I was introduced to A. Latham Staples back in May when he spoke at the Echoing Green dinner. Latham was so eloquent and is obviously passionate about promoting equality. I had the pleasure of seeing him speak again this past Thursday at the EG event in New York City. The video shown was moving, he was again excellent and humble, and I'm so impressed with the mission of ESF. I've never wanted to involved myself with other gay rights organizations as they have been "it's us, versus them." But ESF's approach is about reaching across the aisle and is truly the route to go. Great job Latham for your hard work and growth, and to everyone else at ESF! ...read more

ESF is truly inspiring. They are a wonderful LGBT civil rights organization promoting change for equality in such a positive manner, plus they are giving back to society. Keep up the great work. ...read more

My friend introduced me to Empowering Spirits in San Francisco. He told me it was a different type of gay rights organization that attempted to change the minds of non-gays. I was skeptical but went with him. I have to admit that I was blown away. I showed up and there were roughly 100 Empowering Spirits volunteers. A local church was there as well with about 50 volunteers. We broke off into a bunch of groups and did various neighborhood restoration projects from planting trees, to cleaning up a park and painting an out-building at a school. It was a lot of fun, but it was also really cool to work alongside the church members. They started to ask questions about being gay and most started to open up. It was great to see their mindsets change. What a great concept to dispel stereotypes Empowering Spirits! ...read more