For 45 years, Roe v. Wade has kept abortion legal in the U.S. — but it hasn’t kept politicians from pushing abortion out of reach for poor women, young folks, transgender and gender non-binary people, and communities of color. The National LGBTQ Task Force rises up to realize the promise of Roe, end coverage bans, and resist Trump’s extreme anti-abortion agenda.

“The Trump administration giving medical professionals a license-to-discriminate against women and the LGBTQ community, just days before the 45^th anniversary of Roe v. Wade shows that 2018 could be one of the darkest years for reproductive rights. That’s why we are fighting back,” said Rea Carey, executive director of the National LGBTQ Task Force.

On the days leading up to the 45^th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the Trump Administration created new barriers to legal abortion and blocks to access to health care for the LGBTQ community. On January 18, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced a new Division on Conscience and Religious Freedom. The next day, while Trump spoke to the March for Life from the White House Rose Garden, HHS released a proposed rule that empowers healthcare providers to discriminate against patients based on who they are and the services that they choose to undergo.

Candace Bond-Theriault, the Task Force’s senior policy counsel for reproductive rights, health and justice, explained that the proposed rule — the Protecting Statutory Conscience Rights in Health Care — “would create an inconceivably broad standard for providers to make religious and moral objections in health care, that imperils women and the LGBTQ community’s access to care.” Bond-Theriault will be presenting ways LGBTQ activists and allies can resist attacks on Roe and access to reproductive health care during the Task Force’s annual conference, Creating Change, that starts on Wednesday, January 24, in Washington, DC.

Friday, GLAAD released research on 45 instances where President Trump has selectivity targeted the LGBTQ community during his first year in office.

Throughout the year, the Trump administration has issued constant attacks on the health and well-being of the LGBTQ community through the creation of one of the most anti-LGBTQ cabinets in recent history, vehement support for religious exemptions that seek to undermine non-discrimination laws, and bigoted polices that target the transgender community including a proposed trans military ban.

“Trump is waging a culture war with our communities, the likes of which I have not seen in my lifetime. He aims to roll back rights and protections, but also general acceptance of LGBTQ people in society and culture,” said Sarah Kate Ellis, President and CEO of GLAAD. “Our voices and our visibility will yield change even in an administration that tries at every step to delete us from the cultural landscape. We will not be removed.”

GLAAD has refused to back down on any these fights and will continue to hold this administration accountable with our Trump Accountability Project and by joining the voices of countless LGBTQ Americans who are sending a clear message to 45: We are not going anywhere.

1. January 20, 2017– Minutes after Donald Trump was sworn into office, any mention of the LGBTQ community were erased from White House, Department of State, and Department of Labor websites. 
2. February 2, 2017– ABC News reports that after previously committing to protecting LGBTQ Americans from discrimination, President Trump and his administration had drafted a “License to Discriminate” executive order which would usher in across-the-board discrimination against the LGBTQ community.
3. February 22, 2017– With help of Attorney General Sessions, President Trump rescinded Title IX protections for transgender students in our nation’s schools.
4. March 20, 2017– The Trump Administration erases the LGBTQ community from The National Survey of Older Americans Act Participants and the Annual Program Performance Report for Centers for Independent Living, key surveys that are used to help provide care to American seniors – including disability, transportation, and caregiver support needs.
5. March 24, 2017– President Trump appointed anti-LGBTQ activist and former Heritage Foundation employee Roger Severino to lead the Health and Human Services Civil Rights Office, putting the LGBTQ community at risk of losing access to critical and affordable health care.
6. March 28, 2017– The Trump Administration cancels plans to add the LGBTQ community to its upcoming 2020 U.S. Census, a survey conducted every decade by the federal government to help collect data about living Americans and the United States of America.
7. April 10, 2017– A ProPublica investigation reveals the Trump Administration appointed James Renne, a key staffer involved in the Bush-era anti-LGBTQ purge of gay government employees, to a senior role at the Department of Agriculture.
8. April 14, 2017– The Trump Administration files to dismiss a lawsuit accusing North Carolina of discriminating against the LGBTQ community in response to HB2, despite the similarities of the HB142 replacement.
9. May 23, 2017– The Trump Administration reveals their budget which includes proposed slashes to programs and departments critical to the LGBTQ community, including Medicaid, Planned Parenthood, and the Center for Disease Control’s HIV and AIDS programs.
10. June 1, 2017– President Trump declines to issue a presidential proclamation designating June as LGBTQ Pride Month, breaking with an eight-year precedent set by President Barack Obama to honor and support LGBTQ Americans during Pride Month.
11. June 7, 2017– President Trump nominates Stephen S. Schwartz, who worked with North Carolina legislators in support of the anti-trans legislation HB2, to the U.S. Court of Federal Claims.
12. June 15, 2017– The Department of Education rolls back the Office for Civil Rights’ expansive approach to investigating civil rights complaints that protect LGBTQ students, and other marginalized communities, from discrimination at school.
13. June 15, 2017– The Department of Education invites Focus on the Family and the Family Research Council, two anti-LGBTQ organizations, to be speakers for a day-long conference on engaging fathers in their children’s education and welfare.
14. June 15, 2017– Department of Commerce removes sexual orientation and gender identity from the agency’s Equal Employment Policy; LGBTQ protections have been explicitly included since 2010. Only after fierce opposition did Department of Commerce Secretary Ross change it back.
15. June 16, 2017– An obtained internal memo from the Department of Education Office for Civil Rights reveals guidelines to dismiss complaints about bathroom access filed by transgender students.
16. June 21, 2017– Reporting reveals President Trump hired a lawyer who openly supported Russian President Vladimir Putin’s anti-LGBTQ law banning so-called “gay propaganda” from Russia, a law that Europe’s top human rights court found to be illegal.
17. June 27, 2017– The Trump Administration failed to mention the LGBTQ community in their National HIV Testing Day statement.
18. June 29, 2017– Reports revealed President Trump hired anti-transgender activist, Bethany Kozma, to the Office of Gender Equality and Women’s Rights at the US Agency for International Development.
19. July 10, 2017– In a closed-door and unannounced opportunity, President Trump poses for a photograph with notorious anti-LGBTQ activists who wish to promote so-called “religious exemptions” that would harm LGBTQ Americans across the nation.
20. July 12, 2017– President Trump grants a one-on-one interview with Pat Robertson, a longtime anti-LGBTQ activist and Televangelist.
21. July 13, 2017– President Trump nominates Mark Norris, who supported legislation that allowed mental health counselors to discriminate against LGBTQ clients during his time as a TN state senator, to the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Tennessee.
22. July 26, 2017– President Trump announces his proposed bans on transgender service members from serving in “any capacity” in the U.S. military, threatening to fire 15,000 currently serving troops over Twitter.
23. July 26, 2017– The Justice Department files a brief opposing workplace nondiscrimination protections for the LGBTQ community under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 in the case Zarda v. Altitude Express.
24. July 26, 2017– An official White House webpage directs readers to an article published by the anti-LGBTQ Heritage Foundation that calls being transgender a “psychological disorder.”
25. August 3, 2017– President Trump nominates L. Steven Grasz, who has close ties to the anti-LGBTQ group Focus on the Family, to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.
26. August 12, 2017– President Trump refused to condemn white supremacists who chanted violently racist and anti-LGBTQ slogans during a rally in Charlottesville, VA.
27. August 27, 2017– Reporting reveals the CIA consulted with Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, an anti-LGBTQ hate group.
28. September 5, 2017– President Trump ends the DACA program, which protected an estimated 800,000 young undocumented immigrants, including 36,000 LGBTQ DREAMers, from detention and deportation.
29. September 7, 2017– President Trump nominates Gregory Katsas, who worked behind the scenes to promote the implementation of the trans military ban and revoke federal guidelines that protect transgender students from discrimination, to the U.S. Federal Court of Appeals for the Circuit of D.C.
30. September 7, 2017– President Trump nominates Jeff Mateer, who has an extensive anti-LGBTQ record including calling trans children part of “Satan’s plan,” to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas.
31. September 7. 2017– The Justice Department files an amicus brief in support files an amicus brief in support of so-called “religious exemptions” to discriminate against LGBTQ Americans.
32. September 22, 2017– The Education Department rescinds the Obama Administration-era Title IX guidance on investigating campus sexual assault; LGBTQ students experience sexual harassment at disproportionately high rates.
33. October 3, 2017– The Department of Health and Human Services erases all mentions of the LGBTQ community and their health needs in its strategic plan for the fiscal year 2018-2022.
34. October 5, 2017– In a Department of Justice memo, the Trump Administration reverses a policy that provided non-discrimination protections for transgender people in the workplace under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
35. October 6, 2017– The Department of Justice issues a sweeping “religious exemptions” guidance which invites taxpayer-funded federal agencies, government employees, and government contractors to legally discriminate against LGBTQ employees as long as they cite a religious belief as the reason for doing it.
36. October 11, 2017– The Trump Administration’s National Park Services withdrew its sponsorship of New York City’s first permanent Pride Flag, located outside of the historic Stonewall Inn, and dropped out of its pre-scheduled participation in the flag dedication ceremony.
37. October 13, 2017– President Trump becomes the first sitting president to speak at the Family Research Council‘s Values Voter Summit, a convening of fringe groups united around discrimination against LGBTQ people.
38. October 17, 2017– President Trump delivers the keynote address the anti-LGBTQ Heritage Foundation President’s Club annual meeting.
39. December 1, 2017– President Trump leaves the LGBTQ community and people of color out of his World AIDS Day Proclamation.
40. December 4, 2017– President Trump endorses Roy Moore, who has a violently anti-LGBTQ record and multiple well-documented accusations of sexual assault, abuse, and assessment, in the Alabama special Senate Election.
41. December 5, 2017– White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders tells reporters that President Trump backs the position that wedding businesses owners should be able to put up signs saying they won’t serve gays.
42. December 15, 2017– Staff at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention at were instructed not to use the “transgender,” “vulnerable,” “entitlement,” “diversity,” “fetus,” “evidence-based,” and “science-based” in official budget documents.
43. December 22, 2017– President Trump signs the GOP tax bill, which targets low-income and LGBTQ communities, into law.
44. January 16, 2018– President Trump promotes anti-LGBTQ religious exemptions in his Religious Freedom Day proclamation.
45. January 18, 2018– The Department of Health and Human Services created a new department that shields healthcare workers who refuse to treat LGBTQ patients or those living with HIV by calming moral or religious objections.

Hornet today released its first ever research with Nielsen around the efficacy of LGBTQ-themed branded advertising on the LGBTQ consumer. The custom study, which Hornet commissioned from Nielsen in 2017, examines advertising content across various industries including consumer packaged goods, hospitality, automotive and banking.

“With this study, we hope to help brands improve their marketing and advertising as it relates to the LGBTQ community,” said Sean Howell, president and co-founder of Hornet. “Our community is one of the most highly sought-after demographics, and creating campaigns that speak directly to this consumer with authentic and inclusive messaging is what distinguishes brands from general market advertising.”

In addition to better understanding the consumer impact of LGBTQ-themed ads, the study also specifically evaluates the effectiveness of a variety of ad creative from brands that feature messages of inclusion, equality and diversity. The effectiveness is compared against that of generic ad creative from the same brands that do not feature LGBTQ-targeted messaging. By using an online design, the study measures both advertising effectiveness and engagement. Key brand effectiveness measures brand recall, brand familiarity and affinity, purchase intent and recommendation intent and brand attributes. 

Amongst its key findings:

·       60% of people exposed to LGBTQ-themed ads labeled them as “progressive and inclusive”

·       Purchase impact from LGBTQ-themed ads is 44% higher

·       75% of the LGBTQ-themed ads tested outperform generic ads in driving brand recall

·       Of those surveyed, 73% agreed they don’t mind paying extra for a premium product or service

For more information click here.

The Department of Health and Human Services announced the creation of the Conscience and Religious Freedom Division today, demonstrating the administration’s commitment to laws that license discrimination against women, LGBT people, and others. The broad language could open the door for health care institutions and providers to refuse to treat women seeking abortions, people seeking sterilizations, and others.

Louise Melling, deputy legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union, had the following reaction: “Today’s announcement shows us, once again, that the administration is doubling down on licensing discrimination against women and LGBT people, all in the name of religion. The administration has already shown its hand earlier this year by adopting rules that permit virtually all manner of businesses to refuse to comply with laws providing contraception coverage.

“We may not know exactly what this new division will look like in practice, but we do know that this means they prioritize religious liberty over the health and civil rights of women, transgender people, and others. They are prioritizing providers’ beliefs over patients’ health and lives. This administration isn’t increasing freedom — they’re paving the way for discrimination.”

Rea Carey, executive director of the National LGBTQ Task Force issued the following statement: “We are not fooled: The new office announced this morning is meant to make it easier for people to discriminate, not to protect people of faith. Health professionals have a duty to care for all their patients regardless of one’s gender identity, sexual orientation, faith, creed, race, political views, gender, or disability, and no one should be denied care for being who they are.

“The overwhelming majority of people of faith support health care access for women and LGBTQ people. There is no contradiction between meeting your duty to care for all people and living by your moral and religious conviction. All people deserve access to care, including transgender people, those seeking assisted suicide, and those seeking reproductive health services such as an abortion or sterilization.”

“It’s painfully ironic that this decision comes on the heels of a national training we held this week for our state-based equality organizations on how to work with hospitals to improve their nondiscrimination policies,” said Rebecca Isaacs, executive director of Equality Federation. “Imagine going to the doctor and being denied service because of who is in your family or because you are living with HIV. It’s unconscionable that anyone should be afraid that when they are sick or in need of urgent medical care they could be turned away. Freedom of religion is important to all of us, but it should not equate to a license to discriminate against those in need.”

Today, the Movement Advancement Project (MAP) launched a new report, LGBT Policy Spotlight: Public Accommodations Nondiscrimination Laws, that provides a comprehensive overview of the patchwork of federal, state, and local protections against discrimination in public spaces. The report is released in partnership with the Equality Federation Institute, Freedom for All Americans, and the National Center for Transgender Equality.

To accompany the report, MAP’s latest ad, “Movie Theater,” depicts how transgender people can experience harassment, discrimination and denial of equal treatment in places of public accommodation. View the ad above.

“This report highlights what is at stake in our courts, at the ballot, and in our legislatures: basic human dignity. The very ability of LGBT people to be in public and participate fully in everyday life is under coordinated attack,” said Ineke Mushovic, MAP executive director. “From bathroom bans to ballot measures aimed at stripping away nondiscrimination protections for LGBT people, it’s shameful that we are still debating whether it should be legal to discriminate against someone or turn them away from a business simply because of who they are.”

The report finds that discrimination facing LGBT people is pervasive. ­A 2016 Center for American Progress survey found that one in four LGBT respondents experienced discrimination because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. The 2015 U.S. Transgender Survey found that in the past year alone, out of respondents who visited a place of public accommodation where staff thought they were transgender, 31% were denied equal treatment, harassed, or physically assaulted because of being transgender.

The report also highlights the gaps in protections that leave LGBT people vulnerable to discrimination. Nineteen states and Washington D.C. have laws protecting people from discrimination in public accommodations based on sexual orientation, gender identity, and sex, leaving LGBT people in 31 states at risk for legal discrimination. A new survey of city and county policies finds that at least 313 cities and counties have local nondiscrimination ordinances prohibiting discrimination in public accommodations based on sexual orientation, including 280 that also prohibit discrimination based on gender identity. Currently, no federal law prohibits discrimination in public accommodations based on sexual orientation or gender identity. MAP’s Equality Maps track federal, state, and local laws and policies: http://www.lgbtmap.org/equalitymaps

High rates of discrimination against LGBT people are not surprising given the increase in coordinated attacks on the ability of LGBT people to live their lives in public. The report details four distinct strategies:

·         Bathroom bans that would limit transgender people’s access to restrooms such as North Carolina’s bill HB2, and Texas’s bill SB6;

·         Ballot measures to repeal nondiscrimination protections including in Anchorage in April and Massachusetts in November;

·         State preemption of cities and counties prohibiting them from enacting local ordinances; and,

·         Efforts to create religious exemptions to nondiscrimination laws.

Despite these efforts, several states, including New Hampshire and Wisconsin, are considering legislation to expand nondiscrimination protections to include transgender people, and cities in many states are working to pass local ordinances that would protect LGBT people in public spaces.

Half of LGBT people live in states lacking nondiscrimination protections for public accommodations despite broad public and business support for such protections. A 2017 PRRI pollfound that 72% of Americans support laws that protect LGBT from discrimination in employment, housing, and public accommodations, and a 2017 Small Business Majority poll found that 65% of business owners are opposed to businesses being permitted to deny service to LGBT people because of religious beliefs.

 “We need protections from discrimination in the places we frequent in our everyday lives–from our morning coffee shop to our bus ride home, from a quick trip to the restroom at the mall to the annual trip to the DMV–because when LGBTQ people are able to live full lives and provide for themselves and their families, free from discrimination, our communities are stronger,” said Fran Hutchins, Equality Federation Institute deputy director.

“Securing comprehensive public accommodations protections is a critical component of winning full LGBTQ equality in America,” said Masen Davis, CEO of Freedom for All Americans, the campaign to secure LGBTQ nondiscrimination protections nationwide. “Passing laws that prohibit discrimination in public places because of who they are, or who they love, allows LGBTQ people to go about their daily lives with comfort and security, and to be their most authentic selves. Like anyone else, LGBTQ people must access places of public accommodation—such as shopping malls, restaurants, hotels, and doctors’ offices—to take care of themselves and their loved ones. This important resource demonstrates what’s at stake when cities and states permit discrimination at the most fundamental level.”

“Most people take for granted that they can use the same businesses and services as other people without fear of being turned away or mistreated for who they are, whether for day-to-day needslike going to the store, or for life-saving services like accessing a domestic violence shelter. For many transgender people, however, these kinds of public accommodations can be sites of routine discrimination, humiliation, and even violence. Those high rates of discrimination—including denial of treatment, harassment, and physical assault—were reflected in 2015 U.S. Transgender Survey, a study of nearly 28,000 transgender adults. When places of public accommodation are free to discriminate against transgender people, entire transgender communities are given a clear and painful message that they are not welcome to take part in public life. LGBT Policy Spotlight: Public Accommodations Nondiscrimination Laws highlights the real dangers of anti-LGBTQ discrimination in public accommodations, and the real need for laws that protect everyone from mistreatment in these settings.”