Dear Friend of NCLR,
Today, Representative Barney Frank, D (MA-4) introduced the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), which would ban employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity and expression. It creates explicit protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people similar to those available under existing federal discrimination laws for other protected classes of workers.
Workplace protections for LGBT people are urgently needed and long overdue, and the introduction of ENDA is the beginning of the end of inaction. Read more about this in NCLR's latest blog posting from Executive Director Kate Kendell, "Long Overdue."
The President has promised to sign this bill. All we need now is for Congress to act.
This historic bill has bipartisan support in the House, but we need your support to make it a reality. Please take action NOW to contact your representatives and urge them to support this crucial piece of legislation that protects all workers.
In D.C., make their phone ring!
Call the Capitol Switchboard at 202.224.3121 and have them connect you to your representative (based on your zip code). Tell your Representative:
I am a constituent and I would like you to please tell Representative _______ that I strongly support the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which would ban employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity and expression.
Set up a visit!
Request an in-person meeting for you and other community members with your representative (or their staffs) in their home district offices. You can call the district offices to request these meetings but they often want you to fax a meeting request. To find contact info for district offices, go to http://www.house.gov/.
Sample meeting request letters, and other talking points and resources for your meetings, are available in the following toolkits (pdf):
- The Task Force ENDA Grassroots Toolkit
- National Center for Transgender Equality’s Making Your Voice Heard
- PFLAG’s Bringing the Message Home
Let us know!
Let us know how your correspondence went. Go to http://www.unitedenda.org/ and fill out the Lobby Report Form to tell us whether your representative expressed support.
Follow the bill’s progress!
You can track the progress of the bill with CSPAN’s gavel-to-gavel coverage of the U.S. House of Representatives here.
Today, we witness a commitment to full equality and inclusion and we look forward to the day when LGBT people no longer have to fear the loss of their jobs or workplace harassment and discrimination on the basis of their sexual orientation or their gender identity and expression. When that day comes, America will have taken another step forward in assuring justice and equality for all.
In solidarity,
Kate Kendell, Esq.
Executive Director
National Center for Lesbian Rights
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