Leslie Gabel-Brett is a teacher and activist for social and economic justice, gender equality and the rights of LGBT people, women and girls. She was Director of Education and Public Affairs for Lambda Legal, a national organization advancing the rights of LGBT people and people living with HIV. She also served as the Executive Director of the Connecticut Permanent Commission on the Status of Women and the Connecticut Women’s Education and Legal Fund. She was a founding member of Love Makes a Family, the state organization that led the fight for marriage equality in Connecticut, and between 1990 and 1993, was appointed by two successive governors to chair the Connecticut Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities. Gabel-Brett received her BA from Wesleyan and her doctorate in Anthropology from the City University of New York. She co-edited Love Unites Us: Winning the Freedom to Marry in America, published by The New Press (2016).