The Townhall meeting went well even though Mara Keisling had to remain in DC to work with other groups to communicate to the House that they should only accept a gender identity inclusive Employment Nondiscrimination Act (ENDA). Fortunately, Stephen Glassman (Chairperson of the PA Human Relations Commission) stepped in and reported about the Public Hearing for HB 1400 and ENDA.
To summarize:
HB 1400 (State Legislation prohibiting discrimination on the bases of sexual orientation and gender identity or expression in housing, employment, and public accommodations) is going through public hearings and has a good chance of passing through the State House.
Federal House leadership removed gender identity from ENDA. National LGBT organizations are upset about this and are working to have a gender identity inclusive ENDA as the only version. The only exception is the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) who while supports and inclusive ENDA will not stop any representative from voting for the sexual orientation only bill. Donna Rose resigned from HRC because of the lack of support HRC was providing in fighting for an inclusive ENDA.
What to do (in order of effectiveness):
- Visit your Reps (state and federal).
- Call your Reps.
- Send snail mail letters to your reps.
Email is not effective.
To find out who your reps are go to http://www.equalitypa.org/
Contact your Rep about an inclusive ENDA has a time constraint because it will likely come to a committee vote within 2 weeks or less.
Noah (end.speciesism@gmail.com ) is collecting names and emails of people who are interested in doing more political/activist work. Please contact him if your interested.
I'm very pleased that my state rep, Chelsa Wagner, is co-sponsoring this legislation. I hope she'll stand tough with Frankel and refuse to water down the legislation a la ENDA.
ReplyDeleteThat's two important votes where Chelsa has been in line with my priorities.
This legislation is sound and logical. Equality needs be reinforced and to exclude anyone would simply be stating they are not equal under our legal system. Support this bill and hold those representatives that don’t accountable.
ReplyDelete