LGBT POV

CNN reported Sunday morning that Dr. Dorothy Height remains in “very serious, but stable condition,” according to Height’s friend Alexis Herman, the former secretary of labor under President Bill Clinton. Height was admitted to Howard University Hospital on her 98th birthday Thursday – prompting rumors on Twitter that she had died.

“We are grateful for the professional care of her doctors,” Herman said in a written statement. “We especially thank everyone for your thoughts, prayers and support during this challenging time.”

Height, chair and president emerita of the National Council of Negro Women (in a photo here by Michael Collopy), has a history of supporting LGBT rights. For instance, Height and her friend Coretta Scott King, widow of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, were among those LGBT allies who worked the halls of Congress in 1996 with Elizabeth Birch, then-president of the Human Rights Campaign, when the Employment Non-Discrimination Act faced its first vote on the Senate floor. Vice President Al Gore was on standby to cast the deciding vote if necessary – but the Senate rejected ENDA 50-49.

Here’s a broadcast news report about Height’s birthday going on in her absence: