Equality Federation won’t stop until all LGBTQ+ people are fully empowered and represented in their communities, experiencing full equality in their lives.
Executive Director Betsy Smith has been leading EqualityMaine for fourteen years. After securing many incredible wins for LGBT Mainers, she has announced that she will soon step down from her position. Before Betsy officially leaves the Federation family (though we'll always count her as one of our own), we wanted to learn everything we could from her work and experience. So we caught up with her to talk about her successful tenure at EqualityMaine.
Every day, the momentum for full marriage equality across this country builds. And our members are right in the thick of this critical work, achieving some major victories. Just look at what’s been happening these past ten months.
For years, our members have requested assistance and guidance in the area of communications. And although we have always been able to connect state groups with resources and provide some useful advice, we simply weren’t equipped to offer comprehensive communications support.
Our final FEDtalk given at the Summer Meeting 2013 is from John Smallwood, Advocacy & Organizing Director at Fair Wisconsin.
Our ninth FEDtalk given at the Summer Meeting 2013 is from Shannon McCann, Intern at Equality Utah.
The State Equality Fund (SEF) has announced its new guidelines for 2014 and issued an invitation for letters of inquiry (LOI).For the past eight years, Federation members have used support from SEF to make huge policy advances that improve the lives of LGBT people in their state. And at the Federation, we're eager to help even more of our state groups take advantage of this critical funding stream.
Allies, family members, and friends, here are a few ways you can support your LGBTQ loved ones while waiting for the Supreme Court decision.
On October 8 the U.S. Supreme Court heard three cases about LGBTQ employment discrimination that will determine if federal law protects LGBTQ people. The Supreme Court will consider how Title VII’s ban on workplace sex discrimination protects LGBTQ people from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.
On Oct 8, activists, allies, and leaders gathered outside the Supreme Court to show support for the plaintiffs inside who were standing for the rights of all LGBTQ people.
Here are a few takeaways from the report that paints a picture of an often overlooked segment of our population.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) submitted a proposed rule to the Office of Management and Budget for review on Oct. 4, 2019. The rule is titled “Ensuring Equal Treatment for Faith-Based Organizations.”
The LGBTQ community is no stranger to state overreach – when legislatures swoop in to eradicate local nondiscrimination measures or take other sweeping actions that, ultimately, hurt our ability to live, work, and raise our families free from discrimination. In fact, the first time most Americans even became aware of the concept of preemption legislation was when North Carolina enacted HB 2 – the discriminatory law that attacked the very humanity of transgender people, and eviscerated local nondiscrimination measures across the Tar Heel state.
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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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