Donna Payne Interview 2004-2005
Item
- Title
- Donna Payne Interview 2004-2005
- Description
-
Donna Payne is a Black lesbian feminist activist and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Specialist who lives in Washington DC. She is interviewed by Sharon Doetsch-Kidder.
- Abstract
- Donna Payne (she/her) initially describes her personal life, including her relationship with her family, growing up as a pastor’s daughter, and her family’s involvement in the Civil Rights Movement. She then discusses her romantic life, discovering her sexuality, and her life while she completed her bachelor’s in political science at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, where she faced significant racism. After moving to DC in 1988, she volunteered for the DC Chapter of Young Democrats, the Political Congress of Black Women, and the Clinton Administration’s Health Care Task Force. She then describes her work as the Human Rights Campaign’s Senior Constituency Field Organizer, increasing visibility of the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community within the religious and people of color communities. In the last half of the interview, Donna discusses her family’s reaction to her coming out, her experiences with intersectional oppression, and then goes more in depth on her activism. Donna also discusses working to increase Black LGBT+ representation in the March on Washington, working as the founding Vice President of the National Black Justice Coalition, a civil rights organization of Black LGBT+ people and allies, and advocating for LGBT+ inclusion in the 2001 World Conference on Racism.
- Subject
- Black, lesbian, Nashville, Memphis, Washington DC, Civil Rights Movement, political activism, AME, Young Democrats of America, Political Congress of Black Women, Women’s Coordinating Committee, Human Rights Campaign, National Black Justice Coalition
- Date
- December 21 and 22, 2004, and January 12, 2005
- Language
- English
- Item sets
- Donna Payne-Hardy
- Site pages
- Archive
