Daily ENDA Update from Mara Keisling

We have been striving for daily updates to you, but I have had time to write them only about every day and a half or so. Please know that the reason for that is simply that we’ve been so incredibly busy working with legislators, members of our community and our growing coalition of allies that there haven’t been enough hours in the day. Keeping you informed is very important to us and so are the issues we face.

And now the work . . .

We are making significant progress with members of Congress. The coalition of lobbyists who are working on this bill have gotten so much positive response from targeted members of Congress. After a four day weekend, Congress came back to DC and worked on Tuesday and Wednesday and then recessed again so members could attend the funeral of Congresswoman Jo Ann Davis (R-VA) who passed away. Still those two days were incredibly productive in terms of getting members of Congress to talk with us about HR2015. It was productive not only because they were back in DC, but because they were back in DC after spending time in their districts, hearing from all of you out there who have mobilized brilliantly to get this important work done.

I had an incredibly touching day today, as is often the case when I have a PFLAG day. The PFLAG National convention started in DC today. I am speaking at the closing plenary session on Sunday, which I am very excited about. And I wore the lapel pin I received from the Seattle PFLAGers in Seattle this past May.

The fabulous rock star Cyndi Lauper spoke to a PFLAG press conference today and talked, among other things about the need for Transgender rights. That is remarkable. More remarkable though is that Peggy Gage was on Capitol Hill today lobbying to pass a fully-inclusive unified ENDA. I was fortunate enough to go with her and other PFLAG parents to meet with two members of Congress. That Peggy was there is extraordinary for two reasons. Peggy is a very proud PFLAG mom and that in itself makes it remarkable that she spent the day at the Capitol lobbying for a transgender-inclusive ENDA. More remarkable and utterly humbling though is that Peggy lobbied with me today even though her husband Judge Ed Gage passed away last Friday. Peggy still came to DC from Tallahassee to stand up for her lesbian daughter and for all of us because, she explained, there was important work to do and because her late husband would have wanted her to. We grieve her loss and are thankful and in awe that she found the strength to stand with us and demand justice in this very difficult week for her.

Every afternoon at 1PM, we have co-chaired a conference call for members of the United ENDA Coalition. Today our absolutely solid ally Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin joined us to give us her take on ENDA, assure us that we are making progress and exhort us to stay focused and see this through confidently and with moral purpose. We should be comforted to know that she is solidly on our side as we move ENDA forward this year and every year until it passes.

As many of you know, Congressman Barney Frank has made speeches and held a press conference in which he has expressed that he plans to move forward with the weakened, non-inclusive ENDA (H.R. 3685). While that is unfortunate, we continue to urge everyone, as Congresswoman Baldwin has, to keep our eyes on the prize and not be lured by distractions. NCTE continues to be entirely focused on moving the ball forward every possible inch.

Mara Keisling

Daily Update Tuesday, October 9, 2007

It is clear that it is time to step it up another notch. Our collective efforts are obviously working spectacularly. Congress is hearing us. Tonight our amazing ally the Equality Federation told us that they have documented over 14,000 individual contacts to members of Congress. That's just the contacts we know of. Tens of thousands of transgender people and our allies have reached into their hearts and mobilized to make the case for transgender rights and LGBT unity. Almost 300 organizations have chosen to stand with us and attach their names to our joint effort.

Another significant thing happened tonight. Up to this point, no member of Congress has done more to advance transgender rights in Washington, DC than Congressman Barney Frank. I am truly distressed when transgender or allied people misunderstand the great work and tremendous heart he thus far has put into this lifesaving work-lifesaving work for transgender and all LBGT people. But tonight we respectfully cannot disagree more with his proposed strategy, nor agree more that there is additional work to do.

This evening Congressman Frank took to the House floor to discuss transgender rights-this time with a message he correctly noted we would be less happy to hear. He reminded us that we have not yet finished the important education of Congress and the public that we diligently set about doing a decade or more ago. Mr. Frank's words are a call to action, and we must step up our educational efforts with new found focus and intensity.

There are, no doubt, others who are disheartened by the Congressman's words, but just that he spoke them, tells a story of our success and of the need for us to finish the education we have done so well together.

People do not ask for their civil rights when Congress is ready to give those rights happily and wrapped neatly. They ask for, they demand, their rights when they need them. And LGBT people need job protections rights now. Transgender people need job protection rights now. My friend Angela reminded me this weekend that ENDA is a matter of life and death. Transgender people around the country are still having their lives destroyed by the ignorance and discrimination that Congress can help us end. Some transgender people are losing our jobs, our homes, our families, and even our very lives to the despair, to the hopelessness that discrimination can lead to.

We will continue doing this education and we agree with Congressman Frank that we must continue stronger and with greater purpose.

Daily Update from Mara--October 8

Today is the fourth straight day that members of Congress have been gone from DC. Fortunately this means that people all over the country have been able to meet with Congresspeople back in the districts, in their offices, at parades, at town hall meetings. And we are getting feedback that it is working. It will take through Tuesday and into Wednesday to get a good read on what members of Congress think once they are back at work. NCTE and others will be all over Capitol Hill all this week, while people in the states are doing visits and calls there.

PFLAG is having its national lobby day this week and NCTE will be participating in their national conference this weekend. I need to say a word here about PFLAG. They have been amazing allies for several years now--at least as long as I have been in DC and probably longer. They are very welcoming of trans people, they have more and more transgender-specific programming and they have stood absolutely solid with us on federal policy. They rock.
While on the subject of PFLAG, they are a good symbol of what has happened over the past couple of weeks. When the PFLAG national office sent out their first action alert about this ENDA crisis, they received intense feedback and mobilization. One of their chapters even asked if they could get back from Congress the 600 cards that they had collected in support of an inclusive ENDA. I just love PFLAG and encourage everyone (and their mother) to get involved in PFLAG.

An interesting thing I have never seen before happened today. All over the Internet people started posting an opinion about the ENDA situation and HRC's part in it that was attributed to me, but which was actually written by a different Mara, a friend of mine. It spread so quickly that the Advocate magazine on line did a story about ENDA and HRC and attributed Mara's views to me even though they contradicted what I had told them earlier in the story. Neither me nor the other Mara can be blamed for sloppy reporting or blog posted, but both of us took it very seriously and had the reporter fix the story. I know Mara is not that common a name, but that's just plain sloppy not looking at a last name.

On Tuesday, Congress is back in DC and the intensity begins again. NCTE will be there.

~Mara

Mara Keisling
Executive Director

Daily ENDA Update from Mara Keisling

A wonderful quote:

"This is our moment of truth and we cannot blink...This is not the time to do the bigots' work for them, to make excuses, or to call fear 'pragmatism.'"

Nadine Smith
Equality Florida

My friend Nadine is exactly correct. We cannot blink.

We are hearing from other lobbyists, Congressional staffers and even members of Congress that constituents have really been turning out the visits, phone calls and other contacts. Please keep it up. We definitely have people talking on Capitol Hill. We have a wall in the office that has a list of Congresspeople whose support we must have to win and another wall that has a list of Congresspeople who have confirmed their support over the past week or so. We have been moving names over from one list to the other for several days as they are confirmed as supporters and we are very excited about how quickly that list is growing.

Please remember that tomorrow (Monday) Congress is closed for Columbus Day, but that many legislators will be back in their districts doing parades, town hall meetings and etc. These are really great places to have a few moments with your Congressperson. We at NCTE will be open tomorrow and, along with many allies, will continue to work on the education that is having huge impact.

So much has happened over this weekend. A whole lot of people have visited with their members of Congress back in the districts. I just received another visit report a few minutes ago from South Carolina. Sometime yesterday it appears that we passed 300 organizations who have signed on to support a unified ENDA. We'll have a more exact number tomorrow when Ryan gets back to updating the list. If yours is an organizations that has signed on to the statement, but your name hasn't appeared on the list yet, please be patient—300 names is a lot to process so it can take a while and we did get a bit behind this weekend.

About 75-100 activists led by the National Transgender Advocacy Coalition (NTAC) gathered at HRC's national dinner last night to further advance a transgender-inclusive ENDA. A concurrent vigil took place in the Castro in San Francisco that also had a great turnout and impact. I stopped by the DC protest and was honored to see a really great mix of transgender people and allies, all really worked up and taking thoughtful, respectful and effective action.

I saw a very interesting note in the New York Post, which has never been very supportive of transgender people. The note said: " THAT we erred yesterday in referring to a pre-op transsexual as "a she-male" - a term GLAAD informs us is "a dehumanizing slur." We apologize to any and all we may have offended . . ." It is amazing progress that the post would apologize to transgender people for using insulting language. I also think it bears noting that GLAAD has been doing a very solid job in recent years working with media outlets on ever more fair coverage of transgender people and our lives.

Finally, I want to thank everyone who answered our call for increased support. This ENDA crisis has really increased our expenses and your financial help is genuinely helping a great deal as we have ramped up to do this important work. If you would like to help with a donation, please send a check to NCTE or go to our website at http://nctequality.org/donate.html. We still really need your financial help to make our work happen.

Daily UpdateThursday, October 4, 2007 from Mara

Today I spent quite a bit of time explaining (re-explaining) to the media and others that the current ENDA situation is not one of pragmatic people versus crazy idealists (not that there is anything wrong with being either practical or idealistic). No one is demanding that transgender people get ours or no one gets anything. The greatest likelihood in fact is that this year will end with no ENDA protections becoming law to protect anyone. We will all need to work together to pass the bill in the House, even harder in the Senate and then somehow overcome a likely veto by the White House.

Additionally, gender identity is not synonymous with transgender and sexual orientation is not synonymous with gay and bi people. Just as trans people face discrimination based on sexual orientation, gay people face gender identity discrimination. Yesterday, five legal organizations (Lambda Legal, National Center for Lesbian Rights, The Transgender Law Center, GLAD, and the ACLU) issued a joint statement (www.lambdalegal.org) that explained this and other legal shortcomings of a sexual orientation-only ENDA.

A split ENDA hurts all LGBT people-whether you are pragmatic, idealistic or, like most of us, both.
Today (Thursday) was another very fast paced day in Washington and around the country. Congressional offices are definitely hearing from everyone and it is just as definite that everyone's great work is really impacting things. Members of Congress and their staffs are telling us that they are getting calls and visits from people like you-people who live in their districts.

The number of organizations who have publicly proclaimed their support for transgender people and our desire to pass the fully inclusive Employment Non-Discrimination Act (H.R. 2015) was up at about 180 the last time I checked sometime this afternoon. Earlier today, we blew past 2,500 signatures on the petitions that we co-produced with the Transgender Law Center. People are really enthused and turning that enthusiasm into action. And it's working.

One side effect of all of this sudden somewhat unexpected activity is that our expenses have gone up tremendously. Suddenly we are paying for meals for volunteers, lots of taxis to Capitol Hill, consultants, cell phone minutes. This coming week, it looks like there will be some travel costs and hotel rooms for specific people who we need to have here in DC. All in all, we think that this may cost us an additional $10,000-15,000--all of which is very difficult for a small organization like NCTE. Though so many people are doing so much, your financial support would also be very helpful. One donor sent us $150--one dollar in honor of each of the LGBT organizations who has stepped up in solidarity to support transgender people and our effort of keep ENDA inclusive of all LGBT people. If you would like to make a donation, please go to our website at http://nctequality.org/donate.html. It would help a lot.

Thank you.~Mara

Morning Reflections from Justin

I got up this morning and, like every day, I opened my e-mail box while gulping down some form of caffeine. This past week has absolutely changed my attitude about what I find there, though. Instead of being annoyed at junk mail or overwhelmed by all the need to clean out that mailbox, I see all of those action alerts from LGBT and allied organizations and I am reminded over and over again of the intense power of solidarity. I feel proud and I feel connected. Every few minutes an e-mail pops up talking about the urgency of keeping ENDA transgender inclusive. And when I check my work e-mail, it's filling up with people asking how they can help or reporting on what they've already accomplished. When I get tired, those messages all give me new energy.

I hope that you, too, are feeling this sense that we are in this struggle together. We are connected, by electronic messages making their way from your house to mine and back again, and by our commitment to being one community, united for justice.

The LGBT community is saying loudly and clearly that the T is a part of US. If politicians try to leave trans people off the bus, well, we'll catch the next one. But we're also pointing out that there's plenty of room on the bus for all.

One reason to take action this weekend and the days to come is to be a part of this feeling, this sense of community.

From Mara Keisling

(October 3, 2007)

Wow. What a week. It's been so crazy and so urgent, we simply have not had time to write enough about what is going on. Now that there are dozens of people working fulltime and thousands engaged in a lot of different ways on getting a transgender-inclusive ENDA passed, we are going to try to take a few minutes every evening for the next two weeks to explain what's going on. Tonight it is my turn.

Only five years ago it would have been inconceivable to see what we are seeing today. Over 150 organizations have now signed on and are active participants in the United ENDA campaign. That's 150 LGBT organizations standing together with transgender people to say that we want H.R. 2015 passed with protections based on both sexual orientation and gender identity. We have helped create a campaign called United ENDA which we are helping to coordinate. We are providing each of these organizations with ways that they can get involved in trying to pass ENDA the way we all want it.

We have been given a few more weeks to shore up the votes we need to pass the ENDA bill that will protect all LGBT people. In order to do that, we are pulling out all the stops. At NCTE, we are working 16+ hours per day. In addition to the 150 organizations who are mobilizing their memberships, about 15-25 organizations with Washington, DC lobbyists met today to pitch in and get the job done, and over 2,500 people have signed our petition at:
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/transgender_inclusive_ENDA/index.html.

And NCTE is right in the middle of all of that. We are meeting with members of Congress, helping to coordinate the 150+ (and growing) coalition, doing media interviews, and still trying to carry on with our normal business.

A little while ago this evening, we sent an action alert that outlines some things you can do to get involved. We hope you do. We have a few weeks to prove that members of Congress are willing to pass a bill that will protect transgender people and all LGBT people from job discrimination. We could really really use your help

.~Mara

NEW ENDA information

We've just posted a whole new page of information about the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), including background information and, mostly importantly, what we all can do to make a difference on this bill. Please visit http://nctequality.org/ENDA.html for more info.

We heard today from members of our community, calling in from the Rayburn House Office building on Capitol Hill, telling us that the calls and visits were absolutely making a difference in the minds of legislators. The actions we are taking are letting Congress know that the LGBT communities are united behind a transgender-inclusive bill and that we absolutely need employment protection.

We've got to keep it up! Specific information about steps you can take is here. Please, take a couple of minutes and make a stand for your civil rights today.

NCTE STATEMENT ON THE EMPLOYMENT NON-DISCRIMINATION ACT

On September 27, 2007, our Congressional allies apparently abandoned the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (H.R. 2015), the centerpiece of the LGBT legislative agenda, and introduced two new pieces of legislation which separate the protected classes of gender identity and sexual orientation. NCTE firmly rejects this strategy and joins most other national and many state LGBT organizations in actively opposing these two new bills.

Until last week, the majority of our congressional allies and organizational partners were confident that our years of diligent work were ready to bear fruit. We believe that the original version ENDA, which was fully inclusive of both gender identity and sexual orientation, was prematurely abandoned and should still be called to a vote. Find out more at http://nctequality.org/news.html#ENDAupdate

Historic Hate Crimes Victory

The Hate Crimes Amendment to the Defense Authorization Act (S. 1105) was passed on a voice vote of the Senate on September 27th. Immediately prior to the voice vote, a cloture vote to end debate of the Amendment was passed 60-39 with bipartisan support.This amendment was already passed on May 3rd in the House by a vote of 237-180. NCTE is calling on President Bush to sign the bill with this historic provision included.

Mara Keisling, NCTE Executive Director, says, "While transgender people still have many obstacles to overcome, we are overjoyed that the hard work of so many people is coming to fruition."

The Hate Crimes Amendment extends the federal hate crimes law to include sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, and disability.