The briefing is an opportunity for advocacy groups and associations who support the LGBTQ community to come together to receive critical legislative updates and exchange best practices.
Dr. David Kaplan, ACA’s Chief Professional Officer, and Guila Todd, ACA’s Legislative Representative, represented the American Counseling Association (ACA) at the briefing. ACA was honored as one of a handful of organizations who exhibit successful policy advocacy.
ACA has been combating religious refusal HB 1840 in the Tennessee legislature and has worked to neutralize the issue of religious refusal as a nonpartisan one—efforts that have required meaningful collaboration with numerous organizations including NASW, NAMI, the ACLU, the TN Equality Project, and The American Academy of Pediatricians to defeat the bill. Currently we are in the full health committee and we are working on filing amendments that offer two paths forward: 1. Neutralize the impact and 2. Make the bill more controversial and thus less passable.
The American Counseling Association is a proud, long-standing partner of the Human Rights Campaign and is a co-sponsor of HRC’s “Time to Thrive” event, which is an annual national conference to promote safety, inclusion and well-being for LGBTQ youth everywhere. For more information on the Human Rights Campaign please click here, and for more information on ACA’s legislative agenda or how you can get involved please contact Dillon Harp at dharp@counseling.org.