Equality Federation won’t stop until all LGBTQ+ people are fully empowered and represented in their communities, experiencing full equality in their lives.
The LGBT movement is shifting. We are seeing the tides changing from a focus on marriage to one of states working for protections in nondiscrimination, safe schools, immigration, healthcare, and beyond. But what is constant throughout this change is the intersectionality of our work, and the need to look at each issue through multiple lenses.
On Monday, March 2nd, U.S. District Judge Joseph Bataillon ruled Nebraska's ban on same-sex marriage to be unconstitutional calling it an "unabashedly gender-specific infringement of the equal rights of its citizens."
Equality Federation expresses our strong solidarity with the the family of Freddie Gray, local community leaders, and many community protesters in Baltimore, as well as those raising their voices across the country. We are also calling for meaningful, systemic change so that no lives are lost or negatively impacted in the future by mass incarceration or police brutality.
A bill that would have made it illegal for any transgender person to use a restroom that did not match their gender assigned at birth has failed in Florida. HB 583, the “Single-Sex Public Facilities” bill, or Florida’s “Bathroom Bill,” introduced by State Representative Frank Artiles, was aimed to punish transgender individuals.
Earlier this month, I had the opportunity to attend the LGBT* in the South Conference, hosted by Campaign for Southern Equality in Asheville, North Carolina.About 500 people from around the region gathered for two days of peer learning and collaboration.
Last month, Equality Federation and our partner Campaign for Southern Equality filed an amicus brief calling on the Supreme Court to act quickly to ensure the freedom to marry across the nation.
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.
Our final FEDtalk given at the Summer Meeting 2013 is from John Smallwood, Advocacy & Organizing Director at Fair Wisconsin.
Our ninth FEDtalk given at the Summer Meeting 2013 is from Shannon McCann, Intern at Equality Utah.
Sam Nitz currently serves as the Data & Targeting Manager for EMILY’s List, using data and targeting to help elect more Democratic, pro-choice women to office across the country. Previously, he served as the Deputy Targeting Director at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in 2010 and worked at political direct mail and polling firms.
At this year’s Summer Meeting, we invited state leaders and our Federation interns to take five minutes to share a big idea, talk through an innovative strategy, or offer up an exciting concept. We called the presentations FEDtalks, and since the meeting wrapped, we keep getting requests to publish the videos online.
Aaron Welo is an at-large director and the Treasurer for the Equality Federation. He is currently an associate with Thompson Coburn LLP in St. Louis, where he practices in the firm's business litigation group on a variety of class and complex litigation matters.
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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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