Equality Federation won’t stop until all LGBTQ+ people are fully empowered and represented in their communities, experiencing full equality in their lives.
About 30 parents, students and community members demonstrated in front of the Rankin County Mississippi School District administrative building to protest the school's new policy requiring parental permission before youth are able to join clubs, an effort passed in reaction to the formation of a Gay Straight Alliance. Watch the video below, and click here to read more.
Every year, the Equality Federation Institute hosts its annual Summer Meeting, bringing together LGBT movement leaders from across the country to build skills and forge connections that strengthen the incredible work that’s happening in all the communities we call home.
Our movement is led by some of the best and brightest individuals working hard to advance equality in the communities they call home. To develop the skills of emerging, new leaders, the Victory Institute invites LGBT leaders of color and transgender leaders to apply to the 2015 Victory Empowerment Fellowship.
Today the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear a case challenging same-sex marriage bans in four states in the Sixth Circuit, and a ruling is expected in June.
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. We are only two weeks into 2015, and already another state has won the freedom to marry, and another could be on its way.
Last year, Idaho and Montana became two of the 36 states (and D.C.) that now have the freedom to marry. This was a great advancement for LGBT people in these states, but it also brought about a new reality: it is now legal to marry a same-sex partner in the same state where protections against discrimination are limited.
Earlier this month, I flew to Albuquerque for a remarkable convening of activists from movements for reproductive rights, reproductive justice, and LGBT issues in the Southwest. Organized by ConwayStrategic (with funding from the Ford Foundation) the gathering included advocates from Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico, including Equality Federation members Equality New Mexico and Equality Arizona, along with some national organizations.
Over the past few months we have seen an increase in the number of anti-conversion therapy bills introduced in legislatures across the country. These bills call for the end of this dangerous practice that causes real harm to the LGBT community, and especially to LGBT youth who are subjected to it against their will.
Louisiana set a dangerous precedent this week. Two different nondiscrimination bills -- both positive pieces of legislation that would have extended protections to LGBT Louisianans -- were tabled.
Like its neighboring state of Oklahoma, Texas has seen a dizzying number of anti-LGBT bills this session, 22 to be exact. Federation member Equality Texas helped to soundly defeat four preemption bills that would have invalidated local LGBT nondiscrimination ordinances.
In the first half of 2015, we have seen many victories and challenges across the nation as advocates fight for protections for LGBT people in their state. In Michigan, opponents of the state’s recently introduced preemption bill have dubbed it a Death Star.
Equality Federation and partner Civil liberties and LGBT rights groups are hailing the failure by the Texas House of Representatives to pass HB 4105, which would bar the state from granting, enforcing or recognizing marriage licenses for same-sex couples even if the U.S. Supreme Court strikes down state bans on such marriages as unconstitutional.
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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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