Aloha…I’m Paul Jesus one of the managers at Betty’s Beach Cafe. As some of you may know…Betty’s did not survive! Lahaina Town has lost homes and businesses due to Hurricane Dora. This fundraiser is to help my staff that lost everything to relocate and get them back on their feet after this tragedy. Anything helps. Please keep Maui in your prayers as we figure out the next steps in rebuilding this beautiful town. We love and thank you all so much for all of your support throughout the years.

The LGBTQ+ community has been “exploding” back onto the travel scene in the past year as the COVID-19
pandemic wanes, according to David Paisley, senior research director with LGBTQ-focused Community Marketing
& Insights (CMI).

CMI recently completed its 17th Annual LGBTQ Community Survey, a broad look at the LGBTQ+ community, including its travel habits. Paisley spoke about the survey results this week during a webinar.

Paisley theorized that the LGBTQ+ community was slower to come back to travel than the general population because COVID became such a political issue in the United States.

The survey and other CMI research suggests travel is largely happening at a greater level than before the pandemic among the LGBTQ+ community, Paisley said. That is particularly true of people ages 18 to 54. There is still some reluctance to travel among older survey takers.

In other research Paisley conducts for specific destinations, he often asks where survey takers have traveled in the past 12 months. Statistics for every destination in 2023 are exceeding 2019 across the board, he said.

“I think the LGBTQ community went through a pattern [where] we were actually underperforming for a couple of years, and we’re sort of exploding out of it right now,” he said.

CMI’s Community Survey found that more than half of respondents planned to book a hotel room (57%) or take a flight primarily for vacation (52%) in the second half of the year. Just under half, 49%, plan to take a vacation by car from home. Only 12% said they did not expect to travel for vacation for the rest of the year.

Big cities or metro areas were the most popular destinations for those planning travel for the remainder of the year (55%), followed by a beach destination (40%) and a road trip (37%).

Of those planning to travel during the remainder of the year, 77% will travel within the mainland United States, 19% will go to Europe and 11% to Mexico. Rounding out the top five destinations are the Caribbean and Canada (tied at
9%) and Hawaii (7%).

This year, 14,432 self-identified LGBTQ+ community members completed the survey from April to June.

For more information on the survey go to Community Marketing Insights https://cmi.info/

As Mpox Public Health Emergency Declaration Ends, HRC Looks Ahead to Next Phase: Vaccinations, Prevention, and Partnerships with Community-Based Organizations

WASHINGTON — Today, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) – the nation’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) civil rights organization – marked the end of the Mpox Public Health Emergency, lauding the incredible efforts by the LGBTQ+ community to remain healthy while noting that Mpox continues to have disproportionately severe impacts on Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) communities and individuals living with HIV.

“Today, we enter the next phase in the continuing fight to end Mpox and maintain the health and well-being of LGBTQ+ people everywhere. Make no mistake, Mpox is still with us – and much the same with other health issues, it disproportionately impacts Black and Brown LGBTQ+ community members. We will work tirelessly to make sure as many people as possible remain healthy,” said Kelley Robinson, President of the Human Rights Campaign. “We urge members of the LGBTQ+ community to speak with their doctor about their options regarding vaccination, which has been proven to be safe and effective in preventing Mpox. This emergency declaration has ended, in no small part because of action from community leaders and organizations in partnership with the Biden-Harris administration and other federal, state, and local agencies. But the work is just beginning.”

HRC has taken an active role in the fight against Mpox as a natural extension of its pre-existing work to address health inequities within the LGBTQ+ community, immediately building a resource page to help educate people about Mpox. In September, as the virus was increasing in prevalence, HRC joined with a host of other advocacy organizations to ask Congress for $4.5 billion to combat Mpox, putting a stake in the ground as to the importance of fighting against the outbreak. It made a further ask for $900 million to combat the outbreak in December, calling for funding to restore the vaccine stockpile, expand cities’ testing capacity, and expand community-based organizations’ ability to connect individuals with care. Throughout the public health emergency, HRC has partnered with community-based organizations like the Valley AIDS Council in Texas to connect LGBTQ+ people, particularly Black and Latinx gay, bisexual, and other same-gender-loving men, with clinicians and host vaccine drives, increasing vaccine equity in the communities that were impacted most.

The Human Rights Campaign is America’s largest civil rights organization working to achieve equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ+) people. HRC envisions a world where LGBTQ+ people are embraced as full members of society at home, at work and in every community.

With President Biden’s Signature, the Bipartisan Respect for Marriage Act Becomes Biggest Legislative Win in the Fight for LGBTQ+ Equality in Over a Decade

WASHINGTON — The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) — the nation’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ+) civil rights organization — celebrated today as President Biden signed the Respect for Marriage Act into law. Arguably the biggest legislative win in the fight for LGBTQ+ equality since the so-called “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” law was repealed in 2010, this legislation will guarantee the federal rights, benefits and obligations of marriages in the federal code for same-sex couples; repeal the discriminatory Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA); and affirm that public acts, records and proceedings should be recognized by all states. It also codifies the same rights for interracial couples.

The legislation garnered 51 House and Senate Republican votes, the most of any LGBTQ+ pro-equality legislation in history and did so in the most politically polarized Congress to ever exist. These 51 votes demonstrate beyond a doubt that support for same-sex marriage and causes of LGBTQ+ equality bridge even the deepest entrenched ideological divides in America.

“Today is a historic day and a much-needed victory for our community. It should be lost on no one that this bill signing comes less than a month after a deadly attack on our community in Colorado Springs, and at a time when the community continues to face ongoing threats of online and offline violence, as well as legislative attacks on our rights. In signing this bill, President Biden has shown that LGBTQ+ peoples’ lives and love are valid and supported,” said Human Rights Campaign President Kelley Robinson. “As a queer, married woman, this moment holds personal significance, and I will hold my wife and our son a little tighter tonight, alongside the 568,000 other same-sex married couples. We thank our legislative heroes and President Biden who fought to ensure that marriage equality will forever remain here to stay. And we continue our fight for the safety and security of our entire community.”

HRC worked tirelessly to engage our members and supporters in favor of this legislation, mobilizing 242 major businesses with over 8.5 million employees, a grassroots army of more than 3 million members, supporters and volunteers, and the nation’s 62 million “Equality Voters” to pass the Respect for Marriage Act. HRC supporters made more than 30,000 calls, sent over 76,000 emails, and wrote more than 58,000 letters to Congressional offices in support of the RMA. To read personal stories of why marriage equality is important to LGBTQ+ couples across the country, click here, and to watch a video featuring a D.C.-based couple, click here.

More Than Two-Thirds of People Support Marriage Equality

According to Gallup, 71% of Americans support marriage for same-sex couples. 55% of Republicans support same-sex marriage, along with 83% of Democrats and 73% of Independents. According to recent polling from HRC, 64% of people living in battleground states – AZ, CA, GA, MI, NV, PA, WI, FL, NH, NC, OH, TX, CO, and ME – support marriage equality, demonstrating the issue’s popularity even in politically divided states. The latest survey from PRRI this year found that support for marriage equality has increased by 14 percentage points since 2014 (54%). Today, majorities of most religious groups favor marriage equality. White evangelical Protestants (35%) and Latter-day Saints (46%) remain the only major religious groups with less than majority support for marriage equality. According to the last Census, about 58% (568,000) of couples in the nation’s 980,000 same-sex households were married and about 42% were unmarried partners.

The Human Rights Campaign is America’s largest civil rights organization working to achieve equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people. HRC envisions a world where LGBTQ+ people are embraced as full members of society at home, at work and in every community.