Equality Federation won’t stop until all LGBTQ+ people are fully empowered and represented in their communities, experiencing full equality in their lives.
On October 8 the U.S. Supreme Court heard three cases about LGBTQ employment discrimination that will determine if federal law protects LGBTQ people. The Supreme Court will consider how Title VII’s ban on workplace sex discrimination protects LGBTQ people from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) submitted a proposed rule to the Office of Management and Budget for review on Oct. 4, 2019. The rule is titled “Ensuring Equal Treatment for Faith-Based Organizations.”
Here are a few takeaways from the report that paints a picture of an often overlooked segment of our population.
The LGBTQ community is no stranger to state overreach – when legislatures swoop in to eradicate local nondiscrimination measures or take other sweeping actions that, ultimately, hurt our ability to live, work, and raise our families free from discrimination. In fact, the first time most Americans even became aware of the concept of preemption legislation was when North Carolina enacted HB 2 – the discriminatory law that attacked the very humanity of transgender people, and eviscerated local nondiscrimination measures across the Tar Heel state.
Chrissy Etienne joined Equality Federation in October 2019 as the organizations first Digital Strategist and Kairos Fellow.
I took a job working for Equality Federation because I believe it is everyone’s job to help make the world a better place. The fact that I can do that while working for a cause I so deeply believe in was a double win.
Equality Federation congratulates Massachusetts on the passage of a proactive, transgender-specific public accommodations bill. This bill updates Massachusetts state law to ensure explicit protections for transgender people from discrimination in public places, including restaurants, hospitals, parks, and public restrooms. We celebrate this powerful victory, which comes after over a decade of public education and dialogue in the state.
This week more than a dozen organizers working to secure non-discrimination protections for LGBT Americans nationwide came together in Atlanta, Georgia, launching a new project dedicated to developing conversations about the importance of comprehensive non-discrimination protections.
Officials in eleven states – Alabama, Arizona, Georgia, Louisiana, Maine, Oklahoma, Texas, Tennessee, Utah, West Virginia, and Wisconsin – have filed a lawsuit against the Obama administration over its directive to allow transgender students to use the bathroom that matches their gender identity.
Equality Federation joined the chorus of LGBTQ advocates and health care professionals in praising the Obama Administration for finalizing a rule in the Affordable Care Act that bans discrimination in health insurance and health care.
Federation member PROMO Missouri is celebrating victory as anti-LGBTQ, religious exemption legislation, SJR 39, has failed to make it out of committee rendering it dead.
Equality Federation congratulates South Carolina Equality and all of the hardworking South Carolinians who helped ensure the defeat of S.1203, an anti-transgender bill that would have enshrined discrimination into state law by forcing transgender people to use the bathroom consistent with their biological sex, not their gender identity that they live every day, in all publicly-owned facilities including schools.
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.