Making Calls in Support of ENDA

For the last week, in my capacity as an NCTE intern, I have been making calls to congressional staffers to urge them to have their member of Congress sign-on as a co-sponsor to the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA). To be honest, it can be slightly nerve racking to make a cold call to a congressional office, and eventually I did get tired of hearing my own voice. Yet, I was surprised with how rewarding the simple act of making a call can be. Over the course of a week I spent several hours calling and witnessed the number of co-sponsors jump quite significantly (we currently have 127 co-sponsors).

Certainly I cannot take sole credit for this, many others in the office were also making calls, and I know many of you at home were doing the same. The rollout of ENDA was yet another example of the power of grassroots action. I had many a staffer tell me that they had met with constituents or received calls from them in regards to ENDA and would be looking into co-sponsorship. The next day I would see their names added to the list.

So thank you to all of you who have already made calls. Let’s keep it up! I promise when you see your member’s name added to the co-sponsorship list you will feel the same sense of satisfaction I have these last few days.

You can find out who your Representative is by following this link. Once you find out who your Representative is you can go to their website to find the number of their DC office or you can call the Congressional Switch board at (202)224-3121.