Equality Federation won’t stop until all LGBTQ+ people are fully empowered and represented in their communities, experiencing full equality in their lives.
Each Summer Meeting, we bid farewell to board members who have completed their terms, and we welcome new officers and directors who will lead the Federation through the coming year.
State-based organizations across the country are making change in the communities we call home -- where the work is hard, but the impact is great. Nearly every week, we hear about another victory that provides LGBT people the protection, respect, and dignity they need and deserve.
Summer Meeting 2013 just wrapped, and I’m feeling inspired and energized by the three incredible days we spent together in Salt Lake City.
Every year at our Summer Meeting, we take the time to recognize our members who are doing exceptional work in the fight for LGBT equality. This year, as we gathered in Salt Lake City, we honored two state leaders whose work over the past year showcased the absolute best our movement has to offer: Monica Meyer from OutFront Minnesota and Ann Kaner-Roth from Project 515.
At Summer Meeting 2013, our friends from the National Center for Transgender Equality joined us to facilitate an important topic of discussion: trans inclusion
In case you missed it, 2016 was a year for the record books. Well over 200 pieces of anti-LGBTQ legislation kept Equality Federation and our state partners busy in state capitals across the country. That’s the bad news.
Equality Federation regrets to report that several organizations, including two Federation member groups, have been targeted by acts of vandalism. Someone smashed a window of Equality Florida’s Orlando office in late February.
A judge in Pinedale, Wyoming faced discipline from the Wyoming Commission on Judicial Conduct and Ethics for a newspaper interview she gave stating that she would not officiate same-sex marriages. She said, “When law and religion conflict, choices have to be made.”
With the challenges, disappointments, and threats coming out of Washington, it’s a pleasure to see forward thinking legislative packages coming out on the state level. Equality Federation will keep highlighting the groundbreaking work of our member organizations.
Though the national political scene has been tumultuous, unpredictable, and downright discouraging these past few months, I have the privilege to work with passionate Ohioans in several of our cities who are determined to do everything they can to stand with LGBTQ Americans in the face of harmful rhetoric coming from this new administration and its advocates.
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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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