United ENDA Talking Points

[Lisbeth]

WHY LGBT PEOPLE INSIST ON A UNIFIED INCLUSIVE ENDA
Gender Identity is Non-Negotiable

1.  More than 350 lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender organizations have joined together to work for an Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) that includes protections based on both sexual orientation and gender identity. 
    --These organizations oppose any ENDA (including H.R. 3685) that excludes either gender identity or sexual orientation.

2.  Transgender people, who make up a core segment of the LGBT community, desperately need gender identity protections that a unified, inclusive ENDA would provide. 
     --Transgender people are among the most vulnerable and susceptible to discrimination in America.

3.  Gay, lesbian, bisexual and even heterosexual people need gender identity protections.
     -- Five leading LGBT legal organizations believe that gender identity inclusion provides important protections for gender non-conforming people regardless of their sexual orientation or transgender status.

4.  State and local governments are only passing gender identity inclusive anti-discrimination laws. 
     --No state has passed a sexual orientation only law since New York did it in 2002.  Every state that has passed protections since has passed gender identity-inclusive protections.  Currently, 13 states have laws that protect people based on both gender identity and sexual orientation and another eight states protect only based on sexual orientation.  Just this year, states such as Iowa, Colorado and Oregon have passed laws that include both gender identity and sexual orientation.

5.  State and Local Efforts will be and are already being hurt by the divisive H.R. 3685.
     -- Already in October, a state legislator in Florida who had planned to introduce a gender identity inclusive anti-discrimination bill, changed position to introduce two separate bills, citing the new "Washington Strategy" around ENDA.

6.  The House (and the Senate) passed a hate crimes bill this year that includes both sexual orientation.
     -- A large majority of House members are already on record supporting gender identity protections.

7.  A unified bill would have the support and energy of a unified LGBT community.

8.  Strategically, H.R. 3685 just does not make sense.
     -- Particularly because no ENDA is unlikely to become law in the 110th Congress, it simply does not make sense to pass a bill that is divisive for the LGBT community and potentially damaging to state and local legislative efforts and the rights of LGBT people.

9.  Congress has never passed a civil rights bill that was not supported by the community it is supposed to help.
     -- More than 350 lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender organizations have joined together to work for an Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) that includes protections based on both sexual orientation and gender identity.  These organizations oppose any ENDA (including H.R. 3685) that excludes either gender identity or sexual orientation.

[Wing Walker]

WHY LGBT PEOPLE INSIST ON A UNIFIED INCLUSIVE ENDA
Gender Identity is Non-Negotiable

1.  More than 350 lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender organizations have joined together to work for an Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) that includes protections based on both sexual orientation and gender identity. 
    --These organizations oppose any ENDA (including H.R. 3685) that excludes either gender identity or sexual orientation.

2.  Transgender people, who make up a core segment of the LGBT community, desperately need gender identity protections that a unified, inclusive ENDA would provide. 
     --Transgender people are among the most vulnerable and susceptible to discrimination in America.

3.  Gay, lesbian, bisexual and even heterosexual people need gender identity protections.
     -- Five leading LGBT legal organizations believe that gender identity inclusion provides important protections for gender non-conforming people regardless of their sexual orientation or transgender status.

4.  State and local governments are only passing gender identity inclusive anti-discrimination laws. 
     --No state has passed a sexual orientation only law since New York did it in 2002.  Every state that has passed protections since has passed gender identity-inclusive protections.  Currently, 13 states have laws that protect people based on both gender identity and sexual orientation and another eight states protect only based on sexual orientation.  Just this year, states such as Iowa, Colorado and Oregon have passed laws that include both gender identity and sexual orientation.

5.  State and Local Efforts will be and are already being hurt by the divisive H.R. 3685.
     -- Already in October, a state legislator in Florida who had planned to introduce a gender identity inclusive anti-discrimination bill, changed position to introduce two separate bills, citing the new "Washington Strategy" around ENDA.

6.  The House (and the Senate) passed a hate crimes bill this year that includes both sexual orientation.
     -- A large majority of House members are already on record supporting gender identity protections.

7.  A unified bill would have the support and energy of a unified LGBT community.

8.  Strategically, H.R. 3685 just does not make sense.
     -- Particularly because no ENDA is unlikely to become law in the 110th Congress, it simply does not make sense to pass a bill that is divisive for the LGBT community and potentially damaging to state and local legislative efforts and the rights of LGBT people.

9.  Congress has never passed a civil rights bill that was not supported by the community it is supposed to help.
     -- More than 350 lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender organizations have joined together to work for an Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) that includes protections based on both sexual orientation and gender identity.  These organizations oppose any ENDA (including H.R. 3685) that excludes either gender identity or sexual orientation.

Hi, Lisbeth,

Knowing and believing what I do I lay the blame for the failure of an all-inclusive ENDA on Joe Solmonese, Barney Frank, and Nancy Pelosi.

10,000 LGBT organizations can unite to work for an inclusive ENDA.  Unless 10,000 people flood the Hill with an inclusive ENDA as their legislative initiative, nothing good will happen.

A week before Mr. Frank and Mr. Solmonese put the screws to the ENDA in this session of Congress it was none other than Nancy Pelosi who wanted to know why it was a bill that did not include transsexuals and transgender persons.  Apparently she backed away from the idea of passing an inclusive ENDA.

Mr. Frank has been an obstacle to any bill guaranteeing rights to transsexuals and transgenders.  My apartment was quarters for women from southern Virginia, Kentucky, New York, and Ohio who went to the Hill in 2003 and 2004 to push for our rights.  You can see the results.

I have picketed HRC and I am a gadfly to them.  I have written to them to register my disgust and hold them to an explanation, but all I hear is that they are sorry, but they must go with a bill that they feel is practical and will pass in the House.

Unless we all flood Washington by snail mail, e-mail, telephone, and personal appearance, *****nothing will happen***** and we will indeed be washed in mud and left out in the cold.

Thank you for hearing me out.

Wing Walker