Equality Federation won’t stop until all LGBTQ+ people are fully empowered and represented in their communities, experiencing full equality in their lives.
Equality Federation’s conferences, convenings, and trainings provide an extraordinary opportunity for member organizations to learn from and support each other.
Equality Federation members scored key municipal policy wins this year. While we often focus on statewide wins, these city and county victories are critical components of the fight for equality in the communities we call home.
In 1997, a few LGBTQ movement leaders, including our current executive director, Rebecca Isaacs, came together at the Highlander Center in Tennessee. Sitting in a circle of rocking chairs in the room where Rosa Parks was trained in civil disobedience, they envisioned coming together as a state-based movement to form the “Federation of Statewide LGBT Political Organizations.” From that loose network, an organization grew.
Equality Federation’s Legislative Action Center tracks every piece of LGBTQ-focused legislation in all 50 states, allowing us to deploy critical resources to our state partners at every step of the legislative process. This year we tracked over 350 bills affecting the LGBTQ community. Fifteen states faced down anti-transgender bathroom ban legislation this year and we were victorious in fighting every one of these discriminatory efforts.
This year was the most successful ever in the fight against so-called “conversion therapy.” Equality Federation supported legislation in 20 states to protect youth from the harmful, unscientific, disproven practice of sexual orientation and gender identity conversion efforts.
I spent Wednesday standing shoulder to shoulder with Equality North Carolina and their partners as we worked to repeal House Bill 2, the devastating law passed last spring that forces transgender people to use restrooms that don’t match who they are and prohibits cities from protecting their communities with nondiscrimination ordinances. Unfortunately, we failed.
A deal to repeal North Carolina’s anti-LGBTQ law, HB 2, failed to materialize on Wednesday. The city of Charlotte upheld their side of the bargain and repealed their nondiscrimination ordinance on Tuesday after an agreement with the Legislature was reached to repeal HB 2.
Since 2006, the State of the States report by Equality Federation has documented the strength and sustainability of state-based advocacy organizations that advance equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) people in the communities they call home.
North Carolina Governor-Elect Roy Cooper and Governor Pat McCrory have announced a deal, along with the state legislature and city of Charlotte, to repeal HB 2, the state’s notorious anti-LGBTQ law. In exchange for Charlotte repealing its nondiscrimination ordinance, the state legislature is expected to repeal HB 2 on Tuesday.
Ohio is one of 28 states that leaves LGBTQ people out of laws that make discrimination illegal. However, some individual communities have enacted these protections themselves.
While more than 111 million people live in states where LGBTQ people lack clear state-level protections against discrimination in the workplace, the SEI points to a few encouraging signs -- particularly in areas related to LGBTQ youth, health and safety.
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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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