Funding from CREDO Mobile helps the National LGBTQ Task Force fight for the rights of LGBTQ+ people

LGBTQ+ Americans are under attack. Recently, the Human Rights Campaign, an LGBTQ+ advocacy group, declared its first-ever national state of emergency for LGBTQ+ people “following an unprecedented and dangerous spike in anti-LGBTQ+ legislative assaults.”

In statehouses across the U.S., over 75 anti-LGBTQ+ laws were passed in 2023, more than double the number in 2022. It’s a nationwide campaign to restrict LGBTQ rights and, on the street, it can have lethal consequences. Fueled by the rhetoric of conservative politicians, extremists are going after the LGBTQ+ community. LGBTQ+ people are nine times more likely than non-LGBTQ+ people to be victims of violent hate crimes.

The vast majority of Americans support LGBTQ+ rights and now is the time for that majority to stand up for the LGBTQ+ community.

Here at CREDO Mobile, we do it every day. We also give much-needed funding to nonprofit groups fighting for LGBTQ+ rights. In August, CREDO Mobile customers and community members sent a significant donation to the National LGBTQ Task Force, which works to build a future where everyone is free to be their entire selves in every aspect of their lives.

Our grant helped the Task Force put on its 2024 Creating Change Conference in New Orleans in January. Creating Change is the nation’s foremost political, leadership and skills-building conference for the LGBTQ+ movement. The five-day program in January included hundreds of workshops and training sessions, and many networking opportunities for attendees. It’s a vital event in the Task Force’s ongoing effort to train and mobilize thousands of activists across the nation to create a world where you can be you.

Other change-inducing initiatives operated by the Task Force include:

• Queering Equity: LGBTQ+ people are a part of every community and they have distinct needs caused by intersecting manifestations of oppression. Queering Equity creates solutions that address these needs while centering the most marginalized among us.
• Queering Faith: To build an equitable society for LGBTQ+ people, we must continue to emphasize that people of faith are not our adversaries — and that equity and religious freedom are interconnected and mutually reinforcing.
• Building Power: The Task Force has played a pivotal role in mobilizing, training, organizing — and at times challenging — the LGBTQ+ movement over the past 50 years. Organizers are the heart and soul of the Task Force and it works continuously to train and empower a new generation of leaders.
• Queering Democracy: The Task Force is committed to ensuring a fair democracy by queering the census, queering the vote and prioritizing the watchdog role of FedWatch, a Task Force program that monitors and publicly comments on administrative policy and government data. The Task Force also works on voting rights, federal legislation and policy formation and regulations.

Queer the Vote is a Task Force project dedicated to educating and mobilizing LGBTQ+ rights supporters during key elections. As everyone knows, the 2024 election could be the most key in our nation’s history and this is why the Task Force has significantly expanded its Queer the Vote project with a new website, QueerTheVote.org, and a pledge for people to confirm their participation in the elections.

Queer the Vote encourages LGBTQ+ people and allies to go to the polls in 2024 and make an impact for the LGBTQ+ community. It builds grassroots people power and creates the conditions to deliver concrete wins for LGBTQ+ people. It does this by ensuring year-round engagement, enhancing the volunteer experience through skills-building workshops, building partnerships, increasing visibility and setting measurable goals.

To learn more about Queer the Vote and all the vital work that the National LGBTQ Task Force does, go to TheTaskForce.org.