Equality California
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U.S. State of California | |
| Founded | 1998 |
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| Headquarters | Los Angeles, California |
Area served | California |
Key people | Rick Zbur, executive director |
| Website | eqca.org |
Formerly called | California Alliance for Pride and Equality (CAPE) and Marriage Equality California |
Equality California or EQCA is the largest statewide LGBT non-profit civil rights organization in the United States. Its mission is to achieve and maintain full and lasting equality, acceptance, and social justice for all people in our diverse LGBT communities, inside and outside of California. Our mission includes advancing the health and wellbeing of LGBT Californians through direct healthcare service advocacy and education. Through electoral, advocacy, education and mobilization programs, it works to create a broad and diverse alliance of LGBT people, educators, government officials, communities of color and faith, labor, business, and social justice communities to achieve our goals. Equality California is made up of Equality California and the Equality California Institute. Equality California is an I.R.S. 501(c)(4) organization that utilizes electoral, advocacy, education, and mobilization programs to achieve its mission. The Institute is an I.R.S. 501(c)(3) organization that utilizes advocacy, education, and mobilization programs to achieve its mission.The organization is a member of the Equality Federation.[1]
==Current Programs==
Health Happens with Equality
In 2015, Equality California Institute launched a groundbreaking project, supported by The California Endowment, to improve healthcare access for undocumented LGBT immigrants in the Central Valley. Targeting healthcare providers that serve large numbers of undocumented Californians, Equality California Institute conducted LGBT cultural competency trainings of staff from more than 50 healthcare clinics and over 650 staff members in Bakersfield, Fresno, and Madera County. Equality California Institute partnered with local organizations including Gay Central Valley, the Dolores Huerta Foundation, and The Gay & Lesbian Center of Bakersfield to hold town halls across the region. As part of the statewide Health4All coalition, Equality California Institute conducts outreach and education through their statewide communications platforms as well as at pride festivals and parades across the state.
Ending HIV Stigma and Transmission
Because of HIV’s disparate impacts on the LGBT community, Equality California Institute is committed to improving the lives of people with HIV and on ending HIV transmission. A generous lead grant from the Elton John AIDS Foundation allowed Equality California Institute to significantly expand its HIV work in 2015 in two areas. The Institute works in coalition to modernize California’s harmful and out of date statutes criminalizing HIV. For the most part, laws that unfairly punish and stigmatize people living with HIV were enacted in the late 1980s and were a product of the fear and ignorance of that time. Equality California is working to educate legislators and mobilize the LGBT community with the goal of updating California’s laws to reflect modern understanding and treatment of HIV, and to make them consistent with statutes related to other communicable diseases. People living with HIV should not be treated differently than people with other diseases nor should they be discriminated against in the criminal justice system. Our HIV decriminalization work is also supported by a grant from the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation. Equality California is dedicated to ending the AIDS epidemic, using the tools that now put that goal within our grasp. Equality California Institute has launched a statewide campaign, #TakeIt: I’m PrEP’d, to educate the LGBT community on the availability and benefits of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP). Studies show that PrEP, when used together with other safe-sex practices, can be up to 99 percent effective in preventing new HIV infections. Our campaign targets gay and bisexual men and transgender women, especially from communities of color. These groups have some of the highest rates of new HIV transmission.
Transform California
In 2015, transgender people found themselves under increasing fire from legislative and ballot initiatives that attacked their most basic dignity, freedoms and privacy. To educate California voters about our transgender neighbors and in advance of future efforts to target them at the ballot box, Equality California and the Transgender Law Center are leading a statewide public education campaign to increase understanding and acceptance of transgender and gender nonconforming people and the issues they face. The campaign includes other LGBT and civil rights organizations as well as groups serving communities of color and faith communities. The effort is independent of work on any political or legislative campaign. The campaign is conducting research and outreach and is working with community and faith leaders in a field campaign to conduct door-to-door, one-on-one conversations. The campaign is also identifying and training spokespeople – including transgender youth and adults, their friends, families, employers and educators – to tell their stories in print and through social media.
History and leadership
Early history
The California Alliance for Pride and Equality (CAPE) began in 1998, and the CAPE Foundation was launched in 2000 to expand education and outreach efforts. In 2003, the organizations became Equality California, the EQCA Institute and EQCA Political Action Committee. During that time, the organization grew exponentially under the new leadership of Executive Director Geoffrey Kors, Board President John Duran, PAC President Diane Abbitt and Institute President Jody Cole.
Merger with MECA
In 2004, EQCA merged with a similar organization working on LGBT rights called Marriage Equality California in order to better coordinate efforts to pass marriage equality legislation in California. Prior to the merger MECA existed as the California-based grassroots organizing wing of their national counterpart Marriage Equality USA.[2] While EQCA efforts were focused primarily on top level legislative lobbying and media efforts, Marriage Equality California had an extensive network of local activists all over the state organizing around the issue of marriage equality at the grassroots level.
From Marriage Equality USA, EQCA subsumed both the local grassroots organizing chapters of MECA throughout California, as well as hiring their volunteer leadership to become the field staff.[3] The new consolidated programs became a co-branded joint project of EQCA and MECA under the direction of Molly McKay and Geoffrey Kors.
For several years local chapters and staff worked as part of the joint project, until eventually the decision was made to drop joint branding and the program became the Equality California field team.
Other
In March 2015 EQCA announced their endorsement of Hillary Clinton for president, making them the first LGBT-rights group to endorse Clinton’s then-anticipated candidacy.[4]
Significant activities and programs
Equality California
EQCA has sponsored and helped lobby for the passage of 110 bills (as of the end of the 2015 legislative session)supporting lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights in the California Legislature, including the nation’s first same-sex marriage bill approved by a legislative body (AB 849, the Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Protection Act, authored by Assemblymember Mark Leno, D-San Francisco). On behalf of its members, EQCA was the organizational plaintiff in a lawsuit filed by the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR), American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Lambda Legal and several law firms challenging California’s marriage laws that exclude same-sex couples. The California Supreme Court on May 15, 2008 ruled that all Californians have the freedom to marry. The landmark decision ended the state ban on marriage for same-gender couples. Same-gender couples were able to marry as of June 16, 2008.
Equality California Institute
Equality California Institute educates LGBT people and the public at large about issues impacting the LGBT community and our allies. EQCAI empowers and organizes individuals, communities and allied groups to work proactively for fairness, equality and justice.[5]
EQCAI leads Let California Ring, a public education campaign to open hearts and minds about the freedom to marry, and the Equality Alliance, a broad coalition of LGBT and non-LGBT groups working together to further human rights. The Institute also directs the LGBT Health and Human Services Network and is a sponsor of the California Transgender Leadership Summit and Queer Youth Advocacy Day.
Political action committees
Equality California’s Political Action Committee advocates for candidates who support full equality for all Californians and issues that protect the civil rights of all people, including those who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT). EQCA’s PACs also work to fight efforts that could delay LGBT progress toward full equality.
NO on 8 – Equality California
NO on 8 – Equality California worked in conjunction with NO on 8, Equality for All, and a coalition of diverse organizations that worked to defeat Proposition 8. Prop. 8 was the 2008 Primary Election ballot initiative that denied same-sex couples the right to marry under California law. EQCA is a founding member of Equality for All and is one of the campaign’s significant contributors. Equality California is considered one of the primary organizations that worked to defeat Proposition 8, though critics have challenged their work as privileging a heteronormative relationship structure.[6]
Equality California Candidate PAC
EQCA’s Candidate PAC endorses candidates it identifies as fair-minded and supports the campaigns of policy leaders who advocate the fair and equal treatment of all Californians, including those who identify as LGBT. The Candidate PAC works to expand the number of equality-minded representatives in Sacramento, ensuring that the LGBT community can continue progress toward equality. EQCA’s Candidate PAC only endorses candidates that support equality for all members of the LGBT community 100 percent of the time.
See also
- LGBT rights in California
- LGBT history in California
- Same-sex marriage in California
- List of LGBT rights organizations
References
- ↑ Bajko, Matthew S. (2011-01-27). "Political Notebook: Equality Federation welcomes new executive director". Bay Area Reporter. Retrieved January 14, 2014.
- ↑ "Our History | MarriageEqualityUSA". Marriageequality.org. Retrieved 2014-06-29.
- ↑ "Equality California - old". Eqca.org. Retrieved 2014-06-29.
- ↑ "Equality California first LGBT group to endorse Clinton candidacy – Metro Weekly". Metroweekly.com. Retrieved 2015-03-16.
- ↑ "Home - Equality California Institute". Eqcai.org. 2014-01-01. Retrieved 2014-06-29.
- ↑ DeGagne, Alexa (2013). "Queer Bedfellows of Proposition 8: Adopting Social Conservative and Neoliberal Political Rationalities in California's Same-Sex Marriage Fight". Studies in Social Justice 7 (1).
External links
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