urgent situation in maryland
i'm thinking about sending a small check to equality maryland after reading this.
Dear United ENDA Leaders,
It was great seeing many of you at Creating Change earlier this month. Our 2008 planning session was very instructive, and the national leadership of United ENDA is taking your recommendations and incorporating them into our plans. You’ll see more details via e-mail next week.
In the meantime, a situation is brewing in Montgomery County, Maryland that concerns LGBT people across the country. The fate of both local and national transgender anti-discrimination measures could hinge on what happens in this suburban Washington, D.C. enclave of one million people over the coming days and weeks.
Last November, the Montgomery County Council unanimously passed a law to ban discrimination on the basis of gender identity and expression. After the law passed, anti-LGBT extremists, calling themselves Citizens for a Responsible Government (CRG), and buoyed by organizations like the Family Research Council, created a campaign of scare tactics. CRG established a web site (www.notmyshower.net), robo-called hundreds of thousands of people, and began distributing literature to scare County residents into believing that "men in dresses" are going to sneak into women's and girl's bathrooms and locker rooms and prey upon them. The rhetoric has been nasty, scary, and effective. Their goal was to collect 25,000 valid signatures to overturn the anti-discrimination law at the ballot this November. Equality Maryland and a local parents' group, Teach the Facts, mounted a modest "Decline to Sign" campaign. Still, this week, CRG turned in over 30,000 signatures to the Board of Elections in hopes of bringing the measure to referendum.
Equality Maryland believes CRG may have violated a number of election laws in gathering signatures; yesterday, EQMD hired legal counsel to help
challenge signatures and oversee the County Board of Elections' certification process. The attorney is taking the case at reduced rates and volunteers are being solicited to help, but Equality Maryland is now bleeding out thousands of dollars it does not have, as well as critical staff resources that are being diverted away from Annapolis during the height of their three month legislative session -- a legislative session that could see the passage of a statewide transgender anti-discrimination law, among other crucial LGBT protections.
The issue is being followed closely by Washington, D.C. news stations, The Washington Post, and other local media that attract the attention of members of Congress. If this measure reaches the ballot in November, it will be the first stand-alone transgender anti-discrimination law in the country to go to referendum. If we cannot stop this from reaching the ballot, Washington, D.C., Maryland, and beyond will be faced with anti-transgender rhetoric for nine months. You can imagine how problematic a campaign like this could be, as we try to spend the rest of 2008 educating members of Congress about the need for gender identity protections in federal non-discrimination law.
We don’t normally use this network for financial solicitations, and we don’t intend to start soliciting regularly. But this really is a unique situation that will directly impact our efforts to pass an inclusive federal bill. Equality Maryland is fronting a lot of expenses to support this legal challenge, and those expenses are going to grow over the next week. Please join us in supporting Equality Maryland financially today at this crucial time. A secure donation can be made online at their web site: https://secure.ga3.org/01/memberdonation
Put "United ENDA" under special instructions, and your contribution will go directly to support the costs of fighting this possible referendum.
You can also call their office at (888) 440-9944 to make a donation over the phone or send a check with "United ENDA" in the memo line to "Equality Maryland, 1319 Apple Avenue, Silver Spring, MD, 20910."
If you have friends who are attorneys or law students in the Washington, D.C. or Montgomery County area who can volunteer in the next couple of days with the signature oversight, please have them contact our volunteer coordinator, Maryanne Arnow, at allwayscooking@juno.com. Volunteers are meeting at the Task Force office in DC this weekend and through next week to review every signature that’s been turned in.
Regardless of whether this measure goes to referendum in Montgomery County, we will use this opportunity to educate our neighbors about why all LGBT Americans deserve basic anti-discrimination protections.
Thank you, in advance, for your support. Please make a donation today!
Dave Noble
Director of Public Policy & Government Affairs
National Gay and Lesbian Task Force
Mara Keisling
Executive Director
National Center for Transgender Equality
Dan Furmansky
Executive Director
Equality Maryland
Dr. Dana Beyer
Vice President
Equality Maryland
Dave Noble
Director of Public Policy and Government Affairs
National Gay and Lesbian Task Force
1325 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, 6th Floor
Washington, DC 20005
Phone: 202.639.6309
Fax: 202.393.2241
DNoble@TheTaskForce.org
http://www.thetaskforce.org
Dear United ENDA Leaders,
It was great seeing many of you at Creating Change earlier this month. Our 2008 planning session was very instructive, and the national leadership of United ENDA is taking your recommendations and incorporating them into our plans. You’ll see more details via e-mail next week.
In the meantime, a situation is brewing in Montgomery County, Maryland that concerns LGBT people across the country. The fate of both local and national transgender anti-discrimination measures could hinge on what happens in this suburban Washington, D.C. enclave of one million people over the coming days and weeks.
Last November, the Montgomery County Council unanimously passed a law to ban discrimination on the basis of gender identity and expression. After the law passed, anti-LGBT extremists, calling themselves Citizens for a Responsible Government (CRG), and buoyed by organizations like the Family Research Council, created a campaign of scare tactics. CRG established a web site (www.notmyshower.net), robo-called hundreds of thousands of people, and began distributing literature to scare County residents into believing that "men in dresses" are going to sneak into women's and girl's bathrooms and locker rooms and prey upon them. The rhetoric has been nasty, scary, and effective. Their goal was to collect 25,000 valid signatures to overturn the anti-discrimination law at the ballot this November. Equality Maryland and a local parents' group, Teach the Facts, mounted a modest "Decline to Sign" campaign. Still, this week, CRG turned in over 30,000 signatures to the Board of Elections in hopes of bringing the measure to referendum.
Equality Maryland believes CRG may have violated a number of election laws in gathering signatures; yesterday, EQMD hired legal counsel to help
challenge signatures and oversee the County Board of Elections' certification process. The attorney is taking the case at reduced rates and volunteers are being solicited to help, but Equality Maryland is now bleeding out thousands of dollars it does not have, as well as critical staff resources that are being diverted away from Annapolis during the height of their three month legislative session -- a legislative session that could see the passage of a statewide transgender anti-discrimination law, among other crucial LGBT protections.
The issue is being followed closely by Washington, D.C. news stations, The Washington Post, and other local media that attract the attention of members of Congress. If this measure reaches the ballot in November, it will be the first stand-alone transgender anti-discrimination law in the country to go to referendum. If we cannot stop this from reaching the ballot, Washington, D.C., Maryland, and beyond will be faced with anti-transgender rhetoric for nine months. You can imagine how problematic a campaign like this could be, as we try to spend the rest of 2008 educating members of Congress about the need for gender identity protections in federal non-discrimination law.
We don’t normally use this network for financial solicitations, and we don’t intend to start soliciting regularly. But this really is a unique situation that will directly impact our efforts to pass an inclusive federal bill. Equality Maryland is fronting a lot of expenses to support this legal challenge, and those expenses are going to grow over the next week. Please join us in supporting Equality Maryland financially today at this crucial time. A secure donation can be made online at their web site: https://secure.ga3.org/01/memberdonation
Put "United ENDA" under special instructions, and your contribution will go directly to support the costs of fighting this possible referendum.
You can also call their office at (888) 440-9944 to make a donation over the phone or send a check with "United ENDA" in the memo line to "Equality Maryland, 1319 Apple Avenue, Silver Spring, MD, 20910."
If you have friends who are attorneys or law students in the Washington, D.C. or Montgomery County area who can volunteer in the next couple of days with the signature oversight, please have them contact our volunteer coordinator, Maryanne Arnow, at allwayscooking@juno.com. Volunteers are meeting at the Task Force office in DC this weekend and through next week to review every signature that’s been turned in.
Regardless of whether this measure goes to referendum in Montgomery County, we will use this opportunity to educate our neighbors about why all LGBT Americans deserve basic anti-discrimination protections.
Thank you, in advance, for your support. Please make a donation today!
Dave Noble
Director of Public Policy & Government Affairs
National Gay and Lesbian Task Force
Mara Keisling
Executive Director
National Center for Transgender Equality
Dan Furmansky
Executive Director
Equality Maryland
Dr. Dana Beyer
Vice President
Equality Maryland
Dave Noble
Director of Public Policy and Government Affairs
National Gay and Lesbian Task Force
1325 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, 6th Floor
Washington, DC 20005
Phone: 202.639.6309
Fax: 202.393.2241
DNoble@TheTaskForce.org
http://www.thetaskforce.org