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 Speaker Pelosi, we have been promised a vote on ENDA in the House in March. And we mean to get it. Tomorrow is lobby day for ENDA, and a couple hundred people are expected in DC to go talk to their legislators person to person. For those of you who are not going to DC for the ENDA lobby day tomorrow, you can support the hundreds of people in DC by dialing the phone. My request is that you call Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office at 202-225-4965 and ask that she move ENDA (HR3017) to a vote. This is serious. We have one chance to move ENDA forward before the mid-term elections, and this is it. Meanwhile, the LGBT community is laboring under high unemployment and underemployment, a large wage gap, and persistent harassment, <a href=”http://www.law.ucla.edu/williamsinstitute/publications/Policy-Discrimination-index.html”>as shown by a slew of studies</a>. Chairman George Miller, of the House Committee on Education and Labor, where ENDA is currently awaiting markup, is ready to go. Rep. Barney Frank, lead sponsor of ENDA in the House, is ready to go, and wants a vote in March. Our problem now is House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Call and demand that she move ENDA (HR3017) to a vote. 202-225-4965. More here: http://bit.ly/cFHUTl
 The long-stalled Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) is going to roll out shortly. Exactly when, and with what changes are uncertain. But it’s coming, and Representative Frank has promised a vote by the end of March. On Tuesday, March 16, there will be a lobby day specifically for ENDA in Washington, D.C.. LGBT people and allies from around the country who support ENDA will be there. I will be there. Will you? It is particularly important to ENDA that people attend from the eight states in which Senators are on the fence. If you live in one of these states, you hold the fate of ENDA in your hands.
This is too important to be limited to only middle or upper class people who can afford a ticket. If you are from one of these eight states, and you are a currently-unemployed LGBT person who is unemployed because of job discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity, I would like to help you get there. More info by clicking here.
HRC announced on its Backstory blog I have been privileged to write about ENDA daily since its introduction in June. Thank you to all of those who have followed my posts and made those calls. We moved ENDA far up the field before the time out, with well over the votes needed in the House and missing only a few votes in the Senate. I will now take a hiatus from my daily postings to address the personal and professional issues that have received short shrift during the past six months. I will continue to post occasionally about this and other issues, and I note that we need to continue our efforts to ensure that this bill isn’t parked again. The good news is that Gay Inc. awoke from its long sleep Friday morning and issued a strong statement urging swift passage of ENDA, along with the ACLU. There’s also increased interest from bloggers and on LGBT news websites. My Google Alerts are humming. I hear that our LGBT politicians are promising a quick markup and House vote next year. I pray that my concerns about Senate midterm elections and legislative logjams and lost momentum are misplaced. What should our strategy be to move forward to victory in 2010? More here: http://bit.ly/871dNE
LGBT After all, it’s been almost a month since rumors surfaced of an ENDA delay, and three weeks since he abruptly cancelled the ENDA markup hearing, and he has made no statement on why or how or when or what, except to list three minor language tweaks. On November 17, the day after the terse postponement notice on the Committee’s website, the Advocate stated “The ENDA markup will likely be delayed for two to three weeks, according to a Hill staffer, and should be rescheduled for sometime after the Thanksgiving holiday.” Sometime, indeed. Nor have we heard a peep from the other progressive members of the Committee – people like Rep. Jared Polis, one of three openly gay Congressmembers, or Rep. Lynn Woolsey, Chair of the Subcomittee on Workforce Protections, or Rep. Yvette Clarke, or Rep. Rush Holt or Rep. Andrews. And where are Rep. Barney Frank and Rep. Tammy Baldwin, the other openly gay Congressmembers, to inquire into this delay or question it or demand that the Committee move forward? Speaker Pelosi, who is a close friend of Rep. Miller, also hasn’t Spoken. Are we not making our voices heard? Or are our voices being ignored? More here: http://bit.ly/4LfmMd
It is 5 minutes to midnight on ENDA, with still a possibility of getting a vote this year if everyone pulls together, and what happens? Do we have LGBT and progressive media exploding with articles of protest and telling people how to lobby Congress effectively to get this moving? Nope. Instead, a NY marriage vote that was known to be doomed sucks all the oxygen out of the room. The D.C. city council preliminary vote on marriage is also in the news. But unlike most mornings when I crank up my Google machine, there are no news articles this morning on ENDA, anywhere. This despite the fact that the Committee that’s supposed to mark it up announced yesterday that it’s not on the schedule next week, which means that it’s probably going in the deep freeze until February unless a miracle happens. As I’ve explained ad nauseam in previous posts, that is going to make ENDA harder to achieve. Let me first say — get on the phone and call the House Committee to help get ENDA moving again. It ain’t over till its over, and you have to be in it to win it. Okay, now that you’ve all done that, let’s drop the happy crap, and examine what happened to ENDA in 2009 to bring us from the assumptions of invulnerability surrounding its re-introduction, to today, when we are staring at its imminent placement in the deep freeze. This will help the LGBT and progressive communities realize how much more effort is really needed to pass ENDA. I am pleased to say that I have been invited to discuss ENDA on the Michelangelo Signorile radio show on Sirius-XM this afternoon at 4:30 ET. I am not pleased to say that many more such discussions should have been out there months ago on many radio shows and websites and newspapers in the LGBT and progressive communities. More here: http://bit.ly/8UjpzC
The rumors of problems with the Employment Non-Discrimination Act have been circulating for weeks now, and yet there has been little response by the LGBT community and the wider progressive community. The markup of the bill has been postponed with no reschedule date by Representative George Miller, chair of the House Committee where the bill is currently languishing. It is pretty obvious even to casual observers that ENDA’s passage will occur “no time soon,” in the words of Jewelle Johnson, head of the diversity committee at national labor law firm Fisher & Johnson in today’s edition of Human Resource Executive Online Every DC-knowledgeable person I have spoken to is telling me that postponing the House vote until February means ENDA will be pushed to the bottom of the Senate list, and its likelihood of passage is greatly lessened. But there are more than enough votes in the House, and the Senate is missing only a few. The missing Senate votes could be obtained by notching up the momentum and working on the 9 holdouts. So what happens? The motor is switched off. Where is Congressman Barney Frank, the most powerful U.S. Representative? Where are Representatives Tammy Baldwin and Jared Polis? Senator Jeff Merkley, the lead sponsor of the Senate bill? President Obama? And, more importantly, where are Y-O-U, LGBT community and media? I’ve not seen many stories about ENDA in the LGBT media, let alone the progressive media. Michelangelo Signorile, I’ve not heard from you. I’ve not seen community organizations stepping up to the plate and asking their Congressmembers to demand a markup of the bill now. HRC, NGLTF, NCLR – where are you? Bloggers – Andy Towle, Joe My God – almost complete silence. We have a community conference call scheduled for today to discuss emergency action on ENDA, and how many people are registered? 70. 70 out of 30 million LGBT people in this country. For shame.
 The Employment Non-Discrimination Act bill (ENDA), which was originally planned for a House vote in September or October, then November, now looks like it’s headed for a February landing. That’s problematic because it puts ENDA into the Senate during an ultra-difficult time: a major legislative logjam, a major jobs initiative, midterm election campaigns, and a promised Don’t Ask Don’t Tell repeal. The House Committee responsible for moving ENDA along, the House Committee on Education and Labor, has been slow-walking it, claiming that it needs some minor “tweaks” on language that has been vetted for years. Rex Wockner’s blog today features quotes from some high profile activists questioning the delays, including political consultant Steve Hildebrand and former National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Executive Director Matt Foreman. Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin has also been quoted as saying that delay is not good. Meanwhile, community action calls to Committee Chair George Miller of California over the past week have been unsuccessful in obtaining any statement or action. However, under the Rules of the U.S. House of Representatives [see page 8, section c(2)], three members of the Committee can demand a markup, which must be scheduled within three days. The names of friendly Committee members are provided after the jump so you can call and demand action. A nation-wide community conference call has been scheduled for tomorrow, Tuesday, Dec. 1st, at noon (ET) to discuss actions we can take to push a vote on ENDA now. It will last one hour. The agenda is posted after the jump. All are welcome, and I hope you will join us. Register here. Click here for more: http://bit.ly/7RqUPx
(No Ratings Yet) I hope that everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday. A nation-wide community conference call has been scheduled for Tuesday, Dec. 1st, at noon EST to discuss actions we can take to push a vote on ENDA now. It will last one hour. All are welcome. Please register. I will be on the call to discuss strategy. After the jump: Inspiration, and a call to action Register For ENDA In Jeopardy: Emergency Conference Call Tues — Click here for more
(No Ratings Yet) Register for “ENDA In Jeopardy: Emergency Conference Call” to coordinate actions Tues 12/1 12pm EST All Welcome http://tinyurl.com/voteendanow
An Open Dear Chairman Miller: I know Thanksgiving is tomorrow, and that you are back in your home district in California to celebrate with your family and friends. But don’t reach for that turkey yet. Many of my friends and family are unemployed and underemployed because of discrimination. We are wondering why you are holding up rescheduling the Employment Non-Discrimination Act in your Committee. “Tweak” the language of the bill if you think you must, but why not get it on the schedule? How long could it take to “tweak”? After the jump: Contact info for Chairman Miller, and The Advocate suggests that we vote on whether to scrap gender identity protections from ENDA. Click here
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