From 4 to 5:30pm today, there’s an on-campus event that’s especially relevant given yesterday’s marriage equality defeat in New York:

Full Equality and How We Get There
Jarrett Barrios, President, Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD)

Sert Gallery at the Carpenter Center for the Arts
26 Quincy Street in Cambridge, MA

Jarrett Barrios is President of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD). At 40 years of age, Barrios is the youngest leader of GLAAD and, as a Cuban-American, he is also the first head of a national LGBT organization fluent in both Spanish and English. Barrios began his work in LGBT advocacy as a student at Harvard College, where he co-chaired the school’s LGBT student organization. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, he was a member of Queer Nation and worked for the Boston Gay and Lesbian Anti-Violence Project. He has also served on the boards of the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders, and the Greater Boston Lesbian and Gay Political Alliance. He was the first openly gay person and the first Latino elected to the Massachusetts State Senate, where he represented a largely white, Catholic, and working-class district. As a State Senator, Barrios was an inspiring and outspoken advocate for marriage equality and the full rights of all gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender citizens. He is an accomplished fundraiser and manager who broke fundraising records in his election campaigns and also managed a multi-million dollar budget at the Blue Cross/Blue Shield Foundation of Massachusetts. He is married to Doug Hattaway, his partner of 16 years, and they are raising two teenage sons.