ON APRIL 30, the Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA) of the United States of America announced that former NOW president Patricia Ireland would be its new chief executive officer. And just this past weekend, the 145-year-old YWCA moved its headquarters from New York City to Washington, D.C. Ireland is expected to assume her new post by May 15–an event that has many people asking, “Why?” Why would the YWCA select Ireland for the job? In a YWCA press release issued on April 30, Audrey Peeples, chair of the YWCA’s National Coordinating Board, said, “There is no better person than Patricia Ireland to help re-ignite our advocacy positions. At a time when local YWCAs struggle with cutbacks in government support for services we have long provided to women and girls, Ms. Ireland will partner with local YWCA leaders to strengthen our voices in the nation’s capital and across the country.”

To be sure, Ireland, 57, has decades of political activism under her belt. She was the longest-serving president of the National Organization for Women (1991-2001). She has fought to preserve abortion rights, led the opposition to Clarence Thomas’s Supreme Court nomination, practiced law, and lobbied for equal employment opportunities. And her professional accomplishments aren’t the only things that have gained the spotlight in recent years. An admitted bisexual, Ireland disclosed in a 1991 interview that she has a husband living in Florida, as well as a “female companion” in–you guessed it–Washington, D.C.