Rea Carey

Rea Carey (born December 22, 1966) is an American LGBTQ rights activist who served as the executive director of the National LGBTQ Task Force (previously the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force) from 2008 to 2021. She previously served as the organization's deputy executive director and was the founding executive director of the National Youth Advocacy Coalition.

Life Carey grew up in Denver, Colorado, and came out at the age of 16, near the start of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the United States, which prompted her early activism.

Carey graduated from Smith College in the 1980s and holds a Master of Public Administration degree from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

She lives in Washington, D.C., with her wife, Margaret Conway, and daughter.

In 1999, The Advocate named Carey one of its "Best and Brightest" for individual contributions to the LGBT rights movement.

She was one of 105 women arrested in 2013 during an act of civil disobedience designed to pressure the United States House of Representatives to act on comprehensive immigration reform.

Carey served on the advisory board of the LGBTQ Policy Journal of the Harvard Kennedy School.