congress

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Hate Crimes Bill Passes Congress

Submitted by Barbara on Thu, 10/22/2009 - 2:59pm

Just less than a month before the Transgender Day of Remembrance, a day that marks countless senseless deaths in our community, the US Senate has joined the US House of Representatives in passing the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Bill. The bill, an amendment to a military appropriations bill, passed the Senate 68-29. President Obama has already promised his signature on the bill.
Under the law, hate crimes based on sexual orientation and gender identity would be added to the statues that protect individuals against felonious attacks based on race, gender, or religion. The bill is the first-ever favorable Congressional action for the gender-identity community. The bill is named for Matthew Shepard, who was murdered in 1998 by a group of men in Wyoming because they believed he was gay.
A similar law was inserted into another military appropriations measure in 2007 that made it through a preliminary vote by the Congress. Then President, George W. Bush, threatened to veto the bill if it was not removed from the military appropriation. The amendment was subsequently removed.
For more information see http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/23/us/politics/23hate.html?hp

ENDA Introduced in US Senate

Submitted by Barbara on Thu, 08/06/2009 - 7:44am

The Task Force Applauds ENDA  Introduction

A quarter century after Seattle’s City Council — through the encouragement of Ingersoll Gender Center — passed one of the first ordinances protecting the rights of  individuals facing gender identity issues against discrimination in housing and employment, the United States Senate has begun action to make those rights federal law.  Jeff Merkley, Oregon’s newest US Senator, introduced the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) in the upper chamber, along with co-sponsors Ted Kennedy (D-Massachusetts) and Susan Collins (R-Maine). 

 
 ENDA expands Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to ban discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. The House version of the bill was introduced in June by Rep. Barney Frank (D-Massachusetts) — along with 152 co-sponsors. ”At Ingersoll we have learned that we must never quit, even for a moment, in our struggle for fairness and full equality,” says Marsha Botzer, founder and chair of Ingersoll, “We are proud of our role in the community, a role committed to informing everyone on the content and meaning of the current ENDA debate in Congress. The great goal is achieving justice and equality for everyone.”
 
Washington is one of 12 states that already offer protections to lesbian, gay, and trans individuals.  Rep. Jim McDermott and Jay Inslee are among the House co-sponsors of ENDA.  Still, discrimination based on gender identity remains a force that denies equality in employment and even housing to millions of individuals.   State laws remain uneven in their protection, and even local ordinances are hard to enforce.  The force of federal law will send another loud message to a “post-racial” America that employment should be based on character and skill.

ENDA has its best chance ever for becoming law with the support of Democrats in Congress and the White House.  The President has already expressed his approval for the bill.   In 2007, ENDA came to the House floor for the first time after having its gender identity protections gutted.  Frank, the first openly gay member of Congress, says he had to remove those protections in order to get the bill through the House.  A national coalition of more than 250 groups — including Ingersoll Gender Center — fought hard, but failed to restore the gender identity provisions.  The remaining House bill was passed with some Republican votes — including Dave Reichert, who serves Washington’s 8th Congressional District.  The bill, however, never came to a vote in the US Senate, and was unlikely to be signed by then-President George W. Bush.

As the Congress heads towards a busy fall session focused on National Health Care and environmental legislation, it will be difficult for ENDA to surface in the confusion. It is important that members in Washington State get  INDIVIDUAL messages of support for ENDA  — especially from those facing discrimination based on their gender identity.   Ingersoll has compiled a list of Washington’s Congressional delegation — including telephone numbers and district office locations — here.  Write, call, and even visit your member of Congress and educate them on the importance of ENDA.   (The August recess is a good time to catch your member of Congress at home) Tell YOUR story.
 

Can We Wipe the Mustard from this Sausage?

Submitted by Barbara on Sat, 07/18/2009 - 9:19am
I have been to a sausage factory in Milwaukee and watched them make my favorite German knockwurst. I have also been to Washington, DC, several times and watched Congress make laws. I’ve found that it’s best to watch Congress just before you are about to have a colonoscopy — when your digestive system is clear. 
That thought and others entered my mind last week as I watched deliberations on the Matthew Shepherd Act this week on my favorite porn channel, C-SPAN. Deliberations that included a consternating bid to ride the expansion of the national hate crimes bill out on a pork barrel fighter aircraft bill threatened with a presidential veto. Yes, the good news is that the attachment vote to the aircraft appropriations passed in the US Senate by a startling 63-28 vote. Hate Crimes legislation has already cleared the House.   But because of the threatened presidential veto against the aircraft, the passage might be in question. The White House, meanwhile, says it expects to sign the Matthew Shepherd Act into law sometime this year.
To understand how this works, you have to understand Congress as few people outside the DC beltway do.  It’s getting hot and humid in the nation’s capitol. They don’t call them Dog Day afternoons for nothing. The August recess approaches and our Congress has a lot on its supper dish. More than 50 million Americans await an opportunity to get health care, Trans folks — along with gays and lesbians — pray for an end to the reign of terror against them, and about 20 conservative Republican seek to stop the national scourge of man-animal hybrids. 
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