Bending Toward Justice - Vic Basile

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Résumé :
? Drawing on his experience as the first executive director of the Human Rights Campaign Fund, Vic Basile has written a valuable addition to the story of one of the most consequential movements in post-World War II America... -Congressman Barney Frank Bending Toward Justice chronicles the early years of a movement pressing for equal rights and lifesaving resources for LGBTQ people who for eons have been shunned by the ignorant, reviled by the so-called faithful, and shamed even by their own families. Vic Basile leads the Human Rights Campaign through the AIDS epidemic as it suffers too many lives lost, fights for essential funding for research, education and treatment, confronts ignorance and discrimination, and begins to shift the hearts and minds of Americans about equal treatment. These unsung heroes of the movement worked unobtrusively and bravely within the system to change the system. Some of them are still here, too many are gone. Every single one of them has a poignant, powerful story that must be told and that never should be forgotten. About the author: Vic Basile has enjoyed the rare opportunity and extraordinary privilege of a career of public service and social justice advocacy. A widely recognized national leader in the LGBT community, he lives in Maryland. ...

Biographie:
Vic Basile has dedicated his life in whatever way and however small to bending that long moral arc of the universe toward justice. Vic has enjoyed the rare opportunity and extraordinary privilege of a career of public service and social justice advocacy. A widely recognized national leader in the LGBT community, he has committed his efforts to guaranteeing equality for this constituency. His initial work as a VISTA Volunteer community organizer in the rural South set him on a course of public service and advocacy. During the Obama Administration, he served as the Senior Counselor to the director of the United States Office of Personnel Management. In that role, he was the director's principal lead on all LGBTQ issues affecting the civil service. Throughout the 1970s and early '80s, he held positions at ACTION, the former umbrella agency for the Peace Corps and VISTA. While there, he became a labor activist on behalf of federal employees. After coming out, he transferred his energy and experience to the struggle for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender equality. He served as the first executive director of the Human Rights Campaign. He later co-founded the LGBTQ Victory Fund to help openly LGBTQ candidates get the money and support they need to win elective office. In the mid-nineties, he did capacity-building consulting with many local and national nonprofits. During that time, he co-executive produced the award-winning documentary After Stonewall and the PBS series In the Life. In 1998, Vic returned to his volunteer roots by accepting a Clinton Administration appointment as Director of Private Sector Cooperation and International Volunteerism at the Peace Corps. Before returning to the federal government in 2009, he was the executive director of Moveable Feast, Inc., a Baltimore-based nonprofit serving the HIV/AIDS community. Now retired, he lives in Chevy Chase, Maryland, with his partner, Fabrizio Claudio.