Urvashi Vaid was born in India in 1958 and moved to the
United States
with her family when she was eight. She was politically active from
an early
age, participating in anti-war marches at 11 and giving pro-McGovern
speeches
at 12. She describes herself as an outsider as a child, because of her
ethnicity, accent, and intellectual interests. She attended Vassar
and was
involved in the feminist movement of the 70s. She graduated from law
school
in 1983 and worked as an ACLU staffer for a few years. In 1985 she
served
on the board of directors of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force,
and
in 1989 became the executive director of its Policy Institute. In
1992 she
resigned her position to work on a book, 'Virtual Equality', which was
published in 1995. She returned to the Policy Institute in in
1997.
