We get results that make our country better
Fund for Equality, a project of Fund for the Public Interest, runs canvass offices on behalf of the Human Rights Campaign to help ensure basic equal rights for LGBTQ Americans. Here's just one example of the results we've helped win.
The Human Rights Campaign & the Fund: Standing up for equal rights
How many people do you need to change the way Americans think about equality? For the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), a good start was 750,000.
Fund for Equality helped HRC, America’s largest civil rights organization working for LGBTQ equality, to build more people power for a crucial piece of legislation — the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act. HRC was a key backer of the bill, and it needed to ramp up support in advance of the vote. We had the field presence, and the guts, to sign up members in the backyards of anti-gay rights politicians like Rick Santorum and Bill Frist. And in 2009, President Obama signed the bill into law.
We’ve made a lot of progress toward equality, but in 28 states, people still risk being fired or losing their home for being lesbian, gay, bisexual or trans, and the Trump administration could set our movement back decades. So we’re fighting to pass a bill in Congress called the Equality Act, which would prohibit discrimination in employment, housing and education to ensure full, federal equality under the law.
In a historic victory in May 2019, we helped get the Equality Act passed by the U.S. House of Representatives — a major milestone for equality. Now, we’re taking our fight to the U.S. Senate.
Since 1996, Fund for Equality has helped HRC grow its membership base. Today it boasts a grassroots force of more than 1.5 million members and supporters — and the Fund has been a key partner in that growth.
