Tell Health & Human Services: Stop Funding Grantees Who Discriminate

Tell Health & Human Services: Don’t Rollback Non-Discrimination Protections

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) proposed a new rule that would roll back hard-won protections. This will undoubtedly harm LGBTQ+ people, our families, and so many more folks in our communities that need access to social services and healthcare.

The proposed rule would remove hard-won protections that currently prohibit taxpayer dollars from going to individuals and organizations that discriminate. This rule will be particularly harmful to LGBTQ+ people of color, people with no-and-low-incomes, and queer and trans youth in the foster care system. Take action and submit your comment today!

The Task Force team has created sample comments you can use to inform your letter to HHS.

**Please note that all comments will be submitted to HHS, and may be posted online or used in advocacy. You may choose to comment anonymously. If we use a portion of your comment online or for advocacy, we will use a pseudonym**

Submit a Comment

TELL HEALTH & HUMAN SERVICES: PUT PATIENTS FIRST

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued a proposed rule that attempts to roll back civil rights protection under the Affordable Care Act (ACA, Obamacare).

The ACA prohibits discrimination based on race, color, national origin, sex, age, and disability in healthcare, including most hospitals and doctor’s offices, and most health insurance companies.

The Obama Administration made sure that transgender, nonbinary, and gender nonconforming people and people who have had or are seeking abortions are protected from discrimination under this law. The rule also ensured increased access to resources for people whose primary language is not English and accommodations for people with disabilities.

Now the Trump Administration wants to get rid of these protections, increasing barriers to accessing care for the most marginalized, especially for people who live at the intersections of these identities.

Let HHS know that everyone deserves access to comprehensive healthcare. Share your story below and we will share it with HHS!

**Please note that all comments will be submitted to HHS and may be used in advocacy or be posted online. You may choose to comment anonymously or with a pseudonym.**

SAMPLE COMMENT

As a queer, nonbinary person of color, I am strongly opposed to the proposed changes to HHS’s nondiscrimination protections. Throughout my life, I’ve struggled to get and maintain health insurance because many of the available plans didn’t cover the health care services I needed, like reproductive health services and gender-affirming care. Those plans that did cover the services I needed were too expensive for me to afford.

When HHS issued its nondiscrimination rules, I was relieved to know I would finally be able to get health insurance that actually worked for me at a price I could afford. The changes HHS proposes here – including removing protections for sexual orientation and gender identity and allowing providers to claim a religious or conscience exemption to my health care needs – will once again make it impossible for me to afford the care I need.

In addition to limiting my access to an affordable health insurance plan, these proposed changes will make it harder for me to understand what my health insurance options are. As a person who speaks English as a second language, the earlier rule’s language access provisions made it much easier for me to find information about health insurance plans in language.

The proposal this Administration has put forward talks about the cost savings that will come from removing protections for sexual orientation and gender identity, from limiting access to reproductive health services, from allowing providers and insurers to opt out of providing care based on religious or conscience, and from limiting access to in-language information about health insurance plans. Those “cost savings” are false – they just shift the burden of those costs to people like me, who are less able to afford them. I oppose any changes to the “Section 1557” healthcare nondiscrimination rule.

Share Your Story

Tell Us Why You’re Queering The Vote!

There is so much at stake for so many people this November. That’s why it is critical for LGBTQ people to get out and Queer the Vote on or before November 6th!

We want to know what this election means to you and for you!

What is motivating you to vote in this election?
What is motivating you to volunteer with a local campaign?
What is at stake for you and the people you love?
Do you have a personal story related to immigration, reproductive justice, discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity, transgender rights, or restoration of voting rights?

Share Your Voting Story

Don’t Deny Immigrants Reproductive Health Care!

“Jane” Doe is the name given to one of several people in immigration detention who have been denied the ability to have an abortion by Scott Lloyd, the Director of the Office of Refugee Resettlement(ORR).

Lloyd imposes his own personal beliefs on immigrant young people in ORR custody, and forces these people to continue pregnancies they do not want. ORR must restore access to comprehensive health services, including abortion, for the thousands of young immigrants in their custody. We are supporting “Jane” in their legal action for the right to obtain an abortion.

Join us to demand the removal of Scott Lloyd as the Director of ORR and demand Justice for Jane!

Send Message

Task Force staff with signs protesting HHS at their DC building

Tell Health & Human Services: Our Health Matters

**NOTE: The official comment period ended at Midnight on 3/27. We appreciate everyone who sent comments!**

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued a proposed rule in January 2018 that would allow healthcare providers to insert a giant religious and moral exemption into all of their health programs. In other words, healthcare professionals could deny care to LGBTQ people especially transgender people, women, and people living with HIV. At the same time, the HHS Office of Civil Rights opened a new division of “Conscience and Religious Freedom” to enforce this so-called “religious or moral” discrimination.

Help us stop this “license to discriminate” in healthcare. Let HHS know that no one should be denied care for being who they are. Share your story below and we will share it with HHS!

**Please note that all comments will be submitted to HHS, used in advocacy, and be posted online. You may choose to comment anonymously or with a pseudonym.**

Share Your Story

Tell the Census to Include Sexual Orientation

UPDATE: As of Thursday September 28, the Census Bureau has reversed their decision and WILL be including a question on sexual orientation in the Census Barriers, Attitudes and Motivators Study. However, we encourage you to still submit comments in support of the decision:

This week, the Census Bureau announced that it is removing a planned sexual orientation question from an important national survey, the Census Barriers, Attitudes and Motivators Study (CBAMS). Who and how the Census counts has enormous consequences for resource distribution, representation, and LGBTQ protections. We count. Our experiences matter. Our needs matter, so count us.

Email the Census now to tell them to include sexual orientation in the CBAMS. We count.

Send Message

Let’s make Michigan equal for all

The Michigan Department of Civil Rights is soliciting public comments on our partner Equality Michigan’s request that the Michigan Civil Rights Commission take action to address anti-LGBTQ discrimination. Comments are being accepted through Tuesday, August 15, 2017 below to interpret sex discrimination to include sexual orientation and gender identity/expression.

Send Message

Tell the NCAA: Reverse Your Decision Around HB2

Last year when the North Carolina legislature passed HB 2—a bill targeting transgender people, minimum wage workers, and other protected minorities—the NCAA took a position against this discriminatory law by announcing they’d relocate their 2016-2017 championship games outside of North Carolina.

As a result of the NCAA’s position, the North Carolina legislature recently passed a law they claimed was a repeal of HB2, HB142, and NCAA announced they’d consider hosting championship games in North Carolina. But HB142 is not a repeal; it’s just discrimination by another name. The National LGBTQ Task Force has been organizing North Carolinians, including faith leaders, to take action against discrimination. Together, we are urging the NCAA to hold the line and reject the fake “repeal” that the legislature has put in place.

Please TAKE ACTION by urging members of the NCAA’s Board of Governors to reverse their decision on putting North Carolina back in contention for future championships.

Message the NCAA

Stop Trump’s Erasure of LGBTQ Elders and LGBTQ People with Disabilities

The Trump Administration has decided to stop counting LGBTQ people with disabilities and LGBTQ older Americans in two surveys that help the government decide how to spend federal dollars: the National Survey on Older Americans Act Participants and the Centers for Independent Living Annual Performance Report. Please sign our petition below to demand that LGBTQ people with disabilities and LGBTQ elders are not erased from these surveys.

LGBTQ older people are more likely to be living in poverty, and are more likely to experience poor physical and mental health outcomes. Nearly half of LGBTQ older people are living with a disability, and transgender older adults report particularly high rates of disabilities. At the same time, LGB people are more likely to be living with a disability than non-LGB people, and experience disabilities at younger ages.

We will be holding a day of action in DC and online in the near future when we deliver the petitions to the Trump Administration. When you sign the petition, please indicate if you are interested in joining the day of action, and we will follow up with date, location, and tools to take action!

Sign Petition

Help Protect Trans and Gender Non-Conforming Students!

We believe all students deserve a safe and affirming learning environment in school, including trans and gender non-conforming students. Please join us in sending a message to Trump that you are disappointed that he rescinded the federal guidance to public schools that made it clear that Title IX non-discrimination protections apply to gender identity.

His action sets a terrible example to teachers, students and faculty in our public schools about the respect and dignity that should be shown to trans and gender non-conforming students. According to the 2015 US Trans Survey, which surveyed thousands of trans and gender non-conforming people about their experiences in K-12 public schools, 54% of respondents had been verbally harassed, 24% had been physically attacked, and 17% had left school because their mistreatment was so bad. Also, 60% had been forced to use a bathroom or locker room inconsistent with their gender identity. This discrimination affects everything from their grades to their health to college admission to their future careers.

Please tell Trump that trans and gender non-conforming students deserve safe, supportive and welcoming learning environments where they can thrive.

Message Trump

Shut Trump’s Backdoor to LGBTQ Discrimination

We believe Trump is being pressured by religious conservatives to sign an executive order which would rapidly expand and promote discrimination against LGBTQ people and other communities. This executive order would allow people to impose their religious beliefs on others and to justify discrimination based on those beliefs. Through manipulating religion, he would redefine and undermine foundational American freedoms.

Please tell Trump that imposing religious beliefs on others is wrong, and that you stand against discrimination.

Message Trump

Online Book of Condolences for Victims of Orlando Pulse Shooting And Their Families

As we join millions of others who are grieving the tragic shooting in Orlando, we are asking you, as part of the LGBTQ community, to join us in sending a message of love and healing to those victims still fighting for their lives, and for all the families who’ve been affected by this shooting.

We’ve created an online book of condolences that we’re asking you to sign. Our condolence book, which will close by July 17, will be presented to the Mayor of Orlando.

As we mourn, we must remain undeterred in our work to bring freedom, justice and equality to all marginalized communities. We must stand together as an LGBTQ movement, and as a movement dedicated to liberation for all.

Please sign our book so we can all stand together, united in love, against hate and violence. Together we can live proudly and unafraid as our whole selves.

Sign the Book

Demand Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant Resign

On April 5, by signing HB 1523, Governor Phil Bryant legalized discrimination against LGBTQ people in Mississippi — and he manipulated faith and cherished constitutional rights to justify this reprehensible action.

The state’s new law discriminates against LGBTQ people in a number of different contexts by giving individuals, religious associations and private entities the right to use their religious beliefs as an excuse to “shut the door” on anyone they choose–who might also include unmarried people raising children, unmarried people having sex, and others. This could lead to discrimination at the workplace, at schools, in health care settings, and in public spaces such as stores, hotels or eateries.

Mississippi has the highest proportion of same-sex couples raising children in our nation at 26%. It has one of the highest percentages of Black same sex couples. And Mississippi has the highest number of poor people in the country — many of whom are LGBTQ. These folks already face discrimination and racism. With this law they are going to face more. This is what makes Bryant’s action so despicable. Make no mistake it was knowingly designed to have the biggest negative impact on the most vulnerable.

Sign The Petition

Queer Our Taxes

Filing your taxes can be a complicated and intimidating process.

For many LGBTQ people, the process is made even more unapproachable because tax software and tax preparation companies seldom have a clear understanding of the credits, deductions, and other issues that are most relevant for members of our community.

Learn More