HRC names Kelley Robinson as new president

The Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the nation's largest LGBTQ rights advocate, on Tuesday, named Kelley Robinson as its next president.

Robinson will become HRC's ninth president and the first Black, queer woman to head the organization.

She joined Planned Parenthood in 2009 as a regional organizer in Iowa and Nebraska. She served as the executive director of the Planned Parenthood Action Fund and the vice president of advocacy and organizing at Planned Parenthood Federation of America.

"I'm honored and ready to lead HRC – and our more than three million member-advocates – as we continue working to achieve equality and liberation for all Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer people," Robinson said. "This is a pivotal moment in our movement for equality for LGBTQ+ people. We, particularly our trans and BIPOC communities, are quite literally in the fight for our lives and facing unprecedented threats that seek to destroy us."

"The overturning of Roe v. Wade reminds us we are just one Supreme Court decision away from losing fundamental freedoms, including the freedom to marry, voting rights, and privacy," Robinson said. "We are facing a generational opportunity to rise to these challenges and create real, sustainable change. I believe that working together this change is possible right now. This next chapter of the Human Rights Campaign is about getting to freedom and liberation without any exceptions – and today I am making a promise and commitment to carry this work forward."

The group's former president, Alphonso David, was terminated last September over the role he played in sexual misconduct allegations against former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo. David alleges in a wrongful termination lawsuit filed against HRC that his firing was racially motivated.

Robinson's first day on the job will be November 28.