Equality Federation won’t stop until all LGBTQ+ people are fully empowered and represented in their communities, experiencing full equality in their lives.
Please join us in extending a warm welcome to the newest members of our state partner network: BlaqOut and the Transgender Resource Center of New Mexico!
Equality Federation Institute (EFI), empowered by ViiV Healthcare and our network of state-based LGBTQ+ advocacy partners, launched a bold pilot program this month: The Vanguard HIV Policy Change-Makers Fellowship!
In a new paper from A Better Balance, Local Solutions Support Center, and Equality Federation, we trace the local roots of LGBTQ+ equality in the United States and highlight the different types of abusive preemption that target local authority to protect LGBTQ+ individuals.
We are no longer the scrappy organization we once were. I am proud to say that Equality Federation is now an organization of 17, with the plan to have a staff of 20 by the end of the year.
This week, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to make Representative Mike Johnson of Louisiana the new Speaker of the House. Equality Federation, Forum for Equality, and Louisiana Trans Advocates — national and state organizations advocating for LGBTQ+ equality — join advocates across the country in condemning this selection, pointing out Johnson’s vehement anti-LGBTQ+ history as a lawmaker.
Today, Equality Federation responded to the Supreme Court’s decision in 303 Creative v. Elenis, a case about whether a business that is open to the public can be granted an unprecedented free speech exemption from state nondiscrimination law in order to turn away customers they would rather not serve. In a 6-3 decision, the Court ruled for 303 Creative in a highly fact-specific decision authorizing a narrow exception to state nondiscrimination laws for a website developer.
Over 230 LGBTQ leaders from the state-based movement for equality will convene in New Orleans, Louisiana, at the end of July for Equality Federation’s 21st annual Leadership Conference.
The Supreme Court of the United States has asked the Washington Supreme Court to revisit Arlene’s Flowers v. Washington. The Justices will not hear the case, asking the lower court to take into consideration the recent Masterpiece Cake decision.
While he is sadly ending his career after three unfortunate rulings on the rights of workers, religious discrimination, and reproductive rights, several of Justice Anthony Kennedy’s deciding votes in years past pushed the trajectory of LGBTQ equality toward fairness and justice, including his vote on marriage equality.
Equality Federation unequivocally condemns the Trump Administration’s cruel and unnecessary efforts to tear children away from their parents at the border. This practice is the most egregious example of Trump’s actions to erode America’s civil rights and human decency, and is widely condemned by leaders of faith, doctors and childcare professionals, and lawmakers across the political spectrum.
Today New Hampshire’s Republican Governor signed HB 1319 into law, protecting transgender Granite Staters from discrimination in employment, housing, and public spaces. New Hampshire is now the final state in New England – and the 19th state across the U.S. – to have a comprehensive and explicit law protecting LGBTQ people from discrimination in areas of employment, housing, and public accommodation.
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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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