About Us

Equality Arizona is a non-profit organization dedicated to making sure LGBTQ+ people in Arizona have the opportunity, capacity, and confidence to make change as advocates, voters, and civic leaders. We're a multi-entity organization composed of a 501(c)(3), the Equality Arizona Foundation; a 501(c)(4), Equality Arizona; and the Equality Arizona Political Action Committee.

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Our History

2022 marks the 30th anniversary of Equality Arizona. We were founded at the height of the HIV/AIDS epidemic to fight for the rights of people living with AIDS and for the decriminalization of LGBTQ+ lives and identities. In the late 90’s and early 2000’s, we fought for the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell", challenged laws that would have defined marriage as "one man and one woman", and campaigned to win marriage equality for the entire community.

That work continues to be essential. Our rights as queer people – to form relationships, to receive healthcare and education, and even to exist in public – are under threat from a patterned and organized campaign stretching back 45 years to the formation of Anita Bryant’s homophobic “Save Our Children” coalition. It’s been a long and painful erosion of trust, ostracizing LGBTQ+ people from society. Winning rights on paper has never done enough to slow that down, and will never be enough for our community. We think the answer is simple – simple, but not easy. Building back trust means finding new ways to depend on each other, and embedding ourselves in our shared civic and political systems.