Equality California’s Executive Director Geoff Kors has a long and distinguished record of service to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community. Prior to taking the helm of EQCA, Geoff was a partner in a California civil rights law firm. During that time he originated and orchestrated passage of San Francisco’s landmark Equal Benefits Ordinance.

Geoff has served as director of both the Gay and Lesbian Rights Project and the AIDS and Civil Liberties Project of the Roger Baldwin Foundation of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Illinois.

Geoff has also worked for numerous elected officials and has held leadership positions in many electoral campaigns. As Executive Director, he directs EQCA’s legislative efforts which have given LGBT Californians the most comprehensive civil rights protections in the nation. Under Geoff's leadership, EQCA has passed more LGBT rights legislation than any other organization of its kind in the country. During his tenure, California became the first state in the nation to pass comprehensive domestic partnership legislation without court order in 2003 and the first to pass marriage legislation for same-sex couples. The Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Protection Act passed the California Legislature in 2005 and again in 2007. Geoff also led the successful fight to pass the broadest transgender protections in the nation and make California the only state in the country to prohibit insurance discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity and require insurance equality for same-sex couples.

Working to achieve the freedom to marry, EQCA under Geoff’s leadership was the organizational plaintiff for the historic case in 2008 where the California Supreme Court struck down the statutory ban on marriage for same-sex couples. When Proposition 8 put the issue before voters as a constitutional ban, Geoff was a member of the statewide committee that organized to counter the proposition. He led EQCA in raising more money than any other organization to fight Prop 8. He has been working ever since to win marriage back.

Geoff also oversees EQCA's Political Action Committee activities and educational work with the EQCA Institute, including the Let California Ring campaign. He has appeared on hundreds of television and radio programs and has been quoted extensively in the media. He has also done speaking engagements at major universities and conferences around the nation.

He is a graduate of Stanford Law School.

Blog Entries by Geoff Kors

New Year, Unwavering Resolution

Posted December 30, 2009 | 02:27 PM (EST)


I'm waiting eagerly for the start of a new year. 2010 is not just any year for me; it's the 20th anniversary of my first role with the board of an organization working for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights.

In 1989, a domestic partnership registry had been created...

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Now What? The Long and Winding Road towards LGBT Equality

5 Comments | Posted November 11, 2009 | 10:54 AM (EST)


It has been a tumultuous week since last Tuesday’s elections. Maine voters stripped their lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender friends and neighbors of the right to marry. Meanwhile, Kalamazoo residents voted to preserve anti-discrimination protections, and Washingtonians said “yes” to domestic partnerships. Now that the votes are in, it’s time...

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