WASHINGTON — The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) — the nation’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ+) civil rights organization — today brought together more than 200 advocates for LGBTQ+ equality to flood the halls and offices of the Capitol and meet with lawmakers and staff and make clear the urgent priorities of our community and the dire threats we face.

This Lobby Day effort comes on the eve of the annual Trans Day of Visibility observance, a particularly poignant and urgent moment as more than 190 pieces of anti-transgender legislation have flooded statehouses across the country this year and the U.S. House in recent weeks has taken up a discriminatory education bill and an anti-trans sports bill.

Meanwhile, support for LGBTQ+ rights is at an all-time high, with eight in 10 Americans favoring laws that would protect LGBTQ+ people against discrimination in jobs, public accommodations, and housing.

“The LGBTQ+ community came out to the Capitol today to tell our members of Congress: We need your support, we need you to take action, we need you to understand that we are under relentless attack right now – and you can do something about it,” said Kelley Robinson, Human Rights Campaign President. “We need them to take up critical legislation like the Equality Act, which would finally grant our community nondiscrimination protections in all 50 states. From extremist lawmakers introducing anti-LGBTQ+ bills in Congress and statehouses – many of them targeting innocent trans youth – to inflammatory and hateful rhetoric across social media, to just the mere fact that in almost 30 states, a landlord or doctor can refuse to deal with a queer person – we need our leaders to understand that this is unacceptable. And that is the message that advocates delivered today to our lawmakers. We are incredibly grateful to the more than 200 Lobby Day participants, as we are to the legislative leaders who fight every day for LGBTQ+ equality.”

The more than 200 advocates who took part in HRC’s Lobby Day represented 29 states and took more than 150 meetings with members of Congress and their staffs.

Nearly two-thirds of LGBTQ+ people have reported experiencing discrimination in their personal lives. The Equality Act would provide consistent and explicit federal non-discrimination protections for LGBTQ+ people across key areas of life.

About 80% of Americans favor laws that would protect gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people against discrimination in jobs, public accommodations, and housing. This includes 48% who strongly support such laws. About one in five Americans (18%) oppose these laws, including 7% who strongly oppose them. Support for these protections has increased over the past few years: around seven in ten Americans favored nondiscrimination provisions in 2015 (71%), 2017 (70%), 2018 (69%), and 2019 (72%), before rising to 76% in 2020 and 79% in 2021.

Overwhelming shares of Democrats (90%) and independents (82%), as well as two-thirds of Republicans (66%), favor nondiscrimination provisions for LGBTQ+ people.

The Equality Act has been endorsed by more than 640 organizations, including civil rights, education, health care, and faith-based organizations. It is backed by more than 500 companies employing more than 15.9 million people across all 50 U.S. states with a combined annual revenue of $7.5 trillion. It has overwhelming support among business and corporate leaders, which includes more than 60 business associations — including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Business Roundtable, and the National Association of Manufacturers — and more than 160 Fortune 500 companies, including Coca-Cola, General Electric, Harley-Davidson, Home Depot, Honeywell, Kraft Heinz, Levi Strauss & Co., and Target, among many others.

The Human Rights Campaign is America’s largest civil rights organization working to achieve equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people. HRC envisions a world where LGBTQ+ people are embraced as full members of society at home, at work and in every community.