Joseph DeFilippis

He has taught at Seattle University since 2015 in the Department of Anthropology, Sociology, and Social Work.

DeFilippis and QEJ also disagreed with the gay rights movement's emphasis on hate crimes legislation, arguing that the criminal justice system was racist and an inappropriate place to seek solutions to hate crimes. For those reasons, in 2009, while still under DeFilippis' leadership, QEJ was one of five organizations to voice opposition to the New York State Gender Employment Non-Discrimination Act (GENDA).

In 2006, DeFilippis was one of the authors of an Open Letter to the Advocate magazine, where prominent leaders in the LGBT community challenged the pitting of gay rights against immigration rights.

DeFilippis received the Union Square Award in 2004 and the Council on Social Work Education's Minority Fellowship in 2010.

In 2003, DeFilippis founded Queers for Economic Justice, a non-profit organization in New York City that works with low-income lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. DeFilippis was its first executive director from 2003-2009, during which time he built the organization from a volunteer organization into a nationally recognized non-profit organization, with programs working on issues such as homelessness, welfare, immigration and others.

DeFilippis has been involved in other controversies as well. In 2001, mere weeks after the 9/11 attacks, DeFilippis was one of the most vocal anti-war leaders in the LGBT community, putting him at odds with many other LGBT leaders.

From 1999-2003, DeFilippis served as the Director of SAGE/Queens, a non-profit serving gay and lesbian senior citizens. He was the LGBT Liaison for the County of Westchester, where he worked to expand outreach to LGBT people of color and low-income LGBT people. DeFilippis abruptly left the liaison position after a few months.

Queers for Economic Justice was born out of the work of the Queer Economic Justice Network, a coalition of dozens of anti-poverty and gay rights organizations that DeFilippis founded and coordinated from 1999-2003. The Queer Economic Justice Network primarily focused on the impact of the welfare reforms of 1996 on LGBT people, but also addressed other progressive causes. During this same period he also served on the Steering Committee of the Welfare Reform Network, a coalition of welfare rights organizations in New York City.

DeFilippis was born and raised in the Manhattan region of New York City, the bi-racial son of two European American immigrants. He graduated from Vassar College in 1989 and obtained a Masters in Social Work in 1999 from Hunter College School of Social Work.

Joseph DeFilippis (born 1967) is an American gay-rights and anti-poverty activist, who has served as Executive Director of two non-profit organizations and worked as a teacher, community organizer and public speaker. He is best known as the founder of Queers for Economic Justice.