Dear friends in the LGBT Community,

I know you are unsatisfied with my record to date on your concerns, our concerns. I hope this communication helps to change that.

To begin, I consider your cause to be equal in importance to every other struggle for civil rights and human dignity. To prove this, I am upping the ante on the Employment Non-Discrimination Bill (ENDA).

As currently envisioned, ENDA creates a separate employment non-discrimination law for “sexual orientation and gender identity.” I will not sign that bill. I can not in good conscious, being myself a success story of the 1964 Civil Rights Act which protects everyone else.

So today I am introducing a civil rights-version of ENDA that puts “sexual orientation and gender identity” inside the employment provisions of the Civil Rights Act where they belong. This is the law that protected my jobs my whole life and led to the one I have now; and you deserve nothing less.

This country long ago rejected the idea of “separate but equal” and today I join that proud heritage. I will fight to pass this bill, and to have a vote either way, by June 2011, working with either a Republican or Democratic Congress.

Civil rights should not be a partisan issue and it is our responsibility – our prime responsibility under the Constitution – to provide protection from discrimination against the LGBT community — just as we protect all of our respected communities and peoples.

This is what I intend to do. This is change you can believe in.

Now shut up and go vote (this part is optional .

President Obama.

AND HERE’s THE LANGUAGE FOR HIS BILL:

Sec. 1. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended, 42 U.S.C. §2000e, is amended to add “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” as prohibited basis’ for discrimination in employment.

a. The following definitions shall be added at the end of §2000e:
(o) The term “sexual orientation” means homosexuality, heterosexuality, or bisexuality.
(p) The term “gender identity” means the gender-related identity, appearance, or mannerisms or other gender-related characteristics of an individual, with or without regard to the individual’s designated sex at birth.

b. Sections 2000e-2(a)-(d), §2000e-2(h), §2000e-2(j), §2000e-2(l), §2000e-2(m), §2000e-3(b), 2000e(g)(2)(A), §2000e-16(a), and §2000e-16(c), are amended every time the phrase “race, color, religion, sex, or national origin” appears to include after the word “sex” the following words:- “sexual orientation, gender identity,”.

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He doesn’t have to tackle the full range of CRA protections. But this would be a respectable down-payment safely within the range of employment non-discrimination which has overwhelming popular support.  It would also show us the respect we deserve.

Will it cost him something? Maybe.  Maybe the opposite.  But at least then the outcome will have been something to admire.

I eagerly await this email from the DNC, OFA, or Obama himself. I used to look forward to opening those OFA emails that came directly from him. Not so much any more.

To send this idea to the White House, fax it (free and easy on faxzero.com) to:  President Obama, 202-456-2461.