Tag Archive for: LGBT

National LGBT Cancer Network announces leadership changes

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Liz Margolies founded the first and only organization in the country to address the cancer-related issues of LGBTQ+ people in 2006. Under her passionate leadership the National LGBT Cancer Network achieved huge things, including producing internationally acclaimed films, creating an awareness campaign with billboards in Times Square, winning major funding from the Centers for Disease Control, and convening more than 170 organizations to urge action to prevent COVID-19 discrimination. She is stepping down as executive director, but the work of the Network will continue.

 

 

 

 

 

 

170 LGBT groups urge action on COVID-19

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A montage of a large group of individual portraits together to form a pride flag that represents a multi-ethnic, mixed age range group.

More than 170 national, state, and local LGBTQ+ and allied organizations have joined in a second open letter to health and policy leaders highlighting the importance of measures to prohibit discrimination in COVID-19 treatment and prevention, and clear communication of those measures and policies to better serve the health needs of marginalized communities with histories of discriminatory encounters with the medical and public health systems.

The letter also urges medical providers and public health authorities to collect sexual orientation and gender identity data for COVID-19 cases in addition to data on race, ethnicity, age, sex and disability, in order to document and address the pandemic’s impact on minority communities. The signing organizations also emphasize the urgent need for more robust relief for lower-income individuals and families, and for persons who are dependent on lower-paying jobs in hospitality and other industries which are being decimated by the pandemic.

These organizations call on public health authorities, medical providers and government agencies to reinforce safeguards against discrimination; to foster collaborative relationships with LGBTQ+ service providers and advocates; to collect important data on patients, including sexual orientation and gender identity; and to expand the economic relief and legal protections needed by individuals and families particularly hard-hit by the pandemic.

The letter was initiated by a coalition of six organizations: The Whitman-Walker Institute; the National LGBT Cancer Network; GLMA Health Professionals Advancing LGBTQ Equality; SAGE; New York Transgender Advocacy Group; and National Queer Asian Pacific Islander Alliance. The full letter text, full signer list, and additional organizational response resources can be found online at this link: https://cancer-network.org/coronavirus-2019-lgbtq-info.

HRC Austin announces honorees for 2016 Gala 

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Austin’s first transgender police officer Gregory Abbink to receive Visibility Award; Scandal’s Guillermo Diaz to be honored

Gregory AbbinkCelebrating its 21st year, the Human Rights Campaign Austin’s annual Gala has been one of the most successful in the country, raising record funding to support civil rights for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered people, and receiving national recognition. The black-tie event will be held at the J.W. Marriott on Saturday, January 30th, at 7 p.m., with approximately 700 people expected to attend.

This year’s theme, On the Shoulders of Giants, is intended to recognize every person who helped make 2015 a banner year for LGBT equality, according to co-chairs Lyn
n Currie and Matt Smith. Read more