I got my Equal Opportunity medal and it says I got it 5 days before I actually finished it. So I think it states when I started not when I was awarded

The date shown is the 'awarded' date, not the finished date. In some cases its not possible to track the finished date, especially for retroactive medals.

But, how could a medal be awarded before it is actually "Finished" and aren't the equal opportunity stats only tracked as of the date the medal system came into play? (I had no starting items tagged in equal opportunity even though I have raided prior to the badge system, so I assumed this is one of those "not previously tracked" stats..)

-Q

I think someone posted this before too, does it say it was awarded the day medals came out? That was the problem the other person had.

yup, the day I started going for this rather than when I had finished, 5 days later.