Equality North Carolina
Encyclopedia
North Carolina
North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...
designed to fight for equality rights for lesbian
Lesbian
Lesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...
, gay
Gay
Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....
, bisexual and transgender
Transgender
Transgender is a general term applied to a variety of individuals, behaviors, and groups involving tendencies to vary from culturally conventional gender roles....
citizens of the state. Equality NC has two sister projects, with whom it works closely: Equality NC PAC
Political action committee
In the United States, a political action committee, or PAC, is the name commonly given to a private group, regardless of size, organized to elect political candidates or to advance the outcome of a political issue or legislation. Legally, what constitutes a "PAC" for purposes of regulation is a...
and Equality NC Project. The purposes of these organizations are to ensure that fairminded political candidates are elected, and to educate people on the LGBT issues in North Carolina.
Equality NC is funded by the Adam Foundation (Winston-Salem
Winston-Salem, North Carolina
Winston-Salem is a city in the U.S. state of North Carolina, with a 2010 population of 229,617. Winston-Salem is the county seat and largest city of Forsyth County and the fourth-largest city in the state. Winston-Salem is the second largest municipality in the Piedmont Triad region and is home to...
) and the Guilford Green Foundation (Greensboro
Greensboro, North Carolina
Greensboro is a city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. It is the third-largest city by population in North Carolina and the largest city in Guilford County and the surrounding Piedmont Triad metropolitan region. According to the 2010 U.S...
).
History
Equality NC began in 1990, and originally was called NC Pride PAC. Before that, it was an educational and charitable foundation for the defence of homosexuals, called the North Carolina Human Rights Fund, and established in 1979. It was eventually named Equality North Carolina in 2002, when the board agreed they needed a parent organization to manage the work and to link all the smaller foundations together.Success
ENC's Matthew Shephard Memorial Act issued in 1999 became the first pro-gay bill ever voted on in the North Carolina House of RepresentativesNorth Carolina House of Representatives
The North Carolina House of Representatives is one of the two houses of the North Carolina General Assembly. The House is a 120-member body led by a Speaker of the House, who holds powers similar to those of the President pro-tem in the state senate....
, although it ended up losing by ten votes. In 2004, it succeeded in blocking an amendment prohibiting lesbian and gay marriages
Same-sex marriage in the United States
The federal government does not recognize same-sex marriage in the United States, but such marriages are recognized by some individual states. The lack of federal recognition was codified in 1996 by the Defense of Marriage Act, before Massachusetts became the first state to grant marriage licenses...
. Equality NC PAC also managed to get Senator Julia Boseman
Julia Boseman
Julia Boseman is an American politician and a former Democratic member of the North Carolina Senate. She represented the state's ninth Senate district, covering all of New Hanover County, from January 2005 to January 2011.-Early life and career:...
, the first openly-gay state legislator
North Carolina General Assembly
The North Carolina General Assembly is the state legislature of the U.S. state of North Carolina. The General Assembly drafts and legislates the state laws of North Carolina, also known as the General Statutes...
in North Carolina, elected in 2004.
The organization was successful in getting the 2008 edition of the State Personnel manual to prohibit discrimination based on sexuality and gender identity. In the summer of 2007, they petitioned to the state, requesting that it allow lesbians and gays, when hospitalized, to be visited by their partners if they wish. The new permission was approved, and allowed to take effect beginning on May 1, 2008. However, the rule only allows gay partners to visit their loved ones; it does not allow them to make any medical decisions for them.
ENC endorsed James A. Wynn, Jr.
James A. Wynn, Jr.
James Andrew Wynn, Jr. is an American jurist, currently a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and formerly on both the North Carolina Court of Appeals and the North Carolina Supreme Court....
for re-election to the Court of Appeals
North Carolina Court of Appeals
The North Carolina Court of Appeals is the only intermediate appellate court in the state of North Carolina. It is composed of fifteen members who sit in rotating groups of three...
in March 2008.
See also
- LGBT rights in the United States
- List of LGBT rights organizations
- Equality North Dakota