Equality Federation won’t stop until all LGBTQ+ people are fully empowered and represented in their communities, experiencing full equality in their lives.
The National LGBTQ Task Force Action Fund has released The Voting Rights Toolkit for LGBTQ Advocates ahead of upcoming November and presidential primary elections. The new toolkit, which contains information as diverse as voter assistance guides to an overview of restrictive voting practices, is available online at: http://thetaskforceactionfund.org/vra/
MTV’s True Life: I’m Genderqueer premiers tonight and features Jacob Tobias, who spoke at Equality Federation’s Summer Meeting this July, and other young leaders who are bravely sharing their stories.
We applaud President Obama for his support of the Equality Act, an important piece of legislation that would help ensure all Americans, including LGBTQ people and their families, are fully and clearly protected from discrimination. The announcement builds upon seven years of this administration’s support. They have extended hospital visitation to LGBTQ families, ended discrimination among federal employees and contractors, supported marriage equality, opposed conversion therapy, and so much more.
On Tuesday, November 3rd voters in Houston repealed the city’s Equal Right Ordinance (HERO) which provided protections from discrimination based on 15 classes including race, disability, age, sexual orientation, and gender identity. Throughout the campaign, opposition used fear, lies, and misinformation to confuse voters.
CHICAGO – Leaders from lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) state equality organizations meet next week in Chicago for a conference on how to tackle serious challenges that remain despite the Supreme Court ruling in favor of marriage equality.
Salt Lake City voters elected Jackie Biskupski as Utah’s first openly gay mayor and only the second female top executive in the capital city, according to the unofficial election-night count. Those vote tallies had Biskupski with 52.19 percent to two-term Mayor Ralph Becker’s 47.81 percent — less than a 5 percentage-point spread.
Over 3,000 children are awaiting adoption in Michigan, yet on Thursday, June 11, Governor Rick Snyder signed a law permitting faith-based adoption agencies that receive public funding to discriminate against potential parents - including same-sex or unmarried couples - if doing so would violate the agencies' religious beliefs, leaving the needs of children on the sidelines.
Equality Federation denounced today the enactment of North Carolina Senate Bill 2, an anti-LGBT law that allows magistrates and other public officials to opt out of performing marriage services for couples if they have religious objections to certain marriages. The law had been vetoed by Governor Pat McCory, but today the House of Representatives voted 69-41 to override his decision, which means SB 2 will become law.
Despite these laws and guidance, Media Matters for America found that various conservative media outlets have promoted myths that policies protecting transgender students "create confusion, violate students' privacy rights, and can be exploited by students who will pretend to be transgender in order to sneak into the restrooms for the opposite sex."
Want to be even more connected to the LGBT movement at this critical time?Follow these simple steps.
On Monday, the Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) released a best practices guide that will ensure transgender employees has access to the restroom that corresponds to their gender identity. The 4-page "Guide to Restroom Access for Transgender Workers" provides guidance to employers on best practices regarding restroom access for transgender workers, with the goal of assuring that employers provide a safe and healthy working environment for all employees.
You won't want to miss this! Garden State Equality's executive director Andrea Majanik Bowen was interviewed in Slate's fun series Ask A Homo about how to talk with trans people with respect. Garden State Equality is a member of the Equality Federation.
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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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