In the wake of House passage of a sexual orientation-only Employment Non-Discrimination Act, and the dawn of an election year, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force is reinventing its political arm with a new name and Web site. But some bisexual and transgender activists have a mixed response to the change and how it reflects the organization's inclusive politics.

NGLTF stepped up its image from being known more as a grassroots organization to being seen on Capitol Hill by changing its political arm to the NGLTF Action Fund – separating the NGLTF Foundation, which focuses on education, from the organization's political endeavors.

The changes were quietly announced in a December 17 news release that touted the organization's long history of grassroots community work and political activism on Capitol Hill. NGLTF was the first organization to have a full-time lobbyist on the Hill to fight for LGBT rights, the first to have gays and lesbians to have an official meeting in the White House, to lobby for HIV/AIDS funding and organizations, and more recently was one of the first national organizations to join United ENDA, which fought unsuccessfully to include gender identity protections in ENDA.

What's in a name?

NGLTF Executive Director Matt Foreman told the Bay Area Reporter that he only had second-hand knowledge of some bisexual community leaders' discontent with the name change and new Web site.

"It's a name change," said Foreman, who said it was in the works for more than a year at the recommendation of the organization's lawyers, due to NGLTF's increased political activity. "Inc." just wasn't cutting it, he said, adding that many nonprofit organizations use "foundation" or "action fund" to distinguish between their political and educational operations.

Yet, when it came to changing its name, some bisexual and transgender leaders were quick to point out that the organization lacked the "B" and the "T," in spite of more than a decade-long discussion, according to LGBT activists, to change the name to reflect NGLTF's mission and actions.

"That's the part that smells," said Lani Ka'ahumanu, a former NGLTF board member and longtime bisexual activist who was co-chair on the advisory committee for the policy institute's "Bisexual Health: An introduction and model practices for HIV/STI prevention programming" published in 2007. "If it didn't stink they would make a big deal out of it."

Ka'ahumanu is suspicious about the timing and "under the radar" announcement about the change.

Eileen Hansen, a nonprofit consultant and a longtime lesbian activist who supports NGLTF, agreed with Ka'ahumanu that the name change wasn't made lightly. Changing an organization's name is "done very consciously and very carefully" because it's not something that happens often, Hansen said, and it signals how an organization wants to be seen in the future.

Ka'ahumanu said that she is "insulted" by NGLTF's decision and alerted the bisexual community on several listserves.

Longtime bisexual community leaders responded in kind.

Sheela Lambert, founder of the Bi Writer's Association and bisexual activist in New York wasn't surprised. It was like deja vu.

Lambert believes that Foreman has improved his record in recent years, but it is "spotty." Lambert told the B.A.R. she spent a decade battling Foreman's bi and transphobia when he led three large New York organizations before he took the helm of NGLTF. After being hired to lead NGLTF, Foreman issued a public statement acknowledging that he was wrong about his previous position on transgenders and vowed to fight for that community.

"They are willing to fight for transgender rights, but they are not willing to put it in the name of the organization? That's hypocritical, it's old school, it's not nice, it's selfish, and it treats bisexual and transgender people like we are the bastard children at the family reunion," said Lambert.

Loraine Hutchins, co-founder of BiNet USA and co-editor of Bi Any Other Name, agreed with Lambert. "They are more spineless than the Democrats," she said.

Hutchins considers NGLTF's action a response to the current conservative political climate.

"It's a chilling commentary on the right wing's intimidation campaign in this country that we can't put the names that we call ourselves in the first line of our organizations," said Hutchins.

Digging beyond the name reveals all but one of NGLTF's board members, Moonhawk River Stone, a female-to-male transgender, don't identify their sexual orientation or gender identity in their biographies on the organization's main Web site. In an e-mail December 31, Roberta Sklar, director of communications, wrote that there are no bisexual activists serving on the board and there are two transgender members.

Sarah Fletcher, an openly transgender lesbian board member, said Monday that she wasn't aware of other board members' sexual orientation. She told the B.A.R. that she doesn't focus on sexual orientation or gender identity, but "what I can do with the board to effect change."

Fletcher and Stone were unable to comment when the B.A.R. asked about NGLTF's name change.

NGLTF's board of directors approved the name change in September 2007, according to Foreman, who denied the decision had anything to do with ENDA, strategically positioning NGLTF on Capitol Hill to compete with the Human Rights Campaign, or the upcoming election year.

"All of this has nothing to do with the ENDA controversy or the upcoming election year. We just have been gradually building our [501]c4 work," said Foreman. "We have increased political activity both at the state and federal level and will soon have five federal lobbyists – that's more than any other LGBT organization, other than HRC – so our action fund is doing more work than ever before and needed to have a more readily identifiable name."

Missed opportunity?

Bisexual and transgender activists applauded NGLTF's lead on United ENDA.

"They did everything right around ENDA," said Ka'ahumanu.

But that doesn't take away the sting of a missed opportunity, according to some activists.

"It would have been a good opportunity for them to be really declarative in terms of the bisexual and transgender community," said Jamison Green, who resigned from HRC's business council in November and co-founded the Transgender Education Partnership, with former HRC board and business council member Donna Rose.

Hansen agreed, and said that NGLTF missed a "golden opportunity" to "change the name and reflect our politics, because they do have good politics around the 'B' and the 'T' issue. ... This would be an amazing time for our community after ENDA and say, 'Look at the lessons we all learned from that fight.'"

A former two-time candidate for District 8 supervisor who is currently a commissioner on the San Francisco Ethics Commission, Hansen told the B.A.R. that she was considering increasing her donation to NGLTF – due to its swift response to support a transgender-inclusive ENDA. But she is now reconsidering the increase. Hansen didn't disclose how much she gives annually.

Benefit of doubt

Some bisexual and transgender activists were willing to give NGLTF the benefit of doubt, due to the organization's history.

"The task force has been so spectacular on trans issues," said Mara Keisling, executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality. "They were the first organization to say that they would support trans inclusive legislation and they were one of the first to include trans in their mission statement."

While she said that the new name wouldn't have been something she would have chosen, she understood NGLTF's legacy and history that went beyond gay and lesbian issues.

Rose agreed with bisexual and transgender activists concerned with NGLTF�s name change, noting that the name "does carry some weight." But Rose also agreed with Keisling and pointed to what NGLTF has done for the bisexual and transgender communities.

"If one were to say to me, 'If you would rather have the name or the substance?' I would take the substance nine times out of 10," said Rose.

Bisexual activist Amy Andre agreed with Rose. "They do actually live that mission."

Andre, who co-authored "Bisexual Health," said, "The task force has good content going on for bisexual people. I'd rather push that and develop that content rather than focus on the name."

Foreman reasoned that NGLTF isn't the only national LGBT organization that doesn't include every community's initial in its name, but works on behalf of the entire queer community. He pointed to the National Center for Lesbian Rights and Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund as examples.

Keisling agreed, "At NCTE, we take very seriously that we are an LGBT organization, but there are very important empowerment reasons why we just have the word 'transgender' in our name."

Foreman added that NGLTF has been working to "brand" itself within the last year, using the "Gay and Lesbian Task Force" on first reference and then dropping the "gay and lesbian" to just the "Task Force" on subsequent references to the organization.

"You should judge organizations by their work not by ... their name," said Foreman. "I would challenge anyone to ... have shown a greater commitment than the task force."

For more information, visit www.thetaskforceactionfund.org.