About NEAT

NEAT: The National Equality Action Team

NEAT unites individuals and organizations to advance LGBTQ+ justice everywhere. Our grassroots education and advocacy is intersectional, rooted in local communities, and simple to join — so anyone, anywhere can take meaningful action.

This site represents both NEAT and the NEAT Education Fund (NEATEF).

A Different Approach

NEAT builds on two decades of grassroots organizing and education experience from Marriage Equality New York and Marriage Equality USA — work that helped LGBTQ+ people and their allies win marriage equality across the United States.

Today we partner with local and issue-expert organizations to tackle not only matters that solely affect LGBTQ+ people, such as conversion therapy, but also the issues that affect them too, like reproductive rights, often at disproportionate rates. We create and support opportunities for collective action so individuals and organizations anywhere can strengthen LGBTQ+ justice work everywhere and amplify their impact.

Our model removes the usual barriers of resources and geography — whether you are calling from home, knocking on doors, sharing your story, or receiving education and training.

Our Values

Our Unique Role

LGBTQ+ people and their allies have long faced injustice, and not only because of sexual orientation or gender. They are also women, people of color, workers, immigrants, people living with HIV/AIDS, religious minorities, and more. Standing at the intersection of many identities gives them a distinctive perspective — and a distinctive responsibility to act for justice.

Big “J” Justice

Because an attack on any of these identities is an attack on all LGBTQ+ people, NEAT fights not only for issues that solely affect LGBTQ+ people but also for the issues that affect them too, often disproportionately. We call this expansive view of our work and responsibility Big “J” Justice.

Community Driven, Grassroots Powered

We always partner with local or issue-expert organizations to create and run our actions. Those actions are powered by grassroots volunteer communities nationwide — both NEAT affiliates and volunteers provided by our partners. Together we activate existing but underused grassroots volunteers to create a larger, more effective impact for justice.

Collaborative, Turn-Key Actions

We call our programs “collaboratives.” Working with local and issue-expert organizations, we design and execute turn-key actions that make participation simple for any organization or individual. We handle the heavy lifting so more people can take part, producing a bigger and more effective impact.

Widely Accessible, Duplicate Nowhere

Every program is built around remote actions so any volunteer — especially those in hard-to-reach suburban areas — can participate and feel part of a community. Remote actions also let us channel the large volunteer base in urban centers toward campaigns in communities where resources are often scarce and most needed. Rather than duplicating others' tools and efforts, we build strong partnerships and leverage their strengths, staying sharply focused on the real gaps in our movement.

Our Halo Effect

We aim to leave every volunteer and partner better equipped than we found them, so your donations and support go further. For instance, when we train and regularly engage a partner's volunteer team to phone bank, that partner gains a cadre of trained workers on standby for its own progressive campaigns, with or without NEAT. Those trained volunteers can then apply their skills to any progressive cause they choose.

LGBTQ+ Justice and the Issues We Work On

• Democracy Reform: Voting Rights, Gerrymandering
• Immigration: Comprehensive Reform, DACA / Dreamers, Refugee & Asylum
• Criminal Justice: Drug Policy, Sentencing, Policing, Preemption
• Economic Justice: Living Wage, Paid Leave, Wage Inequality
• LGBTQ+: Educational Equity, Family & Child Welfare, Conversion Therapy, Hate Crimes, Marriage Equality, Nondiscrimination, Religious Exemptions, Transgender Rights
• Health: HIV / AIDS, Medicaid Expansion, Universal Healthcare
• Gun Reform
• Reproductive Rights

Common Questions

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