Equality Federation won’t stop until all LGBTQ+ people are fully empowered and represented in their communities, experiencing full equality in their lives.
In the world of LGBT legislation, the biggest trends this season are marriage and bathrooms. Through our newly launched Legislative Action Center, the Federation is currently tracking an unprecedented 200 bills, including a slew of anti-transgender bills that focus on preventing public facility use in 11 states and religious exemption bills targeting marriage in over a dozen states.
The Boston Red Sox, New England Patriots, New England Revolution, Boston Celtics, Boston Bruins, and TD Garden have voiced their support for legislation that would ban discrimination against transgender people in public spaces such as shopping malls, restaurants, and other public accommodations.
The Program Associate will support the Equality Federation’s development and communications departments (60%), annual Leadership Conference (10%), board of directors (20%), and our day-to-day operations (10%). The Program Associate will work from a home office and travel 3-4 weeks a year. This position reports to the Executive Director with ongoing coordination with the Development, Communications and Leadership Program Directors.
Today, Equality Federation launched the Legislative Action Center (LAC). The LAC will empower state-based LGBTQ organizations to hold their ground during turbulent state legislative sessions while also winning nondiscrimination protections and other important policy advances for LGBTQ people and their families.
With barely a moment to take a deep breath, the LGBTQ community is back in the trenches, ready to fight for equality and justice in a critical legislative year. Immediately following a historic victory on marriage, after the balloons and confetti, we faced a tide of anti-LGBTQ attacks.
Equality Federation supports commuting Chelsea Manning’s court-martial sentence to time served and calls on President Obama to grant her clemency petition. Chelsea has served longer than anyone else with similar charges, and as a transgender woman, has been treated inhumanely and denied fair treatment.
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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