Chad Griffin

Chad Griffin
Chad Griffin photographed for the Washington Post in October, 2014
Born	Chad Hunter Griffin (1973-07-16) July 16, 1973 (age 43) Hope, Arkansas, U.S.
Occupation	Political strategist
Known for	Founding American Foundation for Equal Rights
Title	President, Human Rights Campaign
Term	June 11, 2012 – present
Board member of	American Foundation for Equal Rights, Make It Right Foundation New Orleans, Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights

Chad Hunter Griffin (born July 16, 1973) is an American political strategist best known for his work advocating for LGBT rights in the United States.

Griffin got his start in politics volunteering for the Bill Clinton presidential campaign, which led to a position in the White House Press Office at the age of 19. Following his stint in the White House and his graduation from Georgetown University, he led a number of political campaigns advocating for or against various California ballot initiatives, as well as a number of fundraising efforts for political candidates, such as Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.

Following the 2008 passage of California's highly publicized Proposition 8, which barred the recognition of same-sex marriage, Griffin founded the American Foundation for Equal Rights (AFER) to overturn the law. AFER's challenge, Perry v. Brown was ultimately successful following a decision by the United States Supreme Court in June 2013. In 2012, Griffin was appointed president of the Human Rights Campaign, the largest LGBT rights organization in the United States.

Griffin was born in Hope, Arkansas, and grew up 45 miles to the northeast in Arkadelphia. While attending Ouachita Baptist University, he volunteered for the 1992 presidential campaign of Bill Clinton, and, following the election, received a job offer from Dee Dee Myers to join the transition team and administration. Griffin dropped out of college and became, at the age of 19, the youngest-ever member of a presidential staff. He worked as a White House Press Office manager for two years. There, he also acted as White House liaison to the 1995 film The American President, where he met producer Rob Reiner. Griffin went on to lead Reiner's charitable foundation and to work with Reiner on numerous political efforts, including the founding of the American Foundation for Equal Rights (AFER). AFER is a nonprofit organization formed to challenge the federal constitutionality of California's Proposition 8, which limited legal recognition of marriage in California to opposite-sex couples. After leaving the White House, Griffin entered the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, from which he graduated in 1997. Griffin was also a part of Griffin Schein, a consulting firm that he founded with Kristina Schake, former communications director for Michelle Obama.