This October, I was honored to participate in an event that is a great model for transgender advocacy and community building: the Transgender Information and Empowerment Summit (TIES) organized by Federation member Equality Virginia. I’ve asked James Parrish, executive director of Equality Virginia, some questions about this inspiring event to share the wealth of knowledge.

Here at the Equality Federation Institute, we know that local and incremental work matters. That’s why we began an investigation into the impact these campaigns have on our movement.

We have a unique role that is fundamentally the Finance and Administration Director, which plays a critical role in partnering with other members of the organization in strategic decision making and operations as OutFront Minnesota continues to live out its mission and vision.

Today, our partners at the Movement Advancement Project (MAP) released a new report revealing that a shocking 70% of the geographic area of the United States lacks any city, county, or state employment protections for LGBT people, with comprehensive employment protections concentrated in just 30% of the country geographically.

Equality Federation congratulates two of our staff members for recently being awarded for their work to win equality!

Equality Federation applauds New York Governor Andrew Cuomo who announced tonight at Federation member Empire State Pride Agenda’s gala that he will issue regulations to protect transgender people from discrimination in housing, employment, credit, education, and public accommodations. Governor Cuomo will direct the State Division of Human Rights to issue regulations that would extend existing protections against discrimination in New york’s Human Rights Law so that protections based on sex are defined to include gender identity, gender expression, and gender dysphoria