Equality Federation won’t stop until all LGBTQ+ people are fully empowered and represented in their communities, experiencing full equality in their lives.
When even the anchors at notoriously anti-LGBTQ/biased Fox News think your law is discriminatory and unnecessary, it might be time to rethink things. Watch as host Megyn Kelly rakes Gov. McCrory over the coals for his flawed defense of HB2.
Equality Federation congratulates South Carolina Equality and all of the hardworking South Carolinians who helped ensure the defeat of S.1203, an anti-transgender bill that would have enshrined discrimination into state law by forcing transgender people to use the bathroom consistent with their biological sex, not their gender identity that they live every day, in all publicly-owned facilities including schools.
Federation member PROMO Missouri is celebrating victory as anti-LGBTQ, religious exemption legislation, SJR 39, has failed to make it out of committee rendering it dead.
Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam has signed discriminatory legislation that allows counselors and therapists to refuse treatment based on their religious objections or personal beliefs. The American Counseling Association has called the legislation an “unprecedented attack” on the counseling profession.
On Thursday, April 28th, the House Armed Services Committee voted to pass a discriminatory amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act introduced by Representative Steve Russell (R-OK). The amendment applies the private employer religious exemptions of the Civil Rights Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act to religious organizations receiving any federal contract or grant – which could include universities and hospitals employing thousands of people.
President Obama called for the repeal of Anti-LGBTQ bills in North Carolina and Mississippi at a joint press conference with British Prime Minister, David Cameron. The British Government recently issued a travel warning to LGBTQ tourists visiting those states.
Popular culture images of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people suggest that most LGBT people live in cities or on the coasts. Yet an estimated 2.9 – 3.8 million LGBT people call rural America home. Today, the Movement Advancement Project (MAP) released a new report, Where We Call Home: LGBT People in Rural America, which examines the structural differences in rural life and their unique impact on LGBT people in rural areas, who are both more vulnerable to discrimination and less able to respond to its harmful effects.
HIV is still very much an LGBTQ issue. Yet, for the past two decades, HIV has not been a high priority for many LGBTQ advocacy organizations; it’s past time for that to change. HIV organizations and advocates living with HIV are doing important and successful work but there are significant gaps in HIV advocacy capacity in many states.
Equality Federation applauds this week’s decision by the United States District Court for the District of Maryland, ruling that transgender students’ right to use the restroom and locker rooms matching their gender identity is protected by federal and state law. Congratulations to our member FreeState Justice, who filed the original suit, and the ACLU of Maryland, who joined as co-counsel, on this historic victory!
Our mission to advance and empower the state-based LGBTQ movement has remained constant for the almost 21 years of Equality Federation’s existence. The communities we call home continue to be attacked, which means we must be strategic in our work and growth.
In the nearly three years since the Obergefell ruling legalized marriage in all fifty states, we’ve faced an uphill battle. Victory has often meant defeating anti-LGBTQ legislation rather than passing proactive, pro-equality legislation.
As part of our Raising the States development training program, Equality Federation is excited to team up with Network for Good to provide training opportunities open to all members!
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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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