Advocate and organizer Asha Leong is now in South Carolina to work with the South Carolina Equality Coalition. Asha will be coordinating their effort to defeat a mean-spirited and divisive ballot measure that would amend the state constitution to deny same sex couples any form of legal recognition, rights, or protections available to all other South Carolinians.

Asha left a position as a Senior Outreach Associate for the Southern Regional Office of Lambda Legal to join this effort. Prior to joining Lambda Legal, Leong developed an HIV prevention program for gay men in Charlottesville, Virginia, created a citywide LGBT coalition and helped develop the National Day of Silence Project. Upon graduating from the University of Virginia in 1999 she moved to Atlanta to work with the city’s LGBTQ youth as a Program Manager for YouthPride. Leong founded the Ad Hoc Committee for Racial Justice to help challenge racism within our own LGBT community and was awarded the Community Service Award in the fall of 2000 by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force for this work.

As a former resident of Greenville SC, and a graduate of Furman University, I am thrilled to see Asha join this effort. I've know she is going to be a valuable addition to the team. I'm thrilled to see that the Coalition has a plan for defeating the state constitutional amendment, and look forward to hearing more about their work. Check out the South Carolina Equality Coalition Website to find out more.