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OutFront Minnesota has received a fair amount of feedback regarding
its commitment to a transgender-inclusive Employment Nondiscrimination
Act (ENDA), the majority of it strongly supportive, some not. We
are proud to be one of over 350 organizations nationally who signed onto
inclusive ENDA legislation.
One of the signers of an inclusive ENDA is the Equality Federation -
an alliance of statewide lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender
advocacy organizations working to achieve equality in every state and
territory by building a state-based movement of whom we are a founding
member – released this statement which we support and would like to
share with you:
"Equality Federation acknowledges three decades of work by our
allies in Congress and by national LGBT organizations who have been
passionate and determined to bring this civil rights legislation before
Congress.
Many lesbian and gay people will celebrate the passage of this
legislation, and it certainly reflects progress in the long march toward
equality. However, Equality Federation remains steadfast in its
opposition to this bill – not because of what it purports to do, but
because of what it fails to do. This bill does not ban discrimination
based on gender identity – despite the fact that transgender people
experience phenomenally high unemployment rates and are the members of
our community most in need of employment protections.
Over the past few weeks, Equality Federation and 40 state
organizations have stood with over 350 national, state, and local LGBT
groups in the United ENDA coalition to urge Congress to pass legislation
that bans discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender
workers. Federation member groups educated their constituents
about the importance of inclusive legislation, and tens of thousands of
equality supporters from across the country contacted their
congressional representatives urging passage of an inclusive ENDA.
The legislation passed will not become law. Instead, it
will be debated and reintroduced in a future session of Congress.
Equality Federation and state organizations will continue educational
and lobbying efforts to ensure that the ENDA finally enacted will be an
inclusive law.
Twenty states and the District of Columbia already ban
discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. Only seven of those
states do not ban discrimination on the basis of gender identity. Our
movement has a great deal of experience passing non-discrimination laws
at the state level, and our experience is clear: while it sometimes
takes additional time and effort to pass inclusive laws, it is far less
certain that laws excluding transgender people will be amended even with
significant additional time and effort. Yet transgender people are the
members of the LGBT community with the highest unemployment rates – and
the greatest need for protection against discrimination.
We acknowledge the difficult achievement of taking a key
congressional step toward the goal of passing a federal employment
nondiscrimination law. Equality Federation will begin work with
all of our allies – both within and beyond the United ENDA coalition –
to achieve the goal shared by all organizations within the LGBT
community: passage of an inclusive employment discrimination law
that protects lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people."
TAKE ACTION: The House passed ENDA last week 235 to 184 with a
majority of Minnesota’s delegation voting in favor. For a number
of reasons, this vote proved to be difficult for our elected officials.
For some, the fact that they were not allowed to add Representative
Baldwin’s amendment to restore gender identity protections to the bill
made the vote difficult. They wanted to vote to pass legislation
that would protect all GLBT people from employment discrimination.
For others, taking a stand in favor of legislation of GLB rights
legislation can be challenging.
Please contact your Representatives and let them know that you
appreciate their support for ENDA and that you will work with them in
the future to ensure that a fully inclusive nondiscrimination bill is
enacted.
District 1:
Representative Tim Walz,
(202) 225-2472 – Voted YES
District 2:
Representative John Kline,
(202)
225-2271 – Voted NO
District 3:
Representative Jim Ramstad,
(202) 225-2871 – Voted YES
District 4:
Representative Betty McCollum,
(202) 225-6631 – Voted YES
District 5: Representative
Keith Ellison,
(202) 225-4755 – Voted YES
District 6:
Representative Michele Bachmann,
(202) 225-6475 – Voted NO
District 7:
Representative Collin
Peterson,
(202) 225-2165 – Voted YES
District 8:
Representative James Oberstar,
(202) 225-6211 – Didn't vote
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