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.
This is what progress looks like. On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court quietly extended the freedom to marry to same-sex couples in five states.
Five years ago this week, Connecticut became the second state to secure the freedom to marry for loving, committed same-sex couples. A ruling in Kerrigan v. Commissioner of Public Health by the state Supreme Court on Oct. 10, 2008, said that same-sex couples could not be prevented from marrying.
Laws and ordinances that protect LGBT people, families, and communities are a patchwork in the USA. Our partners at the Movement Advancement Project have created a series of Equality Maps, which provide a quick snapshot of the current status of protections, state by state and issue by issue.
On the heels of the introduction of a new immigration proposal in the House of Representatives and Saturday’s National Day of Dignity and Respect, our partners at the National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE) have released a new report: Our Moment for Reform: Immigration and Transgender People.
On September 16th, Brandie Balken and the Equality Utah team held their 12th Annual Allies Dinner, a gala fundraiser celebrating the individuals, businesses, and organizations that have done extraordinary things in support of the LGBT community in Utah.
While efforts to address anti-LGBT bullying have been getting a lot of attention these last few years, more and more we're coming to understand that un-addressed bullying and harassment is just one of many ways that LGBT young people—and especially LGBT youth of color—are being systematically pushed out of the education system and into poverty, homelessness, or the criminal justice system. Equality Federation Institute is proud to be working with state equality groups to address the critical issue of school pushout.
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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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