A National, Nonpartisan Business Coalition for Nondiscrimination
Businesses and business associations across the United States support comprehensive nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ Americans. These protections reflect the core business values of inclusion and opportunity for employees and their families. Nondiscrimination protections are vital to attract and retain a talented workforce, to maintain and grow economically competitive communities, and to harmonize business operations across states.
America Competes is a business-driven national coalition, providing the business community with education, legislative analysis, coordinated communications, opportunities for public and private engagement, and connections to state and national nondiscrimination efforts so they can effectively advocate for equal opportunity for all LGBTQ Americans.
At the federal level
America Competes brings business leaders into conversation with lawmakers, on a bipartisan basis, about the importance of comprehensive, inclusive nondiscrimination for LGBTQ people. Business leaders are essential messengers for the clear economic and values-based arguments for full inclusion and equal opportunity for LGBTQ people to work hard, earn a living, and participate fully in their communities.
In states
Our coalition has helped stop discriminatory bills from becoming law in Texas, Indiana, Georgia, Missouri, Tennessee, South Dakota, and beyond. And together, we’ve secured passage of historic nondiscrimination protections in New Hampshire and Virginia; advanced comprehensive nondiscrimination legislation in states like Florida, Pennsylvania, and Ohio; defeated the country’s first exclusively anti-transgender municipal ballot measure in Anchorage, Alaska; and won the nation’s first statewide vote on transgender nondiscrimination protections by a landslide margin (68-32%) in Massachusetts.
In the courts
Our coalition tracks important efforts related to nondiscrimination in the courts, briefing business leaders and working with movement partners to elevate business voices on briefs to the Supreme Court. Our work has helped to bring hundreds of businesses into amicus briefs on employment nondiscrimination and beyond.
About Freedom for All Americans
Freedom for All Americans (FFAA) is the bipartisan campaign to secure full nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ people nationwide. While LGBTQ people can now marry anywhere in the U.S., there is no federal law protecting them from being evicted from their homes or denied basic services, and the recent Supreme Court decision including LGBTQ people in employment nondiscrimination still needs to be codified into law.
Formed in 2015 to drive the national strategy that will defend against anti-LGBTQ attacks and secure national nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ people, FFAA is singularly focused on achieving its mission and not on building a perpetual institution, which allows us to map out a nationwide strategy guided purely by research and data, identify opportunities where there is the best chance of advancing the cause and minimize risks of losing ground, and filling gaps in capacity where other groups don’t have a presence. Once FFAA achieves its mission of ensuring nationwide nondiscrimination protections, it will declare victory and go out of business.