Equality Federation won’t stop until all LGBTQ+ people are fully empowered and represented in their communities, experiencing full equality in their lives.
Equality Federation joins Equality Florida in applauding the Jacksonville, FL City Council for banning discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender expression.
In early February, the South Dakota legislature introduced SB149, a FADA (First Amendment Defense Act) style adoption bill. Despite the bill’s sponsor’s claim to the contrary, the impact of the legislation is clear. This bill will allow taxpayer funded adoption agencies to discriminate against LGBTQ people.
Did you know that bisexual-identified people comprise more than half of the LGB community? In fact, recent polls suggest that one-third of young people don’t identify as straight or gay or lesbian. When communicating with your members, the public, law makers, or the media, a simple and powerful way to include this enormous, but often invisible, population is to add examples of how various policies impact the lives of bisexual people. Here are a few simple examples.
Washington, DC: Equality Federation joined Representative Takano (D-Calif.) and leaders of Pride at Work and Wyoming Equality today to hold a press conference opposing Andrew Puzder for Labor Secretary.
Our pressure worked. Earlier today we held a press conference with Pride At Work and Wyoming Equality to raise concerns over Andrew Puzder’s lack of qualifications to be Labor Secretary.
Federation members Equality Texas have launched a campaign backed by many big name creative artists who are calling upon Texas leaders not to enshrine discrimination targeting LGBTQ people into state law.
Since 2013, the Affordable Care Act (or “Obamacare”) has made it possible for LGBTQ people and families get access to quality, affordable health insurance. Thanks to the law, the rate of uninsured low- and middle-income LGBTQ people has dropped by 35%! More people in our community have access to medically necessary services they need, from life-saving HIV drugs to gender affirming health care.
Equality Federation is committed to promoting racial justice and equity in all facets of our work. When we began our racial justice initiative in 2014, we decided that it was not enough to have a stand-alone program or project.
This year was the most successful ever in the fight against so-called “conversion therapy.” Equality Federation supported legislation in 20 states to protect youth from the harmful, unscientific, disproven practice of sexual orientation and gender identity conversion efforts.
Equality Federation’s Legislative Action Center tracks every piece of LGBTQ-focused legislation in all 50 states, allowing us to deploy critical resources to our state partners at every step of the legislative process. This year we tracked over 350 bills affecting the LGBTQ community. Fifteen states faced down anti-transgender bathroom ban legislation this year and we were victorious in fighting every one of these discriminatory efforts.
In 1997, a few LGBTQ movement leaders, including our current executive director, Rebecca Isaacs, came together at the Highlander Center in Tennessee. Sitting in a circle of rocking chairs in the room where Rosa Parks was trained in civil disobedience, they envisioned coming together as a state-based movement to form the “Federation of Statewide LGBT Political Organizations.” From that loose network, an organization grew.
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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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