1.) Call Senators Lisa Murkowski and Mark Begich and ask them to support ENDA, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act:
- ENDA will add sexual orientation and gender identity to the list of protections for paid workers in businesses with over 15 employees, and for local, state, and federal government employees. (Religious organizations are exempt, and so are the Armed Forces.)
- ENDA is likely to pass in the House, and is only a few votes short in the Senate. President Obama supports ENDA and has agreed to sign it.
- Earlier this year, Alaskans Together and Bent Alaska asked you to call Senators Begich and Murkowski in support of the Hate Crimes Prevention Act. Many Alaskans called, both of our senators voted in favor, and it was signed by Pres. Obama on October 28. Now, for the first time, LGBT Alaskans can turn to the federal government for help investigating and prosecuting violent hate crimes when our city and state authorities refuse to protect us. For the first time, harmful acts that target LGBT Alaskans are recognized as illegal.
- It's time to do that again with ENDA to protect gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender workers from discrimination in Anchorage, in Alaska, and all over America.
- It's time to pass employment protections for thousands of LGBT Alaskans, protections that cannot be blocked by an assembly chair, vetoed by a new mayor or repealed by a mob.
2.) Send this message to your friends and ask all Alaskans to call our senators in support of ENDA.
YES on ENDA
Senator Murkowski: click here to send her an email, or call her office in DC: 202-224-6665, Anchorage: 907-271-3735, Fairbanks: 907-456-0233, Wasilla: 907-376-7665, Kenai: 907-283-5808 or Ketchikan: 907-225-6880.
Senator Begich: click here to send him an email, or call his office in DC: (202) 224-3004, or the Anchorage office 907-225-6880 which is toll free for callers with an Alaska (907) area code.
Please contact your lawmakers. Sen.Begich is a supporter but needs to step up and be a co-sponsor. Sen. Murkowski has been non-committal. We need them both to co-sponsor. Todays political dynamic is minority rule, so we need 60 co-sponsors in the Senate just to bring it to a floor vote. Also don't forget your lawmakers in the House. That vote may come before Thanksgiving! Contact them!!
ReplyDeleteHi T2inDC, and welcome to Alaska! We only have one House member for the whole state, Rep. Don Young (R), and he doesn't vote for anything gay or democrat-sponsored unless he can get his pork projects attached to it, so don't count on that. We know Begich supports ENDA and our goal is to get Murkowski to vote for it too. We'll do what we can. Thanks for your support and for spreading the word on ENDA!
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