The Human Rights Campaign is believed to be the largest national lesbian and gay political organization, with members throughout the country. It lobbies Congress, provides campaign support, and engages in educational ventures to ensure that lesbian and gay Americans can be open, honest, and safe at home, at work, and in the community.

The best known of the newly elected board members is, perhaps, financial writer Andrew Tobias of Miami, author of numerous books, including: Fire and Ice, the Charles Revson/Revlon story; The Only Investment Guide You'll Ever Need; Getting By on $100,000 a Year (And Other Sad Tales); and, most recently, My Vast Fortune.

Tobias has been a columnist for magazines including New York, Esquire and Time, and is a senior contributor to Worth. The eight-part PBS documentary he co-hosts, Beyond Wall Street: The Art of Investing, aired last fall.

Abby R. Rubenfeld of Nashville is an attorney in a general practice that includes an emphasis on family law, sexual orientation and AIDS-related issues.

In 1996, Ms. Rubenfeld succeeded in a four-year effort to overturn the Tennessee law that criminalized private same-sex consensual adult sexual behavior. Because of that victory, she received the 1996 Bill of Rights Award from the American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee, and in October 1997, the National Lesbian and Gay Law Association gave her its highest honor, the Dan Bradley Award.

Rubenfeld was legal director of Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund from 1983-1988 and was the editor of AIDS Legal Guide, the first AIDS-related legal publication in the country. She served four years on the board of directors of the National Lesbian and Gay Task Force.

Everett E. Hamilton Jr. of Washington, D.C., is president of The Windsor Co., a convention and special event planning and management consulting firm in Alexandria, Va. His clients include Lucent Technologies, American Express, the U.S. Department of Commerce and the National Association of Securities Professionals.

Hamilton is a member of the District of Columbia Coalition of Black Lesbians, Gay Men and Bisexuals as well as the National Black Lesbian and Gay Leadership Forum. He is active with Gays and Lesbians Opposing Violence and serves on the organization's board of directors. He is also publisher and editor in chief of REAL Magazine, which is targeted at African-American gay men and lesbians.

The new co-chairs of HRC's board of directors, each serving a two-year term, are Jeff Sachse of Chicago and Candy Marcum of Dallas. They succeed Mary Breslauer of Boston and Fred Hochberg of New York.

Sachse, an attorney with the firm Krasnow Sanberg & Cohen, recently completed a two-year term as co-chair of the HRC board of governors. Sachse coordinated Illinois gay and lesbian volunteers for the Clinton-Gore campaign in 1992 and worked on the first Senate campaign of Carol Moseley-Braun.

Marcum served on HRC's board of governors from 1992-1996, during which she was co-chair of the Federal Club committee and a member of the strategic planning committee. Marcum is a psychotherapist in private practice and author of the book AIDS: The Caregivers Handbook. She has received numerous awards for her community service.

They join HRC's other members of the board of directors:

Gwen Baba of Los Angeles; Terry Bean of Portland, Ore.; Timothy Boggs of Washington, D.C.; Jeanne Branson of Chicago; Mary Breslauer; Tom Buche of Denver; E. Blake Byrne of Los Angeles; Stampp Corbin of Columbus, Ohio; Michael T. Duffy of Boston; Julia Fitz-Randolph of Denver; Mark French of Minneapolis; former Rep. Steve Gunderson of Arlington, Va.; Nancy Hamilton of Minneapolis; Stephanie Hart of West Hollywood, Calif.; Fred Hochberg; Chuck Holmes of San Francisco; Barry Karas of Los Angeles; Rob Morris of Arlington, Va.; Marylouise Oates of Washington, D.C.; Michael D. Palm of New York; former Oregon Gov. Barbara Roberts of Portland; Worth Ross of Dallas; Jessica Stevens of Redwood City, Calif.; and Richard Turner of Chicago.