Equality Federation won’t stop until all LGBTQ+ people are fully empowered and represented in their communities, experiencing full equality in their lives.
I’m here, on the ground with the Yes on 3 campaign! I voted early and have spent the rest of my time here working with volunteers, organizers, and supporting the amazing teams they’ve built.
Equality Federation is partnering with The Last Weekend to connect you with a local campaign that is on the edge of flipping toward pro-equality candidates who will fight Trump.
My friend Veronica is an incredible woman. She is smart, funny, genuine and sarcastic (a prerequisite for all my friends). We have been an important part of each other’s lives for 20 years. That’s a lot of laughter, a lot of tears and a lot of pedicures. She is my bestie, my heart, my sister, my friend and my family, and, she is transgender.
The Trump administration has made a heartless, extremist political attack on transgender and nonbinary people. By threatening to enshrine a narrow definition of gender into law, it is clearer than ever they are willing to disregard science, medicine, and decency in order to push their own dogma.
Equality Federation recently conducted two successful regional summits and a strategy session in Connecticut, and I am so excited to tell you about them. First, our West by Midwest Leadership Summit drew 20 leaders from 9 states throughout the Midwest, from Equality Ohio to Equality Illinois.
Last week I traveled to Massachusetts to work with the country’s first ever statewide ballot campaign to uphold protections for the transgender community. The campaign is running an impressive operation, from building a massive volunteer-driven voter contact program to putting up some of the best television ads making the case for dignity and respect under the law.
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.
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.
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.
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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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