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 Institute’s annual Summer Meeting is the premier gathering of state-based and national LGBT movement leaders. More than 150 advocates from across the country gather to connect and forge relationships, collaborate for future success and build momentum toward even greater wins in the communities we call home.
In an unprecedented decision this week, the Supreme Court ruled that employers can use their religious beliefs to deny their employees access to benefits that they are guaranteed by law to receive.
Seven cities in Idaho protect LGBT individuals from discrimination. But that number almost dropped to six — until advocates ran a robust campaign to keep the challenged law in place. In 2013, Pocatello, Idaho adopted a local nondiscrimination ordinance barring employers, landlords and most businesses from discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.
Today, the Supreme Court of the United States handed down its highly anticipated decisions in two cases that were brought by for-profit companies arguing that requiring them to include contraception in their employees’ health plan violates their religious liberty rights under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
The workshops at Summer Meeting 2014 are going to blow you away. All the topics you care about, all the speakers you want to learn from, all the opportunities you need to strengthen the work you're doing. Just check out our full list below!
Soon our board of directors will vote on three new at-large members: Michael Lewis, Julia Rosen, and Curtis Thornhill (the exceptional candidates we introduced to you just a few weeks ago). These incredible leaders will help to expand the board’s reach in order to better equip the Equality Federation and the Equality Federation Institute to be the strategic partner to the state-based movement.
Things are moving quickly in Georgia, having passed the half-way point of our legislative session just last week. Georgia Equality, through our campaign Georgia Unites Against Discrimination, is currently focusing our attention on stopping House Bill 757.
Federation member Georgia Equality caught this fascinating, must-watch, moment of debate over the “licence to discriminate” bill, HB 757, in which Sen. Emanuel Jones, D-Decatur asked Sen. Greg Kirk, R-Americus, if the bill would give cover to the KKK on religious grounds.
The nation’s major child advocacy groups (including American Academy of Pediatrics, American Counseling Association, American School Counselor Association, Child Welfare League of America, National Association of School Psychologists, National Association of Social Workers, and the National Education Association) have issued an open letter to governors asking that they veto any anti-transgender youth legislation that lands on their desk.
Today, after its passage in the Georgia Senate, Equality Federation called upon the House to reject taking action on HB 757, a wide-reaching and harmful piece of legislation which demolishes the time-honored separation of Church and State and allows faith-based organizations that receive taxpayer funding to deny critical services to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people, single mothers, and others; if they feel certain people conflict with their religious belief of marriage as between one man and one woman.
South Dakota’s Senate voted on Tuesday, 20-15, to approve a bill that would prevent transgender students from using the facilities that match the gender of which they identify and live. The bill has already passed in the House, and is awaiting the Governor’s action.
Last week, Governor Cuomo of New York announced regulations that will ban public and private healthcare insurers from covering so-called gay conversion therapy and prohibit state mental health facilities from conducting the controversial practice on minors. This is big news.
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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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