Equality Federation won’t stop until all LGBTQ+ people are fully empowered and represented in their communities, experiencing full equality in their lives.
As part of our Raising the States resource development training program, Equality Federation is excited to team up with Network for Good to provide training opportunities open to all members!
Last week lawmakers in Georgia passed positive reforms to the state’s adoption and foster care code. HB 159 updates the state’s antiquated child welfare laws and does not include any discriminatory language.
Two additional bills targeting LGBTQ people have failed in the South Dakota Legislature. SB 160, which would have prohibited classroom instruction of gender expression or identity, and SB 202, which would have required all public restrooms to have a sign posted giving notice that a person of the “opposite sex” may be in the restroom, were both killed or voted down with bipartisan support.
The Education Department has said it will not investigate or take action on any complaints of discrimination filed by transgender students who are not permitted to use the facilities that match their gender identity.
Four bills that would have updated Virginia’s laws to include LGBTQ people in nondiscrimination protections were killed in a committee despite the broad support of fair-minded Virginians. Two of the bills had passed in the state’s Senate with 75% of the vote.
This is urgent. Trump’s extremist, anti-LGBTQ nominee to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, Stuart Kyle Duncan, could be confirmed as soon as Wednesday.
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.
In 2016 we published a blog post on the growing threat – the use of preemption legislation. Today, we’re proud to participate in the release of a new report led by Movement Advancement Project in partnership with A Better Balance, Family Values @ Work, and the Local Solutions Support Center.
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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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