National Equity Week of Action 2026

25 congressional visits · 68 advocates · 19 states 1 sold-out Howard Theatre · 25+ partners

Two Days. Three Powerful Experiences. One Movement.

Every year, the National Black Justice Collective (NBJC) pulls together a week that runs on two engines at once: strategy and spirit. It’s where the bravest, sharpest advocates in the movement for Black LGBTQ+/SGL equity come to do the work. In 2026, you showed all the way up.

From morning trainings to midnight celebrations, from Senate hallways to the Ball’s dance floor, National Equity Week of Action 2026 made the case plainly: when Black LGBTQ+/SGL people and the folks who stand with us organize together, the country moves.

“Our lives are policy. Our stories are strategy. Our presence is non-negotiable.”

This is where advocacy meets joy and community walks into Congress—where the full complexity of who we are becomes the full force of what we can

What Happened

Every Moment. Every Movement.

We Trained, Then We Got To Work

Before a single advocate stepped onto the Hill, we got ready. Trained virtually and in person, attendees dug into NBJC’s 2026 policy priorities: reparative justice; online safety and responsible AI; protecting Planned Parenthood funding, from abortion and reproductive care to cancer screenings and gender-affirming services; and healthcare access across the board, including mental health and ending HIV transmission; and federal benefits equity. Then came the real skill—turning lived experience into legislative power.

Black LGBTQ+/SGL Voices in Congress

Advocates sat down with the Congressional Black Caucus to strategize on reparative justice. Representative Ayanna Pressley opened OUT on the Hill with a press conference on reparative justice—held in the shadow of Trump’s 1776 Fund for insurrectionists, weeks before the nation’s 250th. From there, a Library of Congress exhibit surfaced the National Archives’ own evidence of the repair our people are owed.

Then advocates walked the Hill. Office by office, they carried their asks, their stories, their demands. 25 visits. One message: Black LGBTQ+/SGL lives deserve full federal protection, investment, and respect—and we’re not leaving until they have it.

Truth-Telling. Healing. Repair.

Not all of it happened in congressional offices. NBJC’s Racial Healing Conversations held space for honest, restorative dialogue, rooted in the truth of our history and pointed toward a future that’s actually repaired. For some, these were the hours that stayed with them the longest.

Black Brilliance, Honored and Celebrated

The Equity Ball was the crown jewel of the week: a night of stunning fashion, joyful community, and deep recognition of the trailblazers who make this movement possible. If you missed it, you already know —mark your calendar for 2027.