As our members and supporters around the United States begin their Thanksgiving celebrations, all of us at The LGBT Bar want to send our sincerest thanks for your help in making 2014 our most successful year ever.

With your help, we raised the bar on our programs and member benefits this year to better meet the needs of our profession, and our community. Now, more than ever, our work to mobilize legal professionals in support of work that helps every member of our LGBT family is a critical part of ensuring the gains our movement has made are available to everyone.

Just this year, your support has enabled us to:

• Continue our work to end the so-called ‘gay and trans panic defense.’ After the Bar introduced and passed an ABA resolution calling for an end to this heinous tactic, California became the first state to ban the use of these defenses. Your support of our work is needed now more than ever so that we are able to collaborate with attorneys general, and other political leaders, in the remaining 49 states to eliminate this tactic once and for all.

• Enlist new allies in our work to end discrimination against transgender veterans and service members. In August, we were proud to honor Colonel Jennifer Prizker with the Frank Kameny Award for her work in this area. In 2015, we’ll be announcing another gathering, with Colonel Pritzker’s help, to continue the conversation we started this year.

• Unveil an all-new tax resource for LGBT families to help couples in every state navigate quickly changing tax laws. With our friends BNY Mellon and White & Case LLP, this invaluable resource will be current and available again for the 2015 tax season.

And we’re just getting started. In 2015, we’ll be working with allies in Congress on passing the Jury ACCESS Act. And we’re just weeks away from unveiling an ambitious new effort to help LGBT clients connect with Bar members . . . and allow us to track, for the first time, the real legal needs of the LGBT community.

So after your Thanksgiving dinner, and as you plan your year-end giving in the weeks ahead, please consider a one-time, tax-deductible gift to The Bar. We’ll put your donation to work helping ensure our profession, and our community, connect and collaborate in ways that help every LGBT person who needs it.

And that’s something to be truly grateful for.

From our family to yours . . .

Happy Thanksgiving,

The LGBT Bar Team