Equality Federation won’t stop until all LGBTQ+ people are fully empowered and represented in their communities, experiencing full equality in their lives.
The Utah Legislature passed a historic bill on Wednesday this week repealing a state law prohibiting supportive discussions of “homosexuality” in public and charter school curricula and classrooms. This victory has been months in the making.
A judge in Pinedale, Wyoming faced discipline from the Wyoming Commission on Judicial Conduct and Ethics for a newspaper interview she gave stating that she would not officiate same-sex marriages. She said, “When law and religion conflict, choices have to be made.”
Equality Federation regrets to report that several organizations, including two Federation member groups, have been targeted by acts of vandalism. Someone smashed a window of Equality Florida’s Orlando office in late February.
In case you missed it, 2016 was a year for the record books. Well over 200 pieces of anti-LGBTQ legislation kept Equality Federation and our state partners busy in state capitals across the country. That’s the bad news.
Though the national political scene has been tumultuous, unpredictable, and downright discouraging these past few months, I have the privilege to work with passionate Ohioans in several of our cities who are determined to do everything they can to stand with LGBTQ Americans in the face of harmful rhetoric coming from this new administration and its advocates.
A North Carolina "religious exemption" bill that would have permitted discrimination and opened a can of worms of potential unintended consequences was killed today.
So far 2015 has been quite a year. We haven't seen a state-by-state attack on our rights like this since the marriage bans of 2004. There's good news though: we are winning.
In a series of announcements over the past month, the Obama administration has taken critical steps to protect LGBT Americans. These historic steps are necessary to make it possible for LGBT Americans to earn a living, use the restroom, and live without the fear of having to undergo harmful so-called conversion therapy.
This week, the Obama Administration announced support for banning so-called conversion therapy practices nationwide. This is an important step for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community, as these harmful practices particularly impact the lives of LGBT youth.
(TALLAHASSEE, Fla.) – A coalition of some of the state’s top employers and business leaders today sent a letter to Gov. Rick Scott, Senate President Andy Gardiner and House Speaker Steve Crisafulli asking lawmakers to hear House Bill 33 by Rep. Holly Raschein (R-Key Largo) and Senate Bill 156 by Sen. Joe Abruzzo (D-Boynton Beach) and to support the Competitive Workforce Act.
From Ava DuVernay’s award-winning film to President Obama’s speech at the Edmund Pettus Bridge, to the thousands we crossed the Bridge with and the millions that joined by TV, America has remembered Selma this year.
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
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.
.png)
