Anne Stanback (born 15 December 1958) is an American activist for

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 ...

rights and same-sex marriage.

Early life

Stanback was born in Salisbury, North Carolina on December 15, 1958. Her father was a businessman, and her mother was a teacher and also a journalist. Both of Anne's parents were active in the

Civil Rights Movement The civil rights movement was a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized institutional racial segregation, discrimination, and disenfranchisement throughout the Unite ...

, which instilled Anne with the importance of activism even at a very early age. She attended Davidson College, and graduated from there in 1981. She then went on to attend the

Yale Divinity School Yale Divinity School (YDS) is one of the twelve graduate and professional schools of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. Congregationalist theological education was the motivation at the founding of Yale, and the professional school has ...

Career and activism

Stanback's activism is strongly informed by her faith, which she melded with feminist theologies and social justice issues. In Connecticut, Stanback co-chaired the Connecticut Coalition for Lesbian and Gay Civil Rights, and helped pass the Connecticut Gay Rights Statute in 1991. That statute prohibited discrimination towards LGBT people in housing, employment, credit, and public accommodations. In 1991, she became Executive Director of the National Abortion Rights Action League's Connecticut chapter. In 1993, she became the Executive Director of the Connecticut Women's Education and Legal Fund, wherein she also advocated for

Title IX Title IX is the most commonly used name for the federal civil rights law in the United States that was enacted as part (Title IX) of the Education Amendments of 1972. It prohibits sex-based discrimination in any school or any other educat ...

and focused on the disparate support given to men and women's teams. In 1999, Stanback was the founding Executive Director of Love Makes A Family, an organization based in Connecticut. The organization was formed in response to a court ruling that denied adoption rights to a lesbian couple, and the organization successfully advocated for adoption laws to protect the rights of same-sex couples in Connecticut. Because of their advocacy, Connecticut became the first state in the United States to pass a law that recognized

second-parent adoption The second-parent adoption or co-parent adoption is a process by which a partner, who is not biologically related to the child, can adopt their partner's biological or adoptive child without terminating the first legal parent's rights. This proce ...

without the action of a previous court. After their victory, Love Makes A Family shifted their focus to that of

same-sex marriage Same-sex marriage, also known as gay marriage, is the marriage of two people of the same sex or gender. marriage between same-sex couples is legally performed and recognized in 33 countries, with the most recent being Mexico, constituting ...

. In 2008 the

Connecticut Supreme Court The Connecticut Supreme Court, formerly known as the Connecticut Supreme Court of Errors, is the highest court in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It consists of a Chief Justice and six Associate Justices. The seven justices sit in Hartford, ac ...

ruled that it was unconstitutional to deny LGBT couples the right to marry, and in 2009 the

Connecticut General Assembly The Connecticut General Assembly (CGA) is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is a bicameral body composed of the 151-member House of Representatives and the 36-member Senate. It meets in the state capital, Hartford. Th ...

made that ruling into state law. After that historic win, Love Makes A Family shut down. Stanback is now the Director of Strategic Partnerships for the

Equality Federation Equality Federation is a social justice, advocacy and capacity building organization serving and supporting state-based lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) advocacy organizations in the United States. History In 1997, a group of stat ...

, wherein she works to pass state-level laws to protect LGBT people from employment and housing discrimination. Since 2008, she also is on the boards of Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders (GLAD) and Freedom for All Americans.

Honors

Stanback has received numerous honors for her work. In 2006, she was inducted into the Connecticut Women's Hall of Fame. She also received the Harriet Tubman Award for Achievement in the Pursuit of Social Justice from the Connecticut Chapter of the

National Organization for Women The National Organization for Women (NOW) is an American feminist organization. Founded in 1966, it is legally a 501(c)(4) social welfare organization. The organization consists of 550 chapters in all 50 U.S. states and in Washington, D.C. It ...

. Additionally, she received the Maria Miller Stewart Award from the Connecticut Women's Education and Legal Fund, and the Polaris Award from Leadership Greater Hartford. She was honored with the William Sloane Coffin Peace and Justice Alumni Award from Yale Divinity School in 2015.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stanback, Anne 1958 births Living people Davidson College alumni Yale Divinity School alumni American LGBT rights activists