Equality Federation won’t stop until all LGBTQ+ people are fully empowered and represented in their communities, experiencing full equality in their lives.
Sarah Goodfriend and Suzanne Bryant have been together almost 31 years, and this morning they were married in Texas! A Travis County Judge ordered the clerk to issue the license, citing a serious health condition of one of the women.
Good news for Federation members from the Arcus Foundation! They have announced that applications are now being accepted for the 2015 Arcus Leadership Fellowship.
Equality Federation is proud to have had the opportunity to learn, share knowledge, and mingle with advocates from across the country at the LGBTQ Task Force's Creating Change Conference recently held in Denver, Colorado. (See photos from the conference below!)
On July 4, 1999, I left Alabama, the state I had called home for my entire life. Since the moment that I pulled away from my childhood home in a car packed to the gills, I have considered that day my own personal Independence Day.
State-based organizations across the country are advancing major progress in the communities we call home -- where the work is hard, but the impact is great. Nearly every week, we hear about another victory that provides LGBT people with the protection, respect, and dignity they need and deserve, but far too often, these wins are unrecognized by the broader community.
With incomplete nondiscrimination protections in 32 states and misleading religious exemption bills popping up across the country that would create loopholes allowing unfair treatment and discrimination against gay and transgender people, it is increasingly important that we raise awareness about the need for complete nondiscrimination protections for all people. Despite the momentous victories for the freedom to marry, many people remain unaware that there is still work to do to ensure full equality under the law.
Selecting the right executive director can be a make-or-break moment for our member organizations -- because our movement is only as strong as our leaders.But many of our members just don't have the resources to invest in a professional search firm. While the Federation can't offer that level of service, we are able to help groups manage these transitions more effectively.
LGBT individuals often face barriers to obtaining affordable and necessary health care. With the Affordable Care Act (ACA) soon to be implemented, many of your supporters are probably asking you questions about how the law will impact their access to health care.
In Massachusetts, 1 in 4 lesbian or gay teens and 15% of bisexual teens are homeless. Because of high rates of discrimination against the transgender population, rates of homelessness among transgender youth are even higher. These rates, coupled with the fact that the Massachusetts shelter system is not organized adequately to serve these young people, spurred MassEquality into action. The organization made youth homelessness a top priority, knowing it warranted immediate and aggressive attention.
Our third FEDtalk given at the Summer Meeting 2013 is from Vinita Chaudhry, Intern at Empire State Pride Agenda.
Our second FEDtalk given at the Summer Meeting 2013 is from Ryan Wilson, Executive Director of South Carolina Equality.
Each year our Annual Summer Meeting brings LGBT leaders from across the nation together to share ideas and forge connections. But at this year’s Meeting, we introduced a new session that quickly became a breakout star of the conference: FEDtalks.
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With your support, we'll be able to continue our work to build the leaders of today and tomorrow, strengthen state-based LGBTQ+ organizations, and make critical progress on the issues that matter most—like protecting transgender people, ending HIV criminalization and ensuring access to care, and banning conversion therapy across the country.
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