GetEQUAL Education Fund

Over the past four years, GetEQUAL has played a key role in highlighting the stories of LGBTQ Americans across the country who are suffering from discrimination. We are committed to lifting up and empowering those in the LGBTQ community who have experienced deep levels of discrimination.

Despite technical glitches, we managed to hit our $10,000 goal just before midnight on May 15! We're extraordinarily grateful for everyone's support, and for the Calamus Foundation - which pledged a $10,000 matching grant for us! We're also grateful to our board, who raised another $10,000!

GiveOUT Day has been extended for an additional 24 hours, until 11:59pm ET on May 16. If you haven't yet given, we'd love your support - there are additional prizes up for grabs that can help raise our grand total even higher...and thus allow us to do even more organizing on the ground across the country!

What makes GetEQUAL different?

1. We focus on grassroots leadership:

GetEQUAL spends a significant amount of its human and financial resources towards its core goal of shifting our movement towards a more horizontal leadership model, in which those most affected by discrimination dictate the direction of our organization. By creating and developing local leadership, we are able to expand our capacity to energize local communities.

2. We are bringing the movement back to its roots without losing sign of 21st century strategies:

Our movement was born out of anger towards the systemic oppression in the country. This raw anger still exists in many parts of our nation, especially in rural areas where individuals face great systemic obstacles that prevent them from fulfilling their potential. This is why our most active chapters are in places like Texas, where LGBTQ people are still being shot at for holding the hand of the person they love. This raw anger, when channeled strategically, can be a powerful agent of change.

We use our robust online organizing program to connect isolated regions of the country by utilizing our email list, Facebook fans and Twitter followers.

3. We work with allies to build a better America for EVERYONE.

LGBTQ people do not live "cookie cutter" lives. We are as diverse as our nation. By 2050, ethnic minorities will be a majority of the American population. We are people of color. We are women. We are parents. We are immigrants struggling to get and keep green cards. We are unemployed. We have student loans. Because we are all of these things and so much more, GetEQUAL participates in active coalitions with non-LGBTQ allies and organizations so that our full selves are represented in the public square and together we will build an America where everyone can live with dignity, opportunity, and equality.

4. We're truth tellers:

We are the “left flank” of the LGBTQ movement. We work with our activists and organizers in 15 states to push our movement to ask for what we deserve instead of what we think we can get. This means that we work day and night to create a culture that allows for LGBTQ rights to be inevitable. We also work to call out and hold accountable some of the most homophobic and transphobic institutions in the country.

2014 Featured Campaigns and Projects

Listening Project:

GetEQUAL is dedicated to listening to the stories and needs of LGBTQ people all over our nation. This is why we are holding townhalls and house meetings in some of the most conservative places in our nation -- to more deeply understand the issues that are affecting LGBTQ people. Our goal is to publish a report with our results in the summer to help inform some of the strategies the LGBTQ movement can use to engage individuals at the grassroots.

Fighting the Religious Right:

The religious right is trying to use the banner of “religious liberty” to roll back some of the rights we have fought so hard to get. States like Kansas, Mississippi, and Arizona are trying to pass bills that could even allow police officers, doctors, and nurses to refuse services to LGBTQ people. We are training and coaching local activists to educate their communities so that these assaults against our rights and dignity do not see the light of day.

Deportations:

More than 267,000 undocumented LGBTQ people live under the threat of deportation. We are helping to tell the stories of LGBTQ immigrants that have been detained or have already lost members of their families to deportation. Our goal is to continue educating the LGBTQ community about deportations and to stop deportation cases.