Equality Federation won’t stop until all LGBTQ+ people are fully empowered and represented in their communities, experiencing full equality in their lives.
The Boston Red Sox, New England Patriots, New England Revolution, Boston Celtics, Boston Bruins, and TD Garden have voiced their support for legislation that would ban discrimination against transgender people in public spaces such as shopping malls, restaurants, and other public accommodations.
The Program Associate will support the Equality Federation’s development and communications departments (60%), annual Leadership Conference (10%), board of directors (20%), and our day-to-day operations (10%). The Program Associate will work from a home office and travel 3-4 weeks a year. This position reports to the Executive Director with ongoing coordination with the Development, Communications and Leadership Program Directors.
With barely a moment to take a deep breath, the LGBTQ community is back in the trenches, ready to fight for equality and justice in a critical legislative year. Immediately following a historic victory on marriage, after the balloons and confetti, we faced a tide of anti-LGBTQ attacks.
Today, Equality Federation launched the Legislative Action Center (LAC). The LAC will empower state-based LGBTQ organizations to hold their ground during turbulent state legislative sessions while also winning nondiscrimination protections and other important policy advances for LGBTQ people and their families.
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.
The LGBT movement is shifting. We are seeing the tides changing from a focus on marriage to one of states working for protections in nondiscrimination, safe schools, immigration, healthcare, and beyond. But what is constant throughout this change is the intersectionality of our work, and the need to look at each issue through multiple lenses.
On Monday, March 2nd, U.S. District Judge Joseph Bataillon ruled Nebraska's ban on same-sex marriage to be unconstitutional calling it an "unabashedly gender-specific infringement of the equal rights of its citizens."
Equality Federation expresses our strong solidarity with the the family of Freddie Gray, local community leaders, and many community protesters in Baltimore, as well as those raising their voices across the country. We are also calling for meaningful, systemic change so that no lives are lost or negatively impacted in the future by mass incarceration or police brutality.
Earlier this month, I had the opportunity to attend the LGBT* in the South Conference, hosted by Campaign for Southern Equality in Asheville, North Carolina.About 500 people from around the region gathered for two days of peer learning and collaboration.
A bill that would have made it illegal for any transgender person to use a restroom that did not match their gender assigned at birth has failed in Florida. HB 583, the “Single-Sex Public Facilities” bill, or Florida’s “Bathroom Bill,” introduced by State Representative Frank Artiles, was aimed to punish transgender individuals.
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.