Equality Federation won’t stop until all LGBTQ+ people are fully empowered and represented in their communities, experiencing full equality in their lives.
On Tuesday, November 3rd voters in Houston repealed the city’s Equal Right Ordinance (HERO) which provided protections from discrimination based on 15 classes including race, disability, age, sexual orientation, and gender identity. Throughout the campaign, opposition used fear, lies, and misinformation to confuse voters.
CHICAGO – Leaders from lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) state equality organizations meet next week in Chicago for a conference on how to tackle serious challenges that remain despite the Supreme Court ruling in favor of marriage equality.
Salt Lake City voters elected Jackie Biskupski as Utah’s first openly gay mayor and only the second female top executive in the capital city, according to the unofficial election-night count. Those vote tallies had Biskupski with 52.19 percent to two-term Mayor Ralph Becker’s 47.81 percent — less than a 5 percentage-point spread.
Strong and sustained leadership is an important part of building strong and effective state groups with the capacity to fend off the opposition and secure important wins for the LGBT community. We know that in the past year, states were able to withstand and defeat more than 100 anti-LGBT legislative attacks thanks to incredible state-based movement leaders.
This October, I was honored to participate in an event that is a great model for transgender advocacy and community building: the Transgender Information and Empowerment Summit (TIES) organized by Federation member Equality Virginia. I’ve asked James Parrish, executive director of Equality Virginia, some questions about this inspiring event to share the wealth of knowledge.
Here at the Equality Federation Institute, we know that local and incremental work matters. That’s why we began an investigation into the impact these campaigns have on our movement.
From the fall of 2018 through spring 2019, Equality Federation members across the country played important roles in registering and turning out hundreds of thousands of voters to elect pro-equality candidates and win ballot measures. But what we learned as the national partner to these groups is that it isn’t just during elections that they need volunteers and donors to advance their missions — state-based equality organizations need this year round.
Words fall short to describe the woman who led some of the fiercest legal battles in service of making this country more just — more equal.
Yesterday at the kick-off of Equality Federation’s virtual Leadership Conference, I made the bittersweet announcement that after a long and wonderful run, I have decided to step down at the end of 2020—on my 10th anniversary—as leader of the Equality Federation. It has been a great honor to not only serve in this position for a decade but also to have been involved with the Equality Federation from its very inception.
Today in a historic 6-3 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed that employers can’t unfairly fire or otherwise discriminate against LGBTQ people in the workplace.
We, the undersigned, recognize we cannot remain neutral, nor will awareness substitute for action. The LGBTQ community knows about the work of resisting police brutality and violence.
ALOK and Vivian Topping from Equality Federation teamed up to share some important updates with you about anti-transgender legislative trends from around the country.
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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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