Equality Federation won’t stop until all LGBTQ+ people are fully empowered and represented in their communities, experiencing full equality in their lives.
The implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) brings about new questions and concerns for the LGBT community and access to healthcare. For this reason, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has called for information regarding the necessary inclusion of gender identity and sexual orientation-based discrimination under the sex-based nondiscrimination protections included in Section 1557.
Washington, DC — On September 27, in support of National Gay Men's HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, hundreds of organizations and individuals have signed onto a joint letter (http://www.wethelgbt.org) to re-engage with the broader LGBT community in the fight against HIV/AIDS. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), gay men, bisexual men, and men who have sex with men accounted for 63% of the new HIV infections in 2010. In fact, gay men are the only group in which HIV infections are increasing.
Founded in 1984, EqualityMaine is the largest LGBT organization in Maine, with a $500,000 budget and 5.25 FTE staff. It is headquartered in Portland, ME, with a satellite office in Brewer ME. The Executive Director will lead this highly respected and historically successful organization into its new future, following the passage of marriage equality in Maine in 2012.
Too often, LGBT immigrants are forced into two closets — one because of their sexual orientation or gender identity and the other because of their immigration status. At the Federation, we believe that it’s time for all immigrants, including at least 267,000 LGBT immigrants, to be able to come out of the shadows. And we believe that our members can be a powerful voice in helping this dream become a reality.
Earlier this month, Equality North Carolina welcomed Christopher Sgro to their team as their new Executive Director. We were able to catch up with Chris to learn more about his experience and his hopes for his new position at Equality NC.
Great organizations need great leaders — and they need them to stick around a little while. For years, the turnover rate in our statewide LGBT advocacy groups has been high, and in 2010, Equality Federation Institute identified this challenge as one of our organizational priorities. Committed to addressing this turnover, particularly among executive directors, we began tracking executive tenure and rolling out new programs to help ensure that state leaders were thriving.
Equality Federation supports commuting Chelsea Manning’s court-martial sentence to time served and calls on President Obama to grant her clemency petition. Chelsea has served longer than anyone else with similar charges, and as a transgender woman, has been treated inhumanely and denied fair treatment.
Equality Federation and a coalition of 13 other LGBT, racial justice, and health equity organizations have filed an amicus brief in Whole Woman’s Health v. Cole asking the U.S. Supreme Court to strike down draconian restrictions on abortion providers enacted by the State of Texas in 2013 which, if upheld, would lead to the closing of most abortion clinics in the state. The brief urges the Court to carefully scrutinize the state’s asserted justification for the law, just as the Court has done with other laws that infringe upon fundamental freedoms.
Last year we reported that 17 anti-LGBTQ bills were defeated in Oklahoma thanks to the hard work of Freedom Oklahoma and the many advocates and allies on the ground working for equality. It was an incredible feat in a very challenging political environment; most of the legislators in Oklahoma lean conservative.
Equality Federation is disappointed to learn that six candidates for president signed a pledge supporting the so-called First Amendment Defense Act (FADA). FADA is an unnecessary piece of legislation that would enshrine discrimination into law, prohibiting the federal government from stepping in when people or businesses discriminate because they believe “marriage is or should be recognized as the union of one man and one woman” or that “sexual relations are properly reserved to such a marriage.”
Equality Federation is proud to have partnered again with Human Rights Campaign to publish the Municipal Equality Index (MEI). This year’s MEI shows the growing support for LGBTQ people and our families while highlighting the work ahead to ensure full equality.
This week, we wrapped up the second convening of Fair Share for Equality, our annual forum of California state and local elected officials, LGBT and civil rights leaders and social service agencies, aimed at addressing the daunting disparities in health and wellbeing LGBT people still face compared to the general population. In her address to the audience, California Controller Betty Yee said that “the agenda for California and the rest of the country is quite vast.”
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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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