Recently, the use of “Women’s+” has become increasingly common in activist spaces. In advocacy and health care spaces, terms like ‘women+’ or ‘non-men’ are often used to be more inclusive. While these terms intend solidarity, they can be imperfect solutions that also unintentionally limit or erase nonbinary identities.
Transgender Day of Remembrance, an annual observance on November 20 that honors the memory of the transgender people whose lives have been lost as a result of anti-transgender violence, hatred, and prejudice.
This week is Transgender Awareness Week, an annual observance bringing attention to issues transgender people face. In honor of Transgender Awareness week, I wanted to highlight triumphs of the community to establish more positive representation of transgender people in an effort to combat anti-trans stigmas and prejudice.
When I came out as queer, as a freshman in high school, I did not understand how diverse, complex, and historical the LGBTQ+ community was. I came out in the months in which Obergefell v. Hodges was argued in front of the Supreme Court, and LGBTQ+ equality was becoming a mainstream discussion in the United States.
Last week, the United States celebrated a massive victory for LGBTQ people: a Supreme Court decision that determined LGBTQ people are protected under federal law against employment discrimination. Before the ruling, seventeen states had no laws against employment discrimination on the basis of gender identity or sexual orientation, and eleven states had laws that only partially protected some employees. The court’s decision marks such a sweeping victory that it rivals same-sex marriage legalization in the benefit it will have to LGBTQ people in the United States.
Pride month is and always has been a political declaration. It is a month to celebrate resiliency and to resist discrimination against the LGBTQ community. This resiliency and resistance is more important than ever as the Trump administration continues its string of relentless attacks on the LGBTQ community.
Thanks to the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in four same-sex marriage cases today, marriage equality is now the law of the land in all 50 states.
Across the country, eight million lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender workers put in the same hours and make the same contributions as their co-workers, yet no federal law protects them from unequal, harmful treatment.
At the National Partnership, we have been working for more than 40 years to make the country’s workplaces more fair and family friendly. That’s why we were proud to partner with a strong coalition of policy experts, business advocates and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) organizations today to release A Broken Bargain: Discrimination, Fewer Benefits and More Taxes for LGBT Workers.
