Category Archives: Community, Regional, and National Resources

White House Announces Support for Equality Act

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http://www.hrc.org/blog/entry/white-house-announces-support-for-equality-act

Today, HRC reacted to news that the Obama Administration has endorsed the Equality Act.

“The unfortunate reality is that, while LGBT Americans can legally get married, millions remain at risk of being fired or denied services for who they are or who they love because the majority of states still lack explicit, comprehensive non-discrimination protections,” said HRC President Chad Griffin. “By endorsing the Equality Act, the White House sent a strong message that it’s time to put the politics of discrimination behind us once and for all. Now it’s time for Congress to act. Everyone should be able to live free from fear of discrimination and have a fair chance to earn a living and provide for their families, including people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender.”

HRC polling has found strong bipartisan support for the Equality Act. A majority of Americans support extending non-discrimination protections to LGBT Americans. By an impressive 78 percent to 16 percent, voters support protecting LGBT people from discrimination, including a 64 percent majority of Republicans.

The Equality Act has also received strong, early support from some of America’s top companies, which joined the Human Rights Campaign in announcing support of the Equality Act since it was introduced in July — including Apple, Dow Chemical Company, IBM, General Mills, Levi Strauss & Co, Microsoft, Orbitz, Symantec and Target.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BdJWx6ONy2w

2016 Point Foundation Scholarship Open to Undocumented LGBTQ Students

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http://mydocumentedlife.org/2015/11/03/2016-point-foundation-scholarship-open-to-undocumented-lgbtq-students/
“Point’s application process is open to all college students regardless of citizenship. Undocumented students are eligible and will be reviewed as international students.”

11/12 at 6pm: Beyond Marriage Equality – panel and discussion

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https://www.facebook.com/events/1502793540047360/
On June 26th 2015, the Supreme Court ruled that the Constitution guarantees the right for same sex couples to marry. This was hailed as a huge civil rights win for LGBTQ individuals, and celebrations lasted for weeks. But is it the ONLY issue that LGBTQ individuals care about? And why does it continued to be considered THE issue for LGBTQ folks by mainstream media and society?

Join the LGBT Resource Center and the University YMCA for BEYOND MARRIAGE EQUALITY, a panel and discussion, on November 12th to hear the panelists engage in critical perspectives about the fight for marriage equality, and present other crucial issues affecting LGBTQ individuals.

Moderator:
Leslie K. Morrow, Director, LGBT Resource Center and Doctoral Student, Education, Policy, Organization & Leadership

Panelists:
Mike Ziri, Director of Public Policy for Equality Illinois
Siobhan Somerville, Ph.D., Associate Professor, English, Gender &
Women’s Studies, African American Studies
David Luis Glisch-Sanchez, Ph.D, Visiting Assistant Professor, Latina/o Studies
Rico Kleinstein Chenyek, Graduate Student, Institute for Communications Research and Medical Scholars

Celebrate 25 years of Equality Illinois at the Gala

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Equality Illinois is entering our 25th year and we plan to celebrate in a big way with our 2016 Gala on Saturday, February 6, 2016, starting at 6:00 p.m. at the Hilton Chicago.  The Gala is the largest LGBT events of its kind in the Midwest, drawing more than 1,400 guests, including nearly 100 public officials and many more community VIPs.
You have helped create all the successes and milestones of our movement over the last quarter century and we want to celebrate with you at one of the most anticipated, elegant and fun society events of the year. Make sure to get your tickets now – we are offering special anniversary discounted pricing through November 15th.

EQIL

10/16/2015 Queer Grads, Staff and Faculty Social

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https://www.facebook.com/events/177453082596973/
Open to all queer graduate students, staff, and faculty at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Light refreshments will be provided starting at 6pm and will be available until they run out!

Thank YOU for marching with us in Pride!

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A huge THANK YOU to all of the faculty, staff, students, families, and even pets(!) who walked with us on Saturday’s Champaign-Urbana Pride parade. We had an awesome turn out, everyone looked great in their orange shirts (and we hope to see them around campus), the weather was just right, and the day was just amazing!

For our seasoned supporters and members, we thank you for your dedication and tireless efforts to promote a more inclusive and support campus and local community for people of diverse sexual orientations and gender identities. If Saturday was your first time joining such an effort, we welcome you to continue working with us through the year and for many more years to come. Below, you’ll find some resources on different ways to stay involved.

IMG_20150919_170249696 IMG_20150919_170937679 IMG_20150919_171318851

Most gay and lesbian researchers are out in the lab

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http://www.nature.com/news/most-gay-and-lesbian-researchers-are-out-in-the-lab-1.18187
“Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) scientists feel more accepted in the workplace than their peers in other professions, a US survey suggests. The study, published in the Journal of Homosexuality1, also found that respondents in scientific fields with a high proportion of women, such as the social sciences, were more likely to be out to their colleagues than those in more male-intensive disciplines, such as engineering.” Read more at link above

BREAKING: New LGBT protections become law in Illinois

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Moments ago, legislation to protect LGBT youth by prohibiting so-called “conversion therapy” became law after being signed by Gov. Bruce Rauner.  Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender youth in Illinois will now be protected from discredited and dangerous efforts to change their sexual orientation or gender identity. Known as “conversion therapy,” these efforts are extremely harmful to the physical and mental well-being of young people. 

The governor also signed a bill allowing Illinoisans to specify their gender identity in binding funeral and burial instructions. Legislation to address burial instructions is necessary because of past situations where a person’s gender identity was disrespected by family members or funeral directors.     

These victories would not have been possible without the support of Equality Illinois members. Thanks to ongoing support, calls and notes to lawmakers and the governor, and thousands of petition signatures, our members helped us push these bills through the Illinois legislature with bipartisan support and ensure that they became law.   

Despite the approval of these bills, we remain focused on ensuring a fully-funded, fair, and responsible state budget to protect vital services for the most vulnerable Illinoisans, including homeless youth and individuals living with HIV/AIDS.  

Let’s keep moving forward, 

Mike Ziri
Director of Public Policy
Equality Illinois

7/13/2015 – Meeting Notes

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LGBTQ Employee Affinity Group
Meeting 7/13/2015
Hessel Park

Introductions: Welcome from Manuel Colón
Business Items:
–What should our name be? It’s a wise decision to adopt a formal name for the group to have more of an identity and help with branding ourselves and our efforts. Note cards were passed around for everyone to contribute. Here is a small sampling of what we received:
*QueerWorks
*HomoHangout
*Illinoise
*QueerPros
*Illiance
*Queer-I
*Out @ Illinois

–What other activities would everyone be interested in? We want to be cognizant of the different interests of others, so notecards were passed around for everyoen to contribute their dieas. Here is a small sampling of what we received:
*Pumpkin/apple picking/Curtis Orchard
*Game night/board games
*Sports games/tailgating/homecoming event
*Kickball/rollerderby/other sports
*Movie night
*Speedmeeting (like speed dating, but just to know others)

Announcements:
-Manuel: Equality Illinois is creating their “Out and About: Good Business Network“. If you own a business or know a business that qualifies, considering nominating.
-Liz: Should we considering participating in the Champaign Pride Parade? Manuel: Yes! It would also be nice to also join forces with other higher educatioin institutions in the area (Parkland, EIU, ISU, WIU, etc) and have a join “Out in Higher Education” contigency. If interested in organizing this effort, contact either Liz (ethw@illinois.edu) or Manuel (macolon2@illinois.edu)
-Devon: As the Asst. Director of the LGBT Resource Center, they wanted to introduce themselves to the group and encourages everyone to learn more about their operations and consider ways that they could collaborate or work together.
-elizaBeth: As a graduate student and representative of the Graduate Employees’ Organization, wants to remind people that graduates are employees too and are also open to different opportunities to collaborate with our group and mutual support one another.

Miscelleanous:
-Every person has affiliated themselves with the group for a variety of reasons and it’s time that we capitalize on everyone’s individual interests, desires, and strengths. At our initial meeting in the spring, three “sub-committees” were proposed to allow people to engage in the capacity that they would be more interested.  For more info navigate to https://illinois.edu/fb/sec/7199565
-Cites Wiki, there is a Wiki page for any LGBTQ related news, resources, materials, etc. that everyone (with a netID) is welcome to browse and contribute. The hope is a create a centralized knowledge bank of different LGBTQ related information that is community-driven and crowd-sourced. Check it out at go.illinois.edu/lgbtqwiki