Equality Federation won’t stop until all LGBTQ+ people are fully empowered and represented in their communities, experiencing full equality in their lives.
Equality Florida made historic progress by achieving a committee hearing on The Florida Competitive Workforce Act (HB 45/SB 120). It was the first time a comprehensive nondiscrimination bill had such a hearing in Florida.
In a close 25-24 vote, the Washington Senate today shut down an anti-transgender bill, SB 6443, that would have undone the state’s regulations that ensure transgender people are able to use the facilities that match their gender identity.
Two anti-LGBTQ bills were defeated on February 9th in Virginia thanks to the hard work of Federation member Equality Virginia and many advocates on the ground who bravely shared their stories and asked their legislators to stand for fairness.
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Supreme Court’s historic ruling establishing nationwide marriage equality masks a stark and persistent reality: a patchwork of state and local non-discrimination laws continues to leave millions of LGBT Americans – including those who are legally married – without reliable protections from discrimination on the basis of gender identity and sexual orientation, according to a report released today by the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the nation’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) civil rights organization.
As our organization headed into 2016, it felt a bit like deja vu. Once again, we were preparing for a possible historic year in the fight for full equality for LGBTQ Floridians!
Equality Federation is currently tracking over 200 bills, at least 150 of which are anti-LGBTQ, throughout the country. Oklahoma leads the pack with 27 anti-LGBTQ pieces of legislation up for consideration by lawmakers this session.
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.
Today the Court recognized the harm of discrimination and reaffirmed that states can act to protect LGBTQ people from discrimination. The Court’s 7-2 decision in favor of the baker in the Masterpiece Cakeshop case is limited specifically to the unique circumstances of this case and calls into question actions from the Colorado Civil Rights Commission—but it leaves intact Colorado’s LGBTQ-inclusive nondiscrimination protections, as well as similar protections in 19 states and 200+ cities and towns.
Equality Federation stands with our member organization Freedom Oklahoma in our disgust at the passage of SB 1140.
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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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