Equality Federation won’t stop until all LGBTQ+ people are fully empowered and represented in their communities, experiencing full equality in their lives.
The U.S. Supreme Court is preparing to issue a ruling in Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, a case involving a business asking the Court for a Constitutional right to refuse service to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people.
Today New York’s legislature passed GENDA, the Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act, that will ensure New Yorkers are protected from discrimination on the basis of gender identity and expression in employment, housing, and public accommodations. The legislature also passed a ban on the dangerous and discredited practice of conversion therapy.
Today, Equality Federation Institute and the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) Foundation and the released their annual State Equality Index (SEI), a comprehensive state-by-state report detailing statewide laws and policies that affect LGBTQ people and their families and placing states in one of four categories based on their pro- and anti-LGBTQ state laws.
The Supreme Court has denied to review two cases that challenged Mississippi‚ dangerously broad anti-LGBTQ law, HB 1523.
On Monday, January 7th, Michigan’s Governor Gretchen Whitmer signed an executive order banning discrimination against LGBTQ state employees and Wisconsin’s Governor Tony Evers signed an executive order expanding nondiscrimination protections to transgender state employees.
Our regional summits are growing! This year’s West by Midwest (WxMW) Leadership Summit was our biggest and best ever. For the third year in a row, we’ve invited members from the Western states to join us at what used to be the Midwest Leadership Summit.
The Federation is proud to welcome Anne Stanback to our team, as Director of State and National Partnerships. Many of you already know Anne as she's spent nearly 30 years in our movement -- including spending the past year working as a consultant with us. We're thrilled that Anne will continue the work she started as a consultant -- now as a full-time staff member based in Connecticut.
Many Federation members across the country are committed to a broad social justice agenda, working in their communities to end all forms of oppression.Over the past few years, Basic Rights Education Fund, the 501(c)(3) arm of Basic Rights Oregon, has become a national leader for their racial justice work within LGBT movements. Knowing that for decades, the LGBT movement left out the voices, experiences, and hopes of LGBT people of color -- Basic Rights Education Fund understood the need for real change and put racial justice at the top of their agenda.
State-based organizations across the country are making change in the communities we call home -- where the work is hard, but the impact is great. Nearly every week, we hear about another victory that provides LGBT people the protection, respect, and dignity they need and deserve. These wins build critical momentum in the fight for full and lasting equality -- but we don’t often hear about them. Far too often, they go unnoticed and uncelebrated by the broader LGBT movement.
Anne Stanback is the Director of Strategic Partnerships for the Equality Federation, the movement builder and strategic partner to state-based organizations winning equality in the communities we call home. Anne’s primary focus is working with states to develop plans, strategies and resources to pass laws to protect LGBT people from discrimination in employment, housing and public accommodations.
Today, the U.S. Department of the Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) ruled that same-sex couples, legally married in jurisdictions that recognize their marriages, will be treated as married for federal tax purposes. The ruling applies regardless of whether the couple lives in a jurisdiction that recognizes same-sex marriage or a jurisdiction that does not recognize same-sex marriage.
Executive Director Betsy Smith has been leading EqualityMaine for fourteen years. After securing many incredible wins for LGBT Mainers, she has announced that she will soon step down from her position. Before Betsy officially leaves the Federation family (though we'll always count her as one of our own), we wanted to learn everything we could from her work and experience. So we caught up with her to talk about her successful tenure at EqualityMaine.
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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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