Equality Federation won’t stop until all LGBTQ+ people are fully empowered and represented in their communities, experiencing full equality in their lives.
The Supreme Court of the United States has asked the Washington Supreme Court to revisit Arlene’s Flowers v. Washington. The Justices will not hear the case, asking the lower court to take into consideration the recent Masterpiece Cake decision.
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.
HUD announced that they have finalized their rule that ensures transgender people needing shelter will be provided housing in accordance to their gender identity.Equality Federation hails this as a vital clarification and we express our greatest thanks to all the advocates who worked on these policy changes.
After a months-long public engagement campaign, the Michigan State Board of Education voted 6-2 yesterday to adopt the “Guidance on Safe and Supportive Learning Environments for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Questioning (LGBTQ) Students.” This guidance creates more supportive learning environments for LGBTQ students, who are at greater risk of suicide, and cannot succeed academically without a supportive school environment.
Update: On Wednesday, September 14th, the Atlantic Coast Conference (A.C.C.) followed suit and announced it will pull all “neutral-site championships for this academic year” from North Carolina.Equality Federation joins Federation member Equality North Carolina in hailing the NCAA’s decision to pull their championship events from North Carolina due to the state’s anti-LGBTQ law HB2.
This week, the Juneau Assembly passed an ordinance that makes it illegal to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. In passing this ordinance, Juneau became the second Alaskan city to pass an inclusive non‐discrimination ordinance that extends protections in employment, housing, and public accommodations based on sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression or national origin, race, color, age, religion, sex, familial status, and disability.
Last week we held a webinar for Equality Federation members about how your organization can engage in Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) advocacy in your states and municipalities by adding an optional question on gender expansive youth.
In this Star Wars themed talk, Equality Ohio's Alana Jochum explains how transgender nondiscrimination protections were won in Cleveland.
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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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