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Since taking over as the first Black woman to serve as executive director for the National Center for Lesbian Rights, Rupert-Gordon has allowed her passion for intersectional justice to guide her tenure.
When Imani Rupert-Gordon was named director fo the National Center for Lesbian Rights back in 2019, one of her key goals for the organization was to put racial and economic justice at the forefront of the movement's future. Intersectionality was and remains important to Rupert-Gordon, who is the first Black woman to lead the NCLR—an organization that was founded over 40 years ago. Under her leadership, the organization mobilized after the killing of George Floyd and hosted a town hall to address how LGBTQ organizations can fight disproportionate police violence against Black people. She was a vocal supporter of the Equality Act, citing that federal protections would improve the well-being of LGBTQ people of color. To Rupert-Gordon, fighting for LGBTQ representation in spaces that have gone far too long without it is her top priority. But, as she told the Advocate, until poverty, racial bias and other instances of society's ills are eradicated, her work won't truly be done.