Equality Federation won’t stop until all LGBTQ+ people are fully empowered and represented in their communities, experiencing full equality in their lives.
On a cold December night in Chicago, Fran Hutchins, our deputy director, and I hustled from our hotel to dinner with four executive directors who’ve stepped up to lead in their states in 2018. We’d just wrapped up the first of two intensive days of training at our New Executive Director Boot Camp.
When two-year-old Katie fell and knocked her tooth out, her mom, Jane, did what any mom would do, she rushed her crying, bleeding child to the dentist. But when she arrived, the dentist told her, “A child cannot have two mothers so the ‘real mom’ has to be here.”
Today is #GivingTuesday, a national day of charitable giving, and we need you to support the state-based LGBTQ resistance.
Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDOR) is an annual observance on November 20 that honors the memory of people who were killed in acts of anti-transgender violence. The event is held in November to honor Rita Hester, whose murder on November 28th, 1998 kicked off the “Remembering Our Dead” web project and a San Francisco candlelight vigil in 1999.
In 2017, there have been multiple attacks, drive-by shootings, and episodes of vandalism targeting LGBTQ advocacy organizations and community centers in New Jersey, Florida, and Tulsa. Freedom Oklahoma appears to be the latest victim. When the cleaning crew arrived on Sunday morning they discovered bullet holes riddled across the glass wall which serves at the entrance to Freedom Oklahoma’s office.
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. Nearly every week, we hear about another victory that provides LGBT people with the protection, respect, and dignity they need and deserve, but far too often, these wins are unrecognized by the broader community.
Mark is the Director of Communications at Equality Federation, the strategic partner to state-based organizations winning equality in the communities we call home. As Director of Communications, Mark focuses on elevating our organizational brand to better reach target audiences -- from Federation member organizations to LGBT movement leaders.
Equality Federation is a proud signer of the following letter in coalition with The National LGBTQ Task Force and other national lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender organizations.
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, and transgender (LGBT) people in the communities they call home. Over the past eight years, State of the States has faithfully documented our movement’s triumphs and trials as reflected in the capacity of our state-based organizations.
Across the country, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) individuals face some of the greatest barriers to accessing adequate and affordable healthcare. For transgender individuals, these barriers are often increased.
Last month I had the honor and pleasure of gathering with Federation members from our Midwest cohort at the annual Midwest Leadership Summit in Chicago. As part of our State Leadership Project, the Midwest Leadership Summit is a chance to share strategies, network, and plan for collaboration in the year to come.
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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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