Massachusetts Coalition
for a United ENDA

Dear friends and colleagues,

As you may have heard last week, our own Massachusetts Representative, Barney Frank, was going to remove gender identity from the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA HB 2015), but as a result of being bombarded with calls and emails, Speaker Pelosi and Rep. Barney Frank issued a statement making clear the committee vote on replacing ENDA with a version that only protects sexual orientation would be delayed for a short time, allowing LGBT and ally advocates a limited amount of time to continue expanding support for the bill that protects us all.

We in Massachusetts want to impress upon Rep. Barney Frank and the Massachusetts Congressional Delegation that the LGBT and ally community of Massachusetts supports a version of ENDA that is fully inclusive.

To achieve that goal, we are asking organizations to sign onto letter being put forth by the LGBT and ally community as the Massachusetts Coalition for a United ENDA, asking our Massachusetts Congressional Delegation to pass a fully- inclusive ENDA in this Congress and to oppose any version that leaves transgender people behind.

To sign onto to this letter please email enda@masstpc.org with your name, your organization, and city. Please sign on before Oct 9th as Leadership of the Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition will be meeting with legislators next week.

  October 4, 2007

  Dear Massachusetts Congressional Delegates:

  We the undersigned represent the diversity of the Massachusetts lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) and ally community. We are asking you to keep your commitment for a fully inclusive Employment Non-Discrimination Act, HB 2015 that protects sexual orientation and gender identity. We oppose HB 3685 or any employment non-discrimination bills that exclude gender identity and/or leave any part of the LGBT community without protections and basic security.

  Employment non-discrimination bills that only include sexual orientation would leave out any employee, including gay men, lesbians, bisexuals, and straight employees, whose gender identity or gender expression does not conform to stereotypes about what their gender ought to be. It would leave a gaping, unacceptable hole in employment protections for all persons.

  Please stand strong with us and support only HB 2015, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act that would truly protect employees.

  Sincerely,

Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition
AIDS Project Worcester, Inc
Bisexual Resource Center
Black Gay Pride New England
Boston Alliance of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Youth
Boston COLAGE
Boston Pride
Cape & Islands Gay & Straight Youth Alliance
Center for New Words
East Coast FTM Group
Friends of the Governor's Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth
Gay Men's Domestic Violence Project
GenderTalk.com
GLBT Youth Support Project of Health Care of S.E. Mass
GLSEN Boston
Greater Boston PFLAG
Gender Education & Media Inc.
Harvard University Transgender Task Force
Interfaith Coalition for Transgender Equality
Keshet
KnowThyNeighbor.org 
Massachusetts Chapter of the Transgender American Veterans Association (TAVA)
Massachusetts Commission on GLBT Youth
Mass Lesbian and Gay Bar Association
Massachusetts Gay & Lesbian Political Caucus
MataHari: Eye of the Day
North Shore Transgender Alliance
Out Now, Inc.
Project 10 East GSA at Cambridge Rindge and Latin School, Cambridge, MA
Sexual Minorities Archives
Simmons Progressive Librarians Guild
Somos Latin@s LGBT Coalition of Mass.
STAAR (Staff Team on Anti-Oppression, Anti-Racism, Accessibilities, and Multiculturalism), Unitarian Universalist Association
Tiffany Club of New England
The Network/La Red
Truth Serum Productions
Wellesley College SPECTRUM
 
Individual Signatories:
Reverend Laurie J. Auffant, Unitarian Universalists of Lowell
Ellen Rottersmann, LICSW, Brookline
Amy C. Liss  Lowell, MA
Denise Leclair, Executive Director, International Foundation for Gender Education
Greg Sensing, Cambridge, MA
Jen Kiok, Executive Director, Spontaneous Celebrations
Judah Abijah Dorrington, People to People
Lisa Rubin, First Parish in Bedford
D'Jamil Graham, What A Relief!
Jennifer Levi, Senior Staff Attorney, Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders
Rachel Popkin, Executive Director, Youth Guardian Services
Jaclyn Jones, SpeakOut
Arthur Lipkin, Cambridge Lavender Alliance
Don Gorton, Gay and Lesbian Anti-Violence Project
James Merola, Boston
Tynan Power, Florence, MA
Kelly Lough, Amherst, MA
Mark Carmien, owner, Northampton's Pride & Joy
Keri Aulita, Boston Pride Committee, Boston
Neal Kane, Chair, The History Project
Joe McKee, Executive Director, AIDS Project Worcester, Inc
Lourdes Brache-Tabar, Clinical Director, Concilio Hispano, Inc.
Don Gorton, Chairperson, Massachusetts Gay and Lesbian Anti-Violence Project
Caitlyn Keckeissen, Boston, MA
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your groupname here: enda@masstpc.org