Welcome to another issue of Equality magazine, a benefit of your membership with the Human Rights Campaign. I hope that you enjoy it and find yourself reflected in these pages. And thank you for your steadfast support, which could not come at a more critical time for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer people and allies in our community.

Pride month is nearly upon us — and I want to take a moment to celebrate you and our powerful HRC family. Each day, with dedicated HRC members like you, we show up and fight for our right to be equal and free. We come together and support each other. And out of this caring for one another comes a defiant joy that not even the most bigoted politicians can take away. That is strength. That is resilience. That is Pride.

From the Stonewall riots and the HIV & AIDS crisis to the fight for marriage equality and fight for transgender and queer justice, LGBTQ+ people and our allies have met hard-ship with a fierce commitment to making positive and lasting change. Because of you, HRC has been a leader in our fight for liberation for everyone — without exception.

Though we have come far, we’re facing severe backlash — and escalating threats from people desperate to hold onto their power with no regard for who they hurt along the way. Our opponents don’t think that we are equal and free. They don’t think that we should have control over our own bodies. They don’t think that we’re full participants in this democracy. They want to put us back in the closet and double down on an extremist agenda. They have introduced over 540 anti-equality bills in 41 states — discriminatory legislation that HRC is fighting tooth and nail. Every anti-equality bill that becomes law will put real people in harm’s way.

But history is on our side and, ultimately, we will prevail. We will prevail. As we did in last year’s midterm elections, we are going to power another rainbow wave and show the world the unstoppable power of our grassroots movement. The work to ensure that equality wins again starts NOW, and your support will enable our crucial on-the-ground efforts to expand and mobilize our base of Equality Voters. We must vote out these anti- LGBTQ+ extremists. And with more visibility, more voices demanding justice and more people voting, we will elect a pro-equality president again in 2024.

And we are going to continue to fight for transgender and non-binary people, communities of color, LGBTQ+ youth — and anybody extremist politicians are coming after. We’ll continue to fight gender-affirming care bans, sports bans and book bans, curriculum censorship, and anti-drag laws. HRC will fight back to protect everyone in our LGBTQ+ community.

Please know, too, that our visibility, our protests and our progress are making a huge difference for young people: Through us, they can see a brighter future for themselves and their loved ones.

You are the reason that HRC can boldly challenge our opposition and win. You are the reason that we have the courage to build a world where every LGBTQ+ person can be safe, welcomed, joyful and authentic in every aspect of their lives. And you are the reason that, no matter how many times they come for us, our children and our allies, we will never quit fighting for justice and liberation.

I hope you enjoy this issue of Equality magazine as much as we have enjoyed putting it together for you. Thank you again for supporting the Human Rights Campaign.

With gratitude,