Among the San Francisco celebrities getting roars of applause at the recent Pride parade, Kate Kendell was right up there with Mayor Gavin Newsom. As she passed by in a convertible with her colleague, Shannon Minter, the crowd went crazy.

“It’s a thrill and a privilege to celebrate such a victory,” says the veteran activist and director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights, a legal organization committed to advancing the civil and human rights of LGBT people and their families through litigation, public policy advocacy, and public education.

The NCLR’s lawyers were the lead attorneys in the successfully-argued California Supreme Court case for gay marriage. As Kendell exulted in a piece she wrote for Huffington Post: “Future generations will look back on this landmark case and see that in order to fulfill our cherished constitutional principles, it was the only decision that the court could have made. It is a ruling that honors the spirit of our laws and the protections and freedoms they uphold.”

It’s also seen as a victory that reasserts the separation of church and state – a complex issue Kendell is acutely aware of, having been raised in Utah as a Mormon, a religion that has not traditionally been welcoming of gays. Hungry to explore the area of civil rights, Kendell went to the University of Utah College of Law in 1988 and soon became the first staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Utah. With the ACLU, she litigated several high-profile cases focusing on all aspects of civil liberties, including reproductive rights, prisoners’ rights, free speech, the rights of gay and lesbian people, and the intersection of church and state.

Since becoming head of the NCLR in 1996, Kendell has become a nationally recognized spokesperson for gay and lesbian rights and a media favorite, often appearing in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Advocate, NPR, CNN, and many others.

She is also a family woman; partnered with Sandy Holmes, they are the mothers of three – son Julian, age 10, daughter Ariana, age 5, and Emily, Kendell’s daughter from a previous relationship, age 25.

Kendell was instrumental in helping NCLR formulate the case language that would eventually resonate deeply with the courts: that families are paramount to an individual’s happiness, and that gay families ought to be accorded the same dignity and respect as non-gay families.

“In the nearly ten years that the Haas, Jr. Fund has supported NCLR, they helped us reach clarity on how we want to see our work,” says Kendall. “They set the bar very high – and then they helped us attain it.”

She admits that the toll the Supreme Court ruling took on the 30-year-old law firm was tremendous. “It’s been absolutely wonderful, but it’s also been exhausting. This has also been one of the most stressful times of my life. At times, I felt like I was coming apart at the seams!” But, she says, NCLR was prepared for the earthshaking aftermath.

Now, she says, they have weathered the initial storm and feel ready to protect the court decision so that it may endure future challenges. "We came through it with not just a victory, but with an organization that's in excellent position to absorb the impact of a landmark decision. Some organizations can break apart from that kind of pressure, but this milestone has made us stronger and re-energized our efforts."