Housing and Urban Development Secretary
Shaun Donovan will address a gay rights conference on Saturday.
Donovan will address the nearly 3,000
people attending the National Conference on LGBT Equality: Creating
Change currently taking place in Baltimore. The National Gay and
Lesbian Task Force Action Fund organizes the annual event.
The 46-year-old Donovan is expected to
discuss federal efforts to “advance the rights and well-being of
LGBT people and their families at HUD and beyond,” according to a
press release.
In November, Donovan delivered the
keynote address at the National Center for Transgender Equality's 8th
annual Anniversary Awards Ceremony, becoming the first sitting
cabinet member to attend a transgender rights event.
Donovan told the crowd that the Obama
administration “viewed the fight for equality on behalf of the
transgender community not as an issue, but as a priority.”
“HUD has been a leader in the fight …
for transgender equality.”
He added that the agency is “conducting
the first-ever national study of LGBT housing discrimination – a
historic study we designed based on feedback from town halls
conducted in communities across the country.”
“No one should ever have to hide
their identity in order to find a home – not in America,” he
said.
In a separate interview with gay weekly
Metro
Weekly, Donovan said that passage of a gay marriage law in
New York made him proud to be a New Yorker.