Lamda Legal's Analysis on proposed ENDA changes - this bodes well for no GLB

Lambda Legal’s Analysis of Stripped Down Version of ENDA: Gender Identity Protections Gone and Inadequate Protections for Lesbians and Gay Men

‘You can’t be fired for being a lesbian or a gay man, but you can be fired if your boss thinks you fit their stereotype of one.’


(New York, October 1, 2007) — Lambda Legal's preliminary assessment of the revised version of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act shows the bill to be riddled with loopholes in addition to failing altogether to protect transgender people against discrimination.

"Leaving out protections for transgender people is unacceptable, and passing a bill riddled with loopholes will make it harder to achieve equality on the job," said Kevin Cathcart, Executive Director at Lambda Legal. "You can't be fired for being a lesbian or a gay man, but you can be fired if your boss thinks you fit their stereotype of one."

"After working together for so many years on a bill to provide protections for the LGBT community on the job — we can do better than this," Cathcart added.

Preliminary Analysis Summary:

As a point of clarity for the community: The recent version is not simply the old version with the transgender protections stripped out — but rather has modified the old version in several additional and troubling ways.


In addition to the missing vital protections for transgender people on the job, this new bill also leaves out a key element to protect any employee, including lesbians and gay men who may not conform to their employer's idea of how a man or woman should look and act. This is a huge loophole through which employers sued for sexual orientation discrimination can claim that their conduct was actually based on gender expression, a type of discrimination that the new bill does not prohibit.


This version of ENDA states without qualification that refusal by employers to extend health insurance benefits to the domestic partners of their employees that are provided only to married couples cannot be considered sexual orientation discrimination. The old version at least provided that states and local governments could require that employees be provided domestic partner health insurance when such benefits are provided to spouses.


In the previous version of ENDA the religious exemptions had some limitations. The new version has a blanket exemption under which, for example, hospitals or universities run by faith-based groups can fire or refuse to hire people they think might be gay or lesbian.


Lambda Legal has long worked on employment discrimination issues and has represented clients who have faced discrimination or harassment at work based on their sexual orientation or gender identity.

###

Lisa Hardaway 212-809-8585 ext.266; Email: lhardaway@lambdalegal.org

Lambda Legal is a national organization committed to achieving full recognition of the civil rights of lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, transgender people and those with HIV through impact litigation, education and public policy work.

document updated 10/01/07

ooh piccies!

The Catholic League has posted some lovely pictures of Folsom and the Sisters enjoying the festivities on their website: http://www.catholic.org/adv/catholicleague/folsom1.php

It's good to know that they love us enough to create a photo albumn of our pictures. Erotica, you look fabulous!

Call your representative, here's the number

Call, write, fax - don't wait, contact your representative now!

Ask to talk with the staff member who is working with the Employment Non-Discrimination or other civil rights legislation. And tell them in your own words why they should support a Transgender-INCLUSIVE version of ENDA now.

Committee on Education and Labour2181 Rayburn House Office Building Washington, DC 20515 t: 1202 225 3725

Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labour, and Pensions Members in RedPertinent Staff Members:Jody Calemine, Labor Policy Deputy DirectorJeffrey Hancuff, Staff Assistant, LaborName State-Dist Phone (202) Democrats* George Miller, Chairman (CA-07) 225-2095 2205* Dale E. Kildee (MI-05) 225-3611 2107* Donald M. Payne (NJ-10) 225-3436 2209* Robert E. Andrews (NJ-01) 225-6501 2439* Robert C. Scott (VA-03) 225-8351 1201* Lynn C. Woolsey (CA-06) 225-5161 2263* Ruben Hinojosa (TX-15) 225-2531 2463* Carolyn McCarthy (NY-04) 225-5516 106* John F. Tierney (MA-06) 225-8020 2238* Dennis J. Kucinich (OH-10) 225-5871 2445* David Wu (OR-01) 225-0855 2338* Rush D. Holt (NJ-12) 225-5801 1019* Susan A. Davis (CA-53) 225-2040 1526* Danny K. Davis (IL-07) 225-5006 2159* Raúl M. Grijalva (AZ-07) 225-2435 1440* Timothy H. Bishop (NY-01) 225-3826 225* Linda T. Sánchez (CA-39) 225-6676 1222* John Sarbanes (MD-03) 225-4016 426* Joe Sestak (PA-07) 225-2011 1022* Dave Loebsack (IA-02) 225-6576 1513* Mazie Hirono (HI-02) 225-4906 1229* Jason Altmire (PA-04) 225-2565 1419* John Yarmuth (KY-03) 225-5401 319* Phil Hare (IL-17) 225-5905 1118* Yvette Clarke (NY-11) 225-6231 1029* Joe Courtney (CT-02) 225-2076 215* Carol Shea-Porter (NH-01) 225-5456 1508Republicans* Howard P. "Buck" McKeon, Ranking Member (CA-25) 225-1956 2351 * Thomas E. Petri (WI-06) 225-2476 2462* Peter Hoekstra (MI-02) 225-4401 2234* Michael N. Castle (DE-At Large) 225-4165 1233* Mark E. Souder (IN-03) 225-4436 2231* Vernon J. Ehlers (MI-03) 225-3831 2182* Judy Biggert (IL-13) 225-3515 1034* Todd Russell Platts (PA-19) 225-5836 1032* Ric Keller (FL-8) 225-2176 419* Joe Wilson (SC-02) 225-2452 212* John Kline (MN-02) 225-2271 1429* Cathy McMorris Rodgers (WA-05) 225-2006 1708* Kenny Marchant (TX-24) 225-6605 1037* Tom Price (GA-06) 225-4501 424* Luis G. Fortuao (PR) 225-2615 126* Charles W. Boustany, Jr. (LA-07) 225-2031 1117* Virginia Foxx (NC-05) 225-2071 430* John R. "Randy" Kuhl, Jr. (NY-29) 225-3161 1505* Rob Bishop (UT-01) 225-0453 124* David Davis (TN-01) 225-6356 514* Timothy Walberg (MI-07) 225-6276 325* Dean Heller (NV-02) 225-6155 1023

Other Members of Congress who should be contacted:House Speaker Nancy Pelosi 225-4965 235Majority Leader Steny Hoyer 225-4131 1705Barney Frank 225-5931 2252Tammy Baldwin 225-2906 2446Majority Whip James Clyburn 225-3315 2135

This is the closest we have ever been to passing a Transgender-inclusive ENDA bill. Don't let political weakness rob us of our rights once again. Call now.

Catholic League Boycotts Miller

Contact: Miller spokesman Julian Green at green.julian@mbco.com.

Yes, DO contact Julian Green, please.
Tell him WE support him.
Please, gank this from me and post it to YOUR journals......
Tell your friends.
Tell your families; choice AND origin to thank the Miller company for supporting GLBT events like Folsom.

Why? See below:

Catholic Group Boycotts Miller Over 'Anti-Christian' Event
By Randy Hall
CNSNews.com Staff Writer/Editor
September 27, 2007

(CNsNews.com) - The leader of the Catholic League on Thursday urged more than 200 religious organizations to join his group in refusing to buy products from the Miller Brewing Company because of the company's sponsorship of the Folsom Street Fair in San Francisco this weekend.

"Never have we experienced greater corporate arrogance than in this dispute with the Miller Brewing Company," said Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League, in a news release on Thursday.

"This all started when we learned that Miller was sponsoring an event that featured an obscene ad thrashing the Last Supper," Donohue said. "After being pressured, Miller offered a lame statement of regret and said it was pulling its logo from the ad."

Donohue called the Folsom Street Fair an "incredibly outrageous and palpably anti-Christian event."

Miller Brewing told Cybercast News Service on Tuesday that although it has supported the Folsom Street Fair for several years, "we take exception to the poster the organizing committee developed this year. We understand some individuals may find the imagery offensive, and we have asked the organizers to remove our logo from the poster effective immediately."

But the Catholic League says Miller's logo is still posted on the website of the street fair. "Miller refuses to withdraw its sponsorship," Donohue said Thursday.

"To top it off, when we informed them that some of the money being raised at this festival was being funneled to the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, they were unimpressed."

The Catholic League president described the Sisters as "an anti-Catholic group" that is holding a mock Last Supper dinner Thursday night in San Francisco. The group is not an actual church order but is instead a group of homosexuals who dress as nuns and use names such as "Sister Hysterectoria" while taking part in events that "promulgate universal joy and expiate stigmatic guilt."

"Accordingly, Miller leaves us with no options," Donohue said. "We are calling on more than 200 Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist and Hindu organizations to join with us in a nationwide boycott of Miller beer.

"We feel confident that once our religious allies kick in, and once the public sees the photos of an event Miller is proudly supporting, the Milwaukee brewery will come to its senses and pull its sponsorship altogether," he added. "If it doesn't, the only winners will be Anheuser Busch and Coors."

The Human Rights Campaign, a homosexual advocacy group, gives Miller Brewing a 90 percent score on HRC's latest annual Corporate Equality Index, which measures how accommodating a company's policy is to its homosexual employees.

Contact: Miller spokesman Julian Green at green.julian@mbco.com.

In Hommage to the Muppets