Elizabeth Millen Birch (born September 2, 1956) is an

America The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

n attorney and former corporate executive who chaired the board of directors of the

National Gay and Lesbian Task Force The National LGBTQ Task Force is an American social justice advocacy non-profit organizing the grassroots power of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) community. Also known as The Task Force, the organization supports ac ...

from 1992-1994. She served as the executive director of the

Human Rights Campaign The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) is an American LGBTQ advocacy group. It is the largest LGBTQ political lobbying organization within the United States. Based in Washington, D.C., the organization focuses on protecting and expanding rights for LGB ...

, the nation's largest

LGBT ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term is a ...

organization, from January 1995 until January 2004.

Education and law career

Birch was born at

Wright-Patterson Air Force Base Wright-Patterson Air Force Base (WPAFB) is a United States Air Force base and census-designated place just east of Dayton, Ohio, in Greene County, Ohio, Greene and Montgomery County, Ohio, Montgomery counties. It includes both Wright and Patte ...

Dayton, Ohio Dayton () is the sixth-largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Montgomery County. A small part of the city extends into Greene County. The 2020 U.S. census estimate put the city population at 137,644, while Greater Day ...

, in 1956. Her father was a Canadian Air Force officer and she lived on numerous Canadian Air Force bases in her youth. During high school, she joined

Up With People Up with People (UWP) is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Up with People stages song and dance performances promoting themes such as multiculturalism, racial equality, and positive thinking. History Archives The UWP Archives i ...

, a student performance group, and toured Europe and North Africa for a year. Birch graduated from the

University of Hawaii A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, th ...

in 1980 and earned a J.D. degree at the

Santa Clara University School of Law The Santa Clara University School of Law (Santa Clara Law) is the law school of Santa Clara University, a Jesuit university in Santa Clara, California, United States, in the Silicon Valley region. The School of Law was founded in 1911. The Jesuit ...

. She was an associate attorney with the law firm of

McCutchen, Doyle, Brown & Enersen Bingham McCutchen LLP was a global law firm with approximately 850 attorneys in nine US offices and five international offices. It ceased operations in late 2014, when several hundred of its partners and associate lawyers left the firm to join Phi ...

until joining Apple in 1989.Central Washington University
Elizabeth Birch
, accessed March 20, 2011 She later earned a Ph.D. from the University of Hawaii in 2004. Birch was worldwide director of litigation for

Apple Computer Apple Inc. is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, United States. Apple is the largest technology company by revenue (totaling in 2021) and, as of June 2022, is the world's biggest company b ...

and general counsel for its

Claris Claris International Inc., formerly FileMaker Inc., is a computer software development company formed as a subsidiary company of Apple Computer (now Apple Inc.) in 1987. It was given the source code and copyrights to several programs that were ...

subsidiary until 1995.

Activism

Birch began her LGBT political activity as a member of the Bay Area Municipal Elections Committee (BAYMEC), an LGBT political action committee based in a

San Jose, California San Jose, officially San José (; ; ), is a major city in the U.S. state of California that is the cultural, financial, and political center of Silicon Valley and largest city in Northern California by both population and area. With a 2020 popul ...

. She was co-chairwoman of the

from 1992 to 1994. Birch joined the

(HRC) as executive director in January 1995.''New York Times''
David W. Dunlap, "Apple Lawyer Will Become New Director Of Gay Group," November 21, 1994
accessed March 20, 2011 Over the next several years she dramatically increased its size in both membership and budget. Her marketing approach to political organization provoked criticism that HRC was setting an agenda through its influence on sources of funding to the exclusion of local initiatives. In 2003, the organization opened its national headquarters building in

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

During her tenure, a major problem arose when the HRC endorsed New York Senator

Al D'Amato Alfonse Marcello D'Amato (born August 1, 1937) is an American politician born in Brooklyn, Kings County, New York. He served as United States Senator for New York between 1981 and 1999. He subsequently founded a lobbying firm, Park Strategies. ...

for re-election in 1998 when he was opposed by

Chuck Schumer Charles Ellis Schumer ( ; born November 23, 1950) is an American politician serving as Senate Majority Leader since January 20, 2021. A member of the Democratic Party, Schumer is in his fourth Senate term, having held his seat since 1999, and ...

. Birch was executive director of the HRC until January 2004 when she left to spend more time with her partner,

Hilary Rosen Hilary Rosen (born 1958) is the former head of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). She was a columnist for ''The Washington Post'', became the first Washington editor-at-large and political director of ''The Huffington Post'', ...

, and their children.''The Advocate''
Chris Bull, "A Champion retires," January 20, 2004
accessed March 20, 2011 She joined the

Howard Dean Howard Brush Dean III (born November 17, 1948) is an American physician, author, lobbyist, and retired politician who served as the 79th governor of Vermont from 1991 to 2003 and chair of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) from 2005 to 200 ...

presidential campaign as a senior advisor. She then became a professional public speaker. Birch was still the executive director of HRC when its staff and board of directors, with her encouragement, "discussed and then finally decided to add the 'T' to the organization’s mission statement" in 2001, although the organization still supported the non-transgender version of ENDA, saying that it did not have a chance to pass into law if transgender protections were added; the HRC modified this stance in August 2004. In 2000, Birch became the first leader of an LGBT organization to address a national

political convention The terms party conference (UK English), political convention ( US and Canadian English), and party congress usually refer to a general meeting of a political party. The conference is attended by certain delegates who represent the party memb ...

when she gave a prime-time speech at the

Democratic National Convention The Democratic National Convention (DNC) is a series of presidential nominating conventions held every four years since 1832 by the United States Democratic Party. They have been administered by the Democratic National Committee since the 1852 ...

Later career

In 2004, Birch launched Birch & Company, a consulting firm, with offices in Washington, D.C. and New York. Birch ran

Rosie O'Donnell Roseann O'Donnell (born March 21, 1962) is an American comedian, television producer, actress, author, and television personality. She began her comedy career as a teenager and received her breakthrough on the television series ''Star Search'' ...

's production company, KidRo Productions, Inc. and oversaw O'Donnell's Foundation, The For All Kids Foundation until 2007. Birch also hosts a talk show on

here! Here TV is an American premium television network targeting LGBT audiences. Launched in 2002, Here TV is available nationwide on all major cable systems, fiber optics systems, and Internet TV providers as either a 24/7 premium subscription channe ...

. Her guests have included

Pat Buchanan Patrick Joseph Buchanan (; born November 2, 1938) is an American paleoconservative political commentator, columnist, politician, and broadcaster. Buchanan was an assistant and special consultant to U.S. Presidents Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, an ...

and

John Lewis John Robert Lewis (February 21, 1940 – July 17, 2020) was an American politician and civil rights activist who served in the United States House of Representatives for from 1987 until his death in 2020. He participated in the 1960 Nashville ...

.''The Advocate''
"Elizabeth Birch launches talk show with Pat Buchanan as guest", August 23, 2005
accessed March 20, 2011

Personal life

She had a relationship with

, former chief executive of the

Recording Industry Association of America The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/o ...

. They adopted twins, a boy and a girl, in Texas. The couple separated in 2006.

Elizabeth Birch Equality Award

Black Tie Dinner, the largest LGBT fund-raising dinner in the Nation, presents an annual award in Birch's honor called the Elizabeth Birch Equality Award. The award is given annually to an individual, organization, or company that has made a significant contribution of national scope to the LGBT community. Elizabeth Birch was the first recipient of the award in 2004, and later returned to the dinner in 2009 to present the award to

Judy Shepard Judy Shepard (née Peck; born August 15, 1952) is the mother of Matthew Shepard, a 21-year-old student at University of Wyoming who was murdered in October 1998 in what became one of the most high-profiled cases highlighting hate-crimes against ...

. The Black Tie Dinner is held annually in

Dallas, Texas Dallas () is the third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 million people. It is the largest city in and seat of Dallas County w ...

References

External links

Blog for America: Elizabeth Birch Joins Dean for America as Senior Advisor (via archive.org)
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Birch, Elizabeth M. 1956 births Lesbian businesswomen American lesbians American LGBT businesspeople American LGBT rights activists Living people Businesspeople from Dayton, Ohio Santa Clara University School of Law alumni University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa alumni LGBT people from Ohio American women lawyers American lawyers Canadian emigrants to the United States Women corporate executives Activists from Ohio 21st-century American women