Glennda Testone
Director of the LGBT Center of New York
Glennda Testone is a women's rights and gay rights activist and the current executive director of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center of New York City. The 34-year-old was selected to lead the LGBT Center in 2009 after a nationwide search, becoming the first woman to run this center and one of the youngest leaders of a major LGBT organization. Founded in 1983, the center is the second-largest LGBT community center in the world after the center in Los Angeles. Previously Testone severed as vice president of the Woman's Media Center for three years and the senior director of media programs at the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation before that.
Things have improved tremendously for LGBT youth since Testone was young, but there are still plenty of kids without supportive families who come to New York and end up homeless.
▸
5 min
—
with
At first,Testone feared coming out to her friends would shatter the narrative she had created in high school. Looking back, she calls that fear internalized homophobia.
▸
5 min
—
with
Despite working for a gay organization, Testone thought she was completely straight—until one special night at a lesbian bar in Dallas.
▸
5 min
—
with
A conversation with the director of the LGBT Center in New York.
▸
15 min
—
with