As one of his first actions following his inauguration, President Joe Biden signed an executive order directing federal agencies across the government to implement the U.S. Supreme Court’s June 2020 ruling in the Bostock case.
This executive order comes after months of the previous administration’s refusal to acknowledge the Court’s ruling and insistence that discrimination against LGBTQ people was permissible under federal laws other than Title VII employment law.
For example, just last week, the day after an attempted coup at the Capitol, the U.S. Department of Education issued guidance stating that discrimination against LGBTQ students was not prohibited under Title IX. President Biden’s executive order marks the beginning of what he describes as work to “prevent and combat discrimination on the basis of gender identity and sexual orientation” throughout the country. …
The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted life for all of us. Yet, some communities have borne the brunt: communities of color, low-income people, and now as new data released today by Movement Advancement Project (MAP) show, LGBTQ people.
Decades of discrimination on the job, in health care, and beyond, combined with uneven legal protections around the country, make LGBTQ people more vulnerable to pandemic-related instability and insecurity, with an even more devastating impact on LGBTQ people of color.
MAP’s new report, The Disproportionate Impacts of COVID-19 on LGBTQ Households in the U.S., presents new findings and analysis of a nationally representative survey conducted by the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, NPR, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. …
There’s no doubt that lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and intersex (LGBTQI) communities have faced ongoing attacks in recent years. Despite these challenges, an annual analysis finds that national LGBTQI organizations remained steadfast in providing vital programs and services with support from diverse revenue sources.
The 2020 National LGBTQI Movement Report (NMR), published annually by the Movement Advancement Project (MAP), provides a comprehensive and standardized look at fiscal year 2019 for 39 major LGBTQI advocacy organizations. The annual report outlines financial health and other key indicators of stability. The report also examines the racial diversity at the staff and board level, along with demographic data based on gender and sexual orientation.
It is important to note that this report focuses on fiscal year 2019 and does not detail the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, in November 2020, MAP conducted a survey of leading LGBTQI organizations, many of whom were also NMR participants, regarding the initial financial impacts of COVID-19.
The organizations reported total combined 2019 revenue of $294.4 million, exceeding combined 2019 expenses ($283.9 million) by nearly $10.5 million. …
By Thomas Daillak, MAP policy intern
In 2021, the U.S. Supreme Court will issue a ruling in Fulton v. City of Philadelphia, a case that could give a license to discriminate to taxpayer-funded foster and adoption agencies. Depending on how the Court rules, this case has the potential to negatively impact the safety and wellbeing for the nearly 425,000 children in the nation’s child welfare system.
New research released today by MAP finds that a decision against the City of Philadelphia could alter the way 39.8% of agencies nationwide contract with state agencies and provide vital services to children and families. …
LGBTQ people have been under attack from the federal government for the last four years, as have too many other communities. The new Biden administration presents many opportunities for rebuilding and expanding our nation’s commitment to equality for LGBTQ people and our families.
The Movement Advancement Project, along with Center for American Progress, Equality Federation, GLSEN, National Center for Transgender Equality, and SAGE released a list of actions the Biden administration can take immediately after taking office in January to support LGBTQ people and their families. The groups also outlined longer-term priorities and legislative opportunities, including passing the Equality Act.
The outcome of a court case, Fulton vs. City of Philadelphia, heard by the U.S. Supreme Court on November 4, 2020, could dramatically reshape how LGBTQ people and same-sex couples, women, people of faith, unmarried couples, and others will receive taxpayer-funded supports such as job training programs, food assistance, emergency shelters, disaster relief agencies, and more.
Fulton v. City of Philadelphia centers on a Catholic child welfare agency that is suing the City of Philadelphia to receive taxpayer dollars for its child welfare services, despite the agency’s refusal to comply with the City’s nondiscrimination requirement. The question before the Court is whether the City of Philadelphia can enforce nondiscrimination provisions in city contracts or whether religiously affiliated agencies can claim an exemption from those terms. …
For many LGBTQ people, LGBTQ community centers are often the only local source of LGBTQ-inclusive, targeted social, educational, and health services. Especially during the COVID pandemic, LGBTQ community centers remain innovative and adaptable while meeting the needs of their communities.
The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted all of us, making 2020 a year filled with challenges like no other. For individuals and families, workers and businesses, and social change organizations like LGBTQI and allied social justice organizations, COVID-19 has upended how we learn, work, and connect.
To understand the ways in which LGBTQI and allied social justice organizations are responding in this moment, Movement Advancement Project (MAP) conducted several surveys. What emerges is an insightful and helpful snapshot of these organizations’ financial health and short- and long-term planning, staffing, and efforts to ensure program stability in the face of the pandemic.
Access the report: Understanding the Impact of COVID-19 on the LGBTQI…
As a result of the uneven and uncertain progress for LGBTQ equality, LGBTQ people in America face an almost incomprehensible patchwork of laws. An LGBTQ individual or family may have high levels of legal equality in one state, while their LGBTQ counterparts in a neighboring state face only hostile or negative laws.
On issues from nondiscrimination to criminal justice to identity documents to health care, MAP’s Equality Maps provide a quick, yet detailed snapshot of the current state of LGBTQ laws and policies at the federal, state, and local levels. As of October 1, 2020, MAP tracks nearly 40 LGBTQ-related laws and policies in all 50 states, D.C., and the five U.S. …
Given the predominant role of faith, and especially Christianity, in the South, a central characteristic of Southern LGBTQ organizing is engaging with faith communities. Importantly, many LGBTQ people are themselves people of faith. In fact, LGBTQ Southerners are more likely to be people of faith than are LGBTQ people outside the South.
Faith in Public Life, for example, is a national network of nearly 50,000 clergy and faith leaders “united in the prophetic pursuit of justice, equality, and the common good” across an intentionally broad set of issues including economic justice, LGBTQ rights, criminal justice reform, gun violence, and more. …
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