a mother of two ? married to Baptist pastor ? with a lifetime of experience in civil rights.
That she?s an acclaimed blues and gospel singer is a bonus, but relevant to her activist career, as well.
“It?s a coup,” said Dan Furmansky, executive director of the 15,000 member organization, focused primarily on statewide civil rights legislation and court cases. “We?ll have to pay her extra, though, if we ask her to perform.”
Gilmore served as deputy director of the Baltimore chapter of the ACLU for six years, was appointed to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, has served on the Maryland Advisory Committee on Civil Rights and has written and lectured extensively in the United States, Europe and Africa on black music and history, human and women?s rights.
“Equality Maryland is thrilled to have found someone of Lea?s caliber to facilitate our electoral work, grassroots lobbying activities and overall campaign to move public opinion in favor of equal marriage rights for same-sex couples,” Furmansky said. “It?s not every day that we hire someone named ?One of 25 Women Shaping the World? by Essence magazine, and we are excited to work with her to shape a more welcoming world for LGBT people and their families in Maryland.”
Susan Goering, executive director at the ACLU in Baltimore, and the Rev. Ira Zepp, a retired philosophy and religious studies professor at McDaniel College, both of whom worked with Gilmore, each described her as open and inclusive.
“She is smart and savvy and an incredibly talented woman deeply committed to civil and human rights,” Goering said.
Gilmore is a graduate of Morgan State University, where she was inducted into the Pi Gamma Mu Honor Society for the Social Sciences and resides in Baltimore with her husband, David, and two sons, Jonathan and Gabriel.
“I?ll still say I?m a singer when people ask me what I do,” Gilmore said. “But I don?t think people are just one- or two- or three-sided. Why put those limitations on each other? The place I sing from is the same place where the desire to this work comes from.”
Furmansky was well aware of her musical nature when he made the hire. “She sings about social justice in a language that should be universal,” Furmansky said.
Most recently, Gilmore worked as Director of Outreach Programs for the National Abortion Federation.
“This is the time for us to continue to encourage the politics of inclusion,” Gilmore said, “and remain committed to the ideal that same-sex couples and their families deserve the same constitutional protections as all Americans.”
