Equality North Carolina Foundation

At Equality NC Foundation, we envision a thriving, liberated North Carolina with a powerful LGBTQ+ community united in service of racial and social justice. Our mission is to build LGBTQ+ power through advocacy, education, and uplifting the stories of queer and trans North Carolinians in pursuit of racial and social justice. 

Our Advocacy efforts have truly been tested over the past five years. During that timespan, we've seen heightened threats against LGBTQ+ organizations and individuals as well as an increase in the annual number of anti-LGBTQ+ bills filed. As of May 2023, 540 anti-LGBTQ+ bills have been passed by state legislatures. We saw a total of 41 in 2018. Not only have harmful bills been introduced with alacrity, but they are also moving through legislatures in record speed. In North Carolina, Senate Bill 49, which bans accurate curriculum on gender identity and sexuality in grades K-4 and subjects queer and trans students to forced outing, and House Bill 43, which bans transgender youth under the age of 18 from receiving gender-affirming care moved through the North Carolina General Assembly (NCGA) in less than 24 hours. 

The opposition thought that fast tracking the bills would demoralize and demotivate us. Instead, we showed our strength in numbers. In less than 24 hours we were able to recruit 39 folks to come out and testify against SB49, the “Don’t Say Gay” Bill. This included 5 students, 3 current teachers, 10 health professionals, and 3 psychologists, all of whom testified that this bill would only harm children. It was reinforced yet again; we are our own best resource. We can and must leverage our personal and community relationships to support and protect our community, especially when we are under attack.

A vital component of our Education work is our Rural Youth Empowerment (RYE) Fellowship, a one-year leadership program designed to equip LGBTQ+ individuals (ages 18-26) from rural North Carolina with the skills and resources to create change in their local communities via self-designed projects. Through this Fellowship, we support young activists as they develop valuable resources in rural areas for our populations with the greatest needs, including BIPOC LGBTQ+, gender nonconforming (GNC) folks, youth, and people who are undocumented and/or living with HIV. 

The goal of our Civic Engagement strategy is to elevate how certain policies affect the lives of LGBTQ+ North Carolinians in areas such as education, employment, food and housing, access to credit, public accommodations, healthcare and Medicaid expansion, and the criminal justice system and public safety. We do this by meeting and collaborating with pro-equality elected officials, mayors of impacted cities, businesses, and community organizations to educate them on issues related to LGBTQ+ rights as they arise at various levels of state government. 

An impactful part of our civic engagement strategy includes our nondiscrimination ordinance advocacy. Since January 1, 2021, twenty-two North Carolina cities and counties have passed nondiscrimination ordinances that protect residents and citizens based on sexual orientation, gender identity, race, ethnicity, disability, pregnancy, veteran status, and natural hairstyles in employment, public accommodations and, where applicable, housing. The measures not only constitute advances regarding creating local protections for sexual orientation and gender identity/expression (SOGIE), but also represent the first regulations contemplating racial and religious bias based on natural hairstyles. As of today, nearly a third of the state’s population is now protected under these NDOs.

Your support is more important than ever. Despite constant attacks on our freedoms and our very way of life, we have never wavered in our fight for LGBTQ+ equality. In fact, we have just fought harder and louder, and we did it together with you. Because of you, we’ve been able to do this work for 44 years. For that, we are eternally grateful and deeply appreciative. 

We just concluded our strategic planning process that focused on weaving a racial equity lens throughout our work. This strategic plan has become the blueprint for our commitment to seeing everyone represented and heard in this movement and this moment. A key value that emerged from the top down is ENCF is pro-Black, pro-Indigena, pro-worker, pro-woman, pro-Lesbian, Gay, Bi, Trans and Queer, and pro-immigrant because we hold all these identities and our unity against shared oppressions is central to our vision for change. 

Unite with us this Pride Season. Give to Equality NC Foundation today and help us build a world where we are both strong and safe. Thank you for always showing up for each other and this community in unprecedented and beautiful ways.