Human Rights Campaign calls on LGBTQ+ community to dream & to fight for equality at national dinner

The Human Rights Campaign turned Washington, D.C., into a proving ground this past weekend for the resilience and vision of the LGBTQ+ movement. Across two days, from a grassroots town hall to the chandeliers of the Washington Hilton, the nation’s largest LGBTQ+ rights organization reminded thousands of supporters that the “American dream” remains both contested and worth fighting for.

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On Friday, the group’s American Dreams tour made its D.C. stop at the Westin Downtown. The event, part of HRC’s third annual Equality Convention, was moderated by journalist April Ryan, a legendary White House reporter, and featured HRC President Kelley Robinson, U.S. Rep. Emily Randall of Washington, Virginia State Sen. Danica Roem, and HRC National Press Secretary Brandon Wolf. Together, they wrestled with the meaning of belonging in a country where bans on books and bathrooms are spreading as quickly as legislative attacks on transgender lives.

Robinson, the first Black queer woman to lead HRC, described the struggle in generational terms. “It can be hard to dream when you’re living in a nightmare,” she said, likening today’s laws targeting queer and trans people to the segregationist policies of the Jim Crow South. Roem reframed the dream around universal school meals and health care; Randall spoke of her Chicano family’s multigenerational fight for dignity; Wolf, a survivor of the Pulse nightclub massacre, insisted that every child deserves to grow up believing they are worthy of imagining a future.

Tatiana Williams, left, and Jodie Patterson, right, present Artist/Advocate Amy Sherald with the Ally For Equality award during the 2025 Human Rights Campaign National Dinner, Saturday, Sept. 13, 2025 in Washington D.C.Kevin Wolf/AP Content Services for Human Rights Campaign

That sense of urgency carried into Saturday night, when more than 3,000 people filled the Washington Hilton for HRC’s National Dinner. Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, Delaware Rep. Sarah McBride, both Democrats, and artist Amy Sherald, whose portraits of Black cultural icons have become fixtures of American art, all framed the moment as one of profound stakes.

Moore, Maryland’s first Black governor, invoked both policy and personal testimony. Within months of taking office, he signed the Trans Health Equity Act, issued an executive order protecting access to gender-affirming care, and worked with Maryland’s LGBTQIA Commission to decriminalize HIV. But his remarks went beyond legislative checklists. “Words are important, but it’s action that makes the difference,” he told the crowd, rejecting the notion that staying quiet might temper attacks. “If you stop being so loud, they’ll stop attacking you? No. That’s not how it works. We don’t get to pick the times, but we do get to decide how we meet them.”

McBride, the first out transgender member of Congress, placed the struggle in the context of history. Marriage equality, she reminded the audience, was not won by retreating into bitterness but by expanding outward, welcoming imperfect allies, and reshaping public opinion. “Moving the public is our best and only long-term defense,” she said, calling proximity the community’s “superpower.” “We exist in every family, every community, across every region and race. Through those connections, we open hearts. And by being near one another, we find compassion.”

Related: Amy Sherald's trans Statue of Liberty heads to Baltimore after Smithsonian controversy

Sherald, who pulled an exhibit from the Smithsonian Institution over censorship concerns, was honored with HRC’s Ally for Equality Award. She spoke of art as resistance against censorship. “Art at its best is not only a mirror, it’s medicine,” she said. “My painting may have been taken down, but this movement cannot be taken down. You are what freedom looks like when it transforms.”

(R) David Archuleta performs with the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington, D.C. and (L) VINCINT performs at the 2025 Human Rights Campaign National Dinner, Saturday, Sept. 13, 2025 in Washington D.C.Kevin Wolf/AP Content Services for Human Rights Campaign

The evening’s mix of politics and culture, from speeches to performances by David Archuleta, VINCINT, and the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington, D.C., echoed HRC’s central message: Equality is not just a legislative goal but a lived inheritance. Comedian Dana Goldberg, digital creator RaeShanda Lias, and Space Force Colonel Bree Fram were among the guests in attendance. Goldberg raised more than $150,000 as host of the evening’s auction. As Robinson put it, the arc of the moral universe bends only because “people like us push it, pull it, and will it to do so.”