Today, a bipartisan group of organizations and funders working to advance lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equality formally announced a new campaign today to secure comprehensive nondiscrimination protections for LGBT Americans at the local, state and national level.
The effort, Freedom for All Americans (FFAA), will engage in states across the country to advance nondiscrimination legislation and defeat anti-LGBT bills. FFAA also will engage in a national public education campaign to ensure Americans understand that in many states, their LGBT friends and loved ones are not protected from discrimination. The campaign’s ultimate goal is to secure federal passage of comprehensive nondiscrimination legislation through the United States Congress.
Currently, 52 percent of LGBT people live in states that don’t offer any explicit statewide nondiscrimination protections in employment, housing and public accommodations. LGBT Americans are not fully protected in 33 different states:
The $25 million bipartisan effort is funded by Republicans and Democrats alike, with support from individuals like Paul Singer, Tim Gill, and Daniel Loeb and organizations like American Unity Fund and the Gill Foundation. Freedom for All Americans will engage smartly and strategically to support efforts in states across the country, particularly states with large LGBT populations and few to none state protections. The organization has already assisted with recent efforts in Indiana, Utah, Michigan, Georgia, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Texas and several other states and municipalities.
Matt McTighe, Freedom for All Americans’ campaign manager, said:
FFAA will engage major businesses from across the country to advance nondiscrimination protections and defeat anti-LGBT bills. A number of the nation’s most recognizable brands – from Apple to Facebook to Wal-Mart – have spoken out against discriminatory bills. FFAA will work to harness business support for commonsense nondiscrimination protections and use them to illustrate the economic impacts of not passing nondiscrimination legislation – or even the harms associated with passing bad legislation, as seen in Indiana this past March.
Tim Gill, founder of the Gill Foundation, explained today:
In addition to dedicated campaign efforts in states across the country, FFAA will be launching an LGBT-U program, geared toward training and deploying the next generation of campaign staffers and movement leaders. FFAA also is working to identify and elevate transgender spokespeople all across the country – so it’s crystal clear to policymakers that sexual orientation and gender identity and expression protections must always move together; no exceptions.
