As printed on Huffington Post.

“With Equality Federation celebrating its 20th anniversary, this year marks two decades of state equality groups coming together to strategize, share, and learn from each other. We believe that we are stronger and better together, and our record proves it.

From passing nondiscrimination laws in more than 20 states to winning marriage nationwide, LGBTQ advocates have experienced tremendous progress in these two short decades. Even in our current climate, we continue to fight and we continue to win. Last year we passed 48 pro-equality statewide laws, and passed dozens of nondiscrimination ordinances in towns and cities all across the country.

But if we’ve learned anything in these last twenty years, it is that with every win we can expect our opposition to keep coming at us. In 2015 we won marriage and yet in 2016 state legislatures tried to push through 200 anti-LGBTQ laws. This year these lawmakers zeroed in on transgender people.

As I write this, Texas lawmakers are in a special session to pass anti-transgender bills, and several lawsuits making their way through the courts have our hard-won marriage wins in the crosshairs. Our hard-fought victories are in peril and we must remain vigilant.”

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