justatransgirl
10-31-2007, 02:11 AM
The following was just posted to the TASC group in San Diego.
So I guess we will be packing our bags for New Zealand or Canada soon.
Sigh,
TS Jamie :-)
ENDA Update
from Mara Keisling, Executive Director
Tuesday October 30, 2007
There hasn't been much in the way of news to report. We are beginning
the sixth week of this ENDA situation or crisis or opportunity. A huge
amount of education has been done. Quite actually tens of thousands
of people have been engaged. And we are basically where we were at the
beginning-our best allies in Congress with strong support from HRC
still seem determined to jam a civil rights bill through the House of
Representatives that virtually every LGBT organization, including HRC,
says they do not want.
Because of the Congressional calendar for this fall, we are one way or
another coming to resolution. At least for now.
My best estimation is that sometime today (possibly even before you
read this) or tomorrow a decision will be made by House leadership as
to whether to run H.R. 3685 and whether to first allow the Baldwin
Amendment to be debated and/or voted on.
Until then, we are encouraging all of our members to visit their local
Congressperson today or tomorrow to express one last time the need to
pass a unified ENDA. We must convey the need to stop the divisive HR
3685 and move a unified ENDA or nothing. Mend it or end it. Fix it
or nix it.
At this point in the train wreck though, the truth is that no real
victory is possible for anyone-not this round. If they pass the
divided and divisive bill, the vast majority of us in LGBT-land are
disappointed. We are not and will not be divided because very few LGBT
organizations are not on the United ENDA side in this. Some fringe-we
are almost the whole cloth of the community. More importantly, our
collective federal, state, and local work is set back years. No ENDA,
despite how hard the House leadership tries to push the divisive ENDA
at us, is going to become law this year. There is no incremental gain
possible. First, the bill will not be signed into law thus no gain,
and second, the incremental gain would be most like the incremental
gain promised when Don't Ask Don't Tell was similarly shoved down the
throats of a, to say the least, reluctant LGBT community. Mere weeks
and months after that fiasco, it was clear to almost everyone what a
harmful ill-conceived increment that was. About 15 years of work still
hasn't undone that damage.
We know that the unified and inclusive bill (H.R. 2015) is off the
table for this year, so passing that is very much not an option at
this point. The Baldwin Amendment is apparently off the table. But
even if the Amendment were still open for discussion, some LGBT
supporters in Congress and our community have done such a thorough job
of undermining the work that we all have been doing that it has become
barely a long shot to pass it. [Still, as of now, it is unclear if the
Baldwin Amendment would be allowed by House leadership. One thought
is that Ms. Baldwin may be permitted to introduce her Amendment and
speak on its behalf, then withdraw it prior to a vote. On the one
hand, having Tammy Baldwin and other supporters speak about the need
for gender identity protections would be helpful in concept; on the
other hand, it would unlikely be sufficiently helpful to undo the
damage caused by passing the divisive bill minutes later.]
If the bill is pulled for now so that we can work together on a
unified bill, that too is hardly a victory. Relationships have been
strained tremendously, resources and political capital have been
expended needlessly and we all go back to square one minus several.
However, this is still the best option. Our goal has to be moving the
ball forward to pass a bill that will protect all of us and until the
divisive bill has been pulled from consideration, we cannot begin
again working together to pass such a unified bill
Any victory by anyone at this point would be utterly pyrrhic.
The only victory to come from this crisis has been the advancement
(albeit incremental) of the LGBT community message of solidarity and
willingness to step up for social justice. Hundreds of organizations
and tens of thousands of individuals have spoken strongly and clearly
about the need for us to stick together to have the best chance of
winning protections for all of us. That is a huge win. And I will be
forever grateful for that.
Mara Keisling
Executive Director
National Center for Transgender Equality
So I guess we will be packing our bags for New Zealand or Canada soon.
Sigh,
TS Jamie :-)
ENDA Update
from Mara Keisling, Executive Director
Tuesday October 30, 2007
There hasn't been much in the way of news to report. We are beginning
the sixth week of this ENDA situation or crisis or opportunity. A huge
amount of education has been done. Quite actually tens of thousands
of people have been engaged. And we are basically where we were at the
beginning-our best allies in Congress with strong support from HRC
still seem determined to jam a civil rights bill through the House of
Representatives that virtually every LGBT organization, including HRC,
says they do not want.
Because of the Congressional calendar for this fall, we are one way or
another coming to resolution. At least for now.
My best estimation is that sometime today (possibly even before you
read this) or tomorrow a decision will be made by House leadership as
to whether to run H.R. 3685 and whether to first allow the Baldwin
Amendment to be debated and/or voted on.
Until then, we are encouraging all of our members to visit their local
Congressperson today or tomorrow to express one last time the need to
pass a unified ENDA. We must convey the need to stop the divisive HR
3685 and move a unified ENDA or nothing. Mend it or end it. Fix it
or nix it.
At this point in the train wreck though, the truth is that no real
victory is possible for anyone-not this round. If they pass the
divided and divisive bill, the vast majority of us in LGBT-land are
disappointed. We are not and will not be divided because very few LGBT
organizations are not on the United ENDA side in this. Some fringe-we
are almost the whole cloth of the community. More importantly, our
collective federal, state, and local work is set back years. No ENDA,
despite how hard the House leadership tries to push the divisive ENDA
at us, is going to become law this year. There is no incremental gain
possible. First, the bill will not be signed into law thus no gain,
and second, the incremental gain would be most like the incremental
gain promised when Don't Ask Don't Tell was similarly shoved down the
throats of a, to say the least, reluctant LGBT community. Mere weeks
and months after that fiasco, it was clear to almost everyone what a
harmful ill-conceived increment that was. About 15 years of work still
hasn't undone that damage.
We know that the unified and inclusive bill (H.R. 2015) is off the
table for this year, so passing that is very much not an option at
this point. The Baldwin Amendment is apparently off the table. But
even if the Amendment were still open for discussion, some LGBT
supporters in Congress and our community have done such a thorough job
of undermining the work that we all have been doing that it has become
barely a long shot to pass it. [Still, as of now, it is unclear if the
Baldwin Amendment would be allowed by House leadership. One thought
is that Ms. Baldwin may be permitted to introduce her Amendment and
speak on its behalf, then withdraw it prior to a vote. On the one
hand, having Tammy Baldwin and other supporters speak about the need
for gender identity protections would be helpful in concept; on the
other hand, it would unlikely be sufficiently helpful to undo the
damage caused by passing the divisive bill minutes later.]
If the bill is pulled for now so that we can work together on a
unified bill, that too is hardly a victory. Relationships have been
strained tremendously, resources and political capital have been
expended needlessly and we all go back to square one minus several.
However, this is still the best option. Our goal has to be moving the
ball forward to pass a bill that will protect all of us and until the
divisive bill has been pulled from consideration, we cannot begin
again working together to pass such a unified bill
Any victory by anyone at this point would be utterly pyrrhic.
The only victory to come from this crisis has been the advancement
(albeit incremental) of the LGBT community message of solidarity and
willingness to step up for social justice. Hundreds of organizations
and tens of thousands of individuals have spoken strongly and clearly
about the need for us to stick together to have the best chance of
winning protections for all of us. That is a huge win. And I will be
forever grateful for that.
Mara Keisling
Executive Director
National Center for Transgender Equality