Fighting Back, Pushing Forward
Thursday, December 4, 2025 | 5:00–6:00 p.m. PT | Online
You know things are bad. In 2025 alone, more than 70 anti-LGBTQ laws have been enacted across 22 states. The whiplash of renewed political threats and shifting cultural attitudes can make it seem like the LGBTQ movement today is weakened, paralyzed even. Nonprofits, advocacy groups, trans-led organizations, and queer community centers are under immense pressure—from reduced philanthropic support, shifting funding priorities, and political targeting.
But if there’s one thing our community knows how to do—it's to keep fighting. In this critical moment, we must not only fight, but evolve, organize, and reimagine. We must ask ourselves: What’s working? What’s not? How do we fight back? And how do we stay united? Join us for our annual State of the Movement, a free, virtual discussion and live Q&A between Horizons President Roger Doughty and four powerhouse LGBTQ leaders (below). This isn't your average talking-heads panel. It's real talk with real visionaries—and you. See you there.
Register Here
Meet this year's panelists:
Shelby Chestnut (Assiniboine) is the Executive Director of Transgender Law Center (TLC), the largest national trans-led organization advocating for a world in which all people are free to define themselves and their futures. They have over 20 years of community organizing, policy advocacy, and leadership experience in the LGBTQ and anti-violence movements. Having previously served for five years as TLC’s Director of Policy and Programs, they spearheaded leadership development and social change within and for Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) communities throughout their career. Chestnut is the first Native trans Executive Director of TLC and one of the first Native trans leaders to head a national LGBTQ organization.
Kevin Jennings is a longtime leader in the fight for LGBTQ equality. As a high school history teacher, he helped students create the nation’s first Gay-Straight Alliance club in 1988 in Concord, Massachusetts. He went on to found GLSEN (the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network) in 1990, the first national organization dedicated to fighting anti-LGBTQ bias in K-12 schools. After serving for a time as the Assistant Secretary of Education for Safe & Drug-Free Schools in the Obama Administration, Kevin ran the Arcus Foundation, then the world’s largest private funder of LGBTQ rights. In 2019 Kevin became the CEO of Lambda Legal, the nation’s oldest legal advocacy group fighting for full legal equality for LGBTQ people and everyone living with HIV.
Kierra Johnson is the President of the National LGBTQ Task Force. She joined as Deputy Executive Director in 2018, having previously served on the Task Force’s board of directors and its National Action Council. Prior to the Task Force, Johnson led URGE as Executive Director, bringing a wealth of experience in organizational leadership and management, program development, youth leadership and reproductive justice. As a Black woman, Johnson was one of the first out queer-identified women of color at the helm of a national LGBTQ organization. She is recognized as a national expert on queer and reproductive rights issues, has testified in front of the U.S. House of Representatives, and has appeared in Newsweek, The New York Times, MSNBC, Feministing.com, the Advocate, the 19th and National Public Radio.
Kate Kendell is the CEO of the Gill Foundation where she leads the team in executing the vision of Tim Gill and the board by prioritizing, implementing, and measuring the foundation's work and grant-making toward its mission of securing full equality for LGBTQ Americans. For 22 years, Kate led the National Center for LGBTQ Rights (NCLR), a national legal organization committed to advancing the civil and human rights of LGBTQ people and their families through litigation, public policy advocacy, and public education. She later served as the Interim Chief Legal Officer at the Southern Poverty Law Center from 2019 through 2021. Kate then became the first-ever Chief of Staff at The California Endowment, a role she held until she joined the Gill Foundation in spring 2025.
