Ricardo Martinez
After five year leading Texas’ largest LGBTQ advocacy organization, Ricardo Martinez is leaving to head GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders, better known as GLAD.
Over the last five years, Equality Texas has grown and had a number of achievements:
- Defeated 96 percent of the over 200 anti-LGBTQ+ bills filed at the Texas legislature
- Graduated 150 advocates through our Equality Leaders program
- Grown the organization from five to 15 full-time staff members
- Responded to over 350 emergent situations in every corner of the state
- Attended, on average, over 70 pride celebrations each June in rural, urban, and suburban communities
On a personal note, Martinez wrote, “Leaving this community was not an easy decision. Some of you may know that my mother, who lives in Brooklyn, has been navigating medical challenges. When I finally asked the question I had been too scared to ask, my mom’s doctor returned a direct, earnest, and honest answer. ‘Incurable’ was the word he used.” GLAD is based in the northeast.
“During our most recent gala, former State Senator Wendy Davis commented that Equality Texas has changed the way that grassroots organizing is done in the Lone Star State,” Martinez wrote. “Our org has helped create a bigger ‘we’ ensuring every single person has a role to play in this fight.”
— David Taffet