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 From AmericaBlog:
  Act On Principles has created new tools to make sure you can find out where your Senators and Representatives stand on ALL of the LGBT legislation as designated by the Equality Caucus. We are currently in the process to ensure all 535 voting members of Congress receive a survey directly from Act On Principles. However, we need your help to ensure that the various offices in the House and Senate complete the survey, and provide the information that we need. Public Whip Count Tools:Instructions for Contacting Congress1. Contact the Congressional offices that you want to get information from. Call the District or Washington office using information from www.house.gov or www.senate.gov. Let them know that you are sending them a survey on LGBT legislation. 2. Provide the appropriate survey for the office that you are contacting. Use the US House of Representatives survey for Representatives. Use the US Senate Survey for Senators. 4. Ask the staffer or Member “Hi, I would like to know if you can fill out a survey on where you stand on all pieces of LGBT specific legislation as designated by the Congressional LGBT Equality Caucus. I am asking that you provide the position based on the accepted whip count terminology.” 5. Collect survey(s) from the Congressional office(s) you have contacted. You might have to do follow-up calls and emails. 6. Share the information that you collected with Act On Principles in one of the following three ways: a.) Enter information into appropriate Public Whip Count for Act on Principles at www.actonprinciples.org. B.) Email or scan responses to whipcount@actonprinciples.com. c.) Fax to 305-723-0299. Your encouragement and persistence to get your Representatives to fill out the survey will be helpful in gathering information for our Public Whip Count. Act On Principles will be creating special webpage to list all of the members who have completed the survey as requested. If you have any questions don’t hesitate to contact us.
The AEB Project launched in earnest July 4th, 2010 with a nationwide conference call, hosted by EqualityGiving, and attended by an amazing group of activists! Warmly embraced, almost 2 months later The American Equality Bill has definitely joined the conversation! Equal Civil Rights NOW – is a growing mantra! Grassroots activists all over are stepping up and contacting their Congress people, folks are doing their own petitions, blogs are peppered with AEB references, and we’ve made the Advocate, Bilierico, LezGetReal and CNN ireports. The early visionaries at EqualityGiving.org are happy, and our partners at ActonPrinciples.org have really stepped up with our AEB Sponsorship Hunt Pages listing all Senate and Congressional offices (open and waiting for YOU to post feedback from your outreach – links below). We’re even hearing rumors that we’re too pushy, which is music to our ears!!! But it’s JUST THE BEGINNING and the resistance from the status-quo is strong. Already, some staffers of potential sponsors are counter-lobbying the AEB trying to create divisions in the grassroots ranks. This will NOT BE AN EASY ROAD as we always new. The single most important thing you can do is to create a full campaign in your Congressional District to get that vote (sponsor). Republican or Democrat. And SHARE THE STORY on the FB page. My mother is going after Rep. Bill Young (R.FL-10 Clearwater). I’m going after my Rep., Congressman Rangel (D. NY) (see letter below). This is happening all over, but time is very short. To really start this party, we need ONE SPONSOR to file by NOVEMBER. So we need to FOCUS, FOCUS, FOCUS. Now is the time – before Nov. 2nd – to call this issue. Push now. Push hard. Go public, have a rally at their campaign office, call and fax their offices (as we have President Obama and Gillibrand), form a state-wide AEB team and group-target potential sponsors directly, etc. etc. BUT YOUR DISTRICT IS THE PRIZE. OR, ONE CONGRESS PERSON FROM YOUR STATE. Focus, focus, focus. Deadline NOV. 2nd! This is YOUR Campaign. It’s starting to fly, but it needs a big gust of wind to take wing. We are all volunteer, all grassroots! 2nd class citizenship & 2nd rate demands NO MORE! Let’s do this. Love, Tif p.s. Without pushing, The AEB main FB page doubled, but let’s build it! Share the link: http://bit.ly/AEBnow. I. ON-GOING ACTIONS: CONTACTING your Rep. During Recess (TOP priority. Urgent! On-going) FAX WHITE HOUSE – AEB NOW! FAX GILLIBRAND (NY) FLYERS: “Please File The AEB” (for anyone to use on their Congress/Senators) ELECTION CYCLE: CANDIDATE QUESTIONNAIRE (now) II. NEW PETITIONS & FB PAGES http://www.change.org/petitions/view/petition_for_full_equality_for_all_americans (active) http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=278882199073&ref=ts#!/pages/The-American-Equality-Bill/152463468103529?ref=mf FB PROFILE PICS: AEB NOW or SO+GI Civil Rights NOW III. STRONG ORGANIZATIONAL AFFILIATIONS http://www.equalitygiving.org/ (look for our flag) http://www.actonprinciples.org/ (other exciting partnerships in the works!) IV. SPONSORSHIP HUNT (put your name next to your Target) SENATE TARGETS: http://www.actonprinciples.org/aeb-senate/ HOUSE TARGETS: http://www.actonprinciples.org/aeb-house/ V. AEB IN BLOGS & NEWS http://www.bilerico.com/2010/07/the_american_equality_bill_an_idea_whose_time_has.php http://lezgetreal.com/2010/08/prop-8-evidence-posted-by-court-for-all-to-finally-see/ http://www.pinkbananaworld.com/content-detail.cfm?ID=371170 http://lezgetreal.com/2010/08/reclaiming-the-civil-rights-movement-who-owns-the-dream/ http://www.actonprinciples.org/2010/08/22/hello-%E2%80%98used-to-be%E2%80%99-activists-it%E2%80%99s-time-to-resurrect-our-civil-rights-struggle-is-at-hand/ http://lezgetreal.com/2010/08/this-blogger-is-fuming-with-the-white-house/ http://www.advocate.com/Politics/Marriage_Equality/White_House_Meeting_Red_Hot/ (linked to ActonPrinciples.org blog on White House Fax) http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-482233 VI. YOUTUBE speech about THE AEB http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4LWus-twi0&feature=player_embedded VII. JOIN (and lead) YOUR STATE AEB LISTSERVE! We’ve created AEB gmail listserves for every state for you to use to gather a team or find others working on AEB in your state. They are open. The lists are: AEB-(state abbreviation)@googlegroups.com. So for example the New York group is: AEB-NY@googlegroups.com. Exception: AEB-Idaho. To locate and join them, search gmail groups with first part only: AEB-NY. Please let me know if there are any issues (tif509@gmail.com). We can make you a manager so you can tailor the page to local flavor! The MAIN AEB Project listserve is: AEB1@googlegroups.com. Come one, come all.
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: 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,”. ———- 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.
(No Ratings Yet)
GetEqual has done an amazing timeline on ENDA. http://getequal.org/2010/07/enda-timeline-broken-promises/ But it has ONE MAJOR MISLEADING Flaw. After correctly listing that in 1974, NY Congress people introduced a bill to directly Amend the 1964 Civil Rights Act to add “sex, sexual orientation and marital status,” the timeline then makes a misleading connection to that strategy. Here’s the too-clever transition moment in the timeline: “1994 — The modern version of the Civil Rights Amendment, now called the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), is introduced with gay-only protection without public accommodations or housing provisions.” This is misleading because it suggests that ENDA IS an Amendment to the Civil Rights Act (CRA). When in fact, ENDA is a separate law, apart from the CRA. A separate and unequal law JUST FOR employment non-discrimination covering “sex. orient. and gender identity” (SO+GI), whereas “race, color, sex, national origin, and religion” are protected from employment discrimination UNDER (IN) the Civil Rights Act (Title VII). ENDA is a separate water fountain – for the gays! And no one is saying it! This makes ENDA a scam – because I for one didn’t realize this until I studied the bill. Here is the text of ENDA. Interestingly, ENDA looks, smells, and sounds similar to the CRA (and it references the CRA many times for enforcement etc.), but doesn’t put us in the CRA, because back in 1994 (and supposedly today) – the NAACP, NOW, etc. (the groups currently protected by the CRA) told the gays to STAY AWAY – DO NOT TOUCH – the CRA. And we obeyed, supposedly for “allied” support, which hasn’t helped pass the bill in 16 years. Yet still, we obey. It was “their law” and “civil rights” belonged to the black civil rights movement — and those groups asserted then, and the NAACP still says, that they are afraid of making any changes to the CRA that might open the law up to Republican attempts to water down THEIR protections. So we did our own – for gays only – and we are STILL not yet asking for equal treatment and inclusion in the CRA. How long will we allow the “fears” of protected groups to justify our exclusion? And what does it say about US that we are STILL NOT even ASKING for equal inclusion in the CRA? No one is being honest about this. If it passes, as is, Pres. Obama will go down in history as a mixed-race President who created a separate water fountain for gay people in employment discrimination. The law that protected HIS JOBS since he was a child (born in 1961, CRA passed in ‘64) WILL NOT INCLUDE US. Those laws – called the CIVIL RIGHTS Laws – do more than end discrimination, they are a statement of U.S. policy AGAINST discrimination which says everyone protected under them are equal – race, color, sex, nat. orig., religion – all traits and covered groups – are equal to one another. By putting us apart – we are saying the opposite. Even after/if ENDA passes, we will still have to fight to GET IN THE CIVIL RIGHTS ACT – in an equal way. We will still not have “Civil Rights” for us. I REALLY WISH our community would START TELLING THE TRUTH ABOUT ENDA. If we know and tell the truth – and decide to accept this 2nd class citizenship-strategy, then FINE. But let that be a decision made in full disclosure. The wording “the modern version of the Civil Rights amendment” – is misleading in an highly subtle way. This is not an amendment to the CRA, in any way, and not the equivalent of the 1974 bill filed by Ed Koch and Bella Azbug which, as I understand them, DID PUT US IN THE CRA – because at the time, we felt we were EQUAL to “race, color”. Now we act as if we are not, because those groups told us to stay away, and we still bow to that social pressure which is nothing but homophobia misrepresented as fear. WE CAN FIX ENDA – and put “SO+GI” in Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. But this will take PRINCIPLE and SELF-RESPECT, which our current movement does not have. Here is that language (Drafted by Karen Doering): 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. 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,”. THIS IS WHAT EQUALITY UNDER THE LAW LOOKS LIKE. (And this is what The American Equality Bill calls for: http://bit.ly/AEBillonFB). History will reveal the truth of this, and all involved will have brought dishonor upon our community and themselves. Are we that desperate? Do we think that little of ourselves? Sorry GetEqual friends. I know you did not create ENDA or this 2nd class strategy. I know you’re just trying to help move the existing agenda and hold folks accountable, and I wholeheartedly applaud that work. But this timeline perpetuates the fraud. Please fix the timeline, or you and your supporters (including me) become a knowing party to the conspiracy. You have to wonder: WHERE IS THE LGBT PRESS ON THIS? WHY ARE YOU NOT QUESTIONING THE DRAFTERS OF ENDA ABOUT THIS? THE WHOLE POINT of our cause is that we are telling THE TRUTH. We are equal beings. Homophobia does kill. And we are entitled as a matter of human rights law and philosophy to be included fully in America’s non-discrimination laws, which we call The Civil Rights Act of 1964. To get there, we have to start telling the truth about ENDA. [BTW: ENDA IS NOT REALLY GAYS-Only EITHER. And that's important, but not easy to capture in a soundbite. ENDA is not really a gays-only law because it covers "Sexual Orientation" which could be straight, bi, or gay, and "Gender Identity" which covers the full range. Obviously straight people and gender conforming people don't suffer discrimination like we do, and are not really the point, any more than "race and color" were intended to protect white people.]
(No Ratings Yet) From Civil Right leader and LGBT activist David Mixner. You can read the entire piece here.
(No Ratings Yet) From GetEqual:
You’ve paid your dues and through the nose. You’ve heard and said it all. You’re done with all the drama. You did your part. But what did you do it for? One of my oldest friends is still in the grassroots game. He’s even coined the new phase: Stonewall 2.0. But he’s taking a pass on “federal activism,” having seen the demise of the National Equality March organization and lived through the tortured takeover of Equality Across America by the International Socialist Organization (ISO). Understandably scared away, his focus now is on “building a [state-level grassroots] activist network that can respond ad hoc to developments of concern to our community.” To me this sounds like activism for activism sake; a reactive army, without strategy or focus. And it sounds like a different person. Really, dear old friend? Really? Is that your intention now? That wasn’t your motivation when we started. You were driven by your childhood suffering (in a state that recently created a decoy prom for the gays and misfits). You were intent on changing the laws and government culture. You took on city police commissioners over entrapment. You forced hate crimes reporting and enforcement. You lobbied law after law for state equal rights and fought marriage referendum. You helped elect Mayors and Governors and Senators and Presidents. But for what? Here we are with a President that is a direct product of the black Civil Rights struggle and the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which made it the U.S. public policy not to discriminate based on race. And yet, here we are with no federal Civil Rights protection for our community. No hope in sight of ever having an openly gay or lesbian or transgendered President. And no end game in play. Is that what we’ve worked all this time for? No. But you don’t want to be involved in “federal activism.” Well old friend, that’s not good enough. We can’t count on your new ad hoc responder network. We can’t count on new edgy activists that go mainstream in minutes. We can’t wait decades to make insider contacts. And we can’t do this without the veteran experts. We need our use-to-be activists to resurrect and those still in the game, like you, to reconnect to their youthful intentions. Because a narrow window of opportunity is now open and the time has come to protect our community with America’s civil rights laws. Now. In Obama’s 1st term. We cannot count on a 2nd and should not have to wait anyway. For this, there is a new proposed bill called The American Equality Bill, created by EqualityGiving and written by Karen Doering (former Senior Counsel for the National Center for Lesbian Rights), which seeks to just that. It puts SO+GI right along side “race, color, sex, national origin and religion” where we’ve belonged all along. It’s ready to go and sponsors are being sought for filing in November, with an impatient and ambitious view toward public hearings by May of next year, and passage by June of 2012. But it’s all grassroots and it needs you. Filing it alone will ignite a conversation long over due about homophobia and civil rights. In fact, filing the bill will represent a statement about our own dignity that, by itself, will start to free our youth from the 2nd class reality they continue to experience. Because filing it says: “We are entitled to the same protections the President had as a child. We are equal.” It will show your ad hoc response team that there is a prize we deserve greater than anything they are aware of, and much more than we have asked for so far, or they know to seek. This is what the elders are supposed to be doing. But to file and pass this legislation our community needs you working exactly where you are – in your state, not just building networks, but engaging them. This is not federal activism. It is state activism. The Congressional sponsors and Senate sponsors will come from the states. The votes will come from the states. And the activists needed to make this dream a reality will come from the states. This is what we have prepared ourselves for our entire lives. This is the struggle for which we honed our politics and built our organizations. This is the civil rights struggle of the millennium and it needs you. It is not time to stand down, old friend. It is time to stand up.
(No Ratings Yet)
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“It is not enough to look back in wonder at how far we have come; those who came before us did not strike a blow against injustice only so that we would allow injustice to fester in our time. That means removing the barriers of prejudice and misunderstanding that still exist in America.” -
Hello AEB enthusiasts!
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