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 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.
Equality Federation congratulates Equality California as Governor Brown has signed seven of their sponsored bills that will ensure fairness and equality for LGBTQ Californians! The groundbreaking roster of legislation includes a bill that will allow for a nonbinary gender marker on state issued IDs, a bill of rights protecting LGBTQ seniors, and an update to the state’s HIV criminalization laws.
Our BIG LGBTQ MIXER event has become a San Francisco institution! Hundreds of locals, from tech gurus to artists, come out to have a good time for a good cause.
Equality California has filed a lawsuit challenging President Trump’s Aug. 25 directive prohibiting transgender people from joining the military and banning military healthcare plans from providing vital services to transgender servicemembers. Equality California is an organizational plaintiff in the lawsuit, together with seven transgender individuals impacted by the ban.
Many Federation members are actively engaged in efforts to support LGBTQ young people. Some are working to develop Gay-Straight Alliances (GSAs); some are fighting to end school pushout; some are advocating for bans against harmful conversion therapy. No matter what form it takes, ensuring that LGBTQ young people are safe and thriving is a key part of all of our members' youth programs. That's why we're excited to share a new resource from our friends at The Trevor Project.
The Regional Field Director (Western U.S.) is a regular, full-time position who reports to the Deputy Field Director and is based in Washington, DC. The states included in the Western Region are: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, Wyoming.
In 2013, the board and staff of the Equality Federation completed an exciting branding process to reinvigorate and reenergize our brand, message and story. During this process, we modified our logo, updating it with bright new colors that have been integrated into all of our communications.
It took hundreds of hours, thousands of miles, and countless conversations. But it was worth it.As a result of that work, the Equality Federation helped secure more than $650,000 to fuel the campaign to win nondiscrimination protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) Pennsylvanians. That brings our “dollars marshaled” total to more than $1.5 million invested in state-based campaigns.
After the long-awaited repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (DADT) in 2011, the movement for equality celebrated. Finally, lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) servicemembers could be open and honest about who they are.
All of us at Equality Federation Institute are proud to welcome Andy Garcia as Program Manager. Andy has joined our nondiscrimination team and will work with veteran movement leaders Roey Thorpe and Anne Stanback to implement our expanded program focused on advancing policies that protect LGBT people from discrimination.
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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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