Blog Swarm Strikes Again: Call Speaker Pelosi and Demand Action on ENDA

Just received this message this afternoon from the Bilerico Project's Bil Browning:

Hello my fellow bloggers and general trouble makers,

Bilerico Project is leading a blogswarm today to demand that Speaker Nancy Pelosi move the Employment Non-Discrimination Act to a House vote. ENDA is the bill that would provide employment protections for LGBT people. It's currently stuck in committee as it waits for markup. Rep Andre Carson, Tammy Baldwin, and Jared Polis all personally promised (on video and in a guest post on TBP) that the legislation would be voted on by the end of March this year when it was postponed last year. So far, nothing has happened all year.

To participate, just call Speaker Pelosi's office and demand that ENDA get some movement. At the end of our post is a link to a form you can fill out to tell us what any staffers have to say.

Dr. Weiss has been leading the charge for ENDA in the blogosphere and she's put together an impressive array of top LGBT and political bloggers for this swarm - including some folks outside of our usual circle. About 30 sites are original participating co-sponsors and some queer papers and magazines are also participating. It should be an interesting day as readers grasp what's going on and also take action offline.

Will you help the swarm by blogging about ENDA today and linking our article? Will you put our post (and yours!) on Facebook and tweet it, add it to Reddit, Digg, etc? If you post about it, send me a link and we'll add you to our list of participating sites in a roundup of today's events.

Thanks for any help possible,

Bil

Please call Speaker Nancy Pelosi at 202-225-4965. Ask that the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, HR 3017, move to a vote.

For more info, visit the Bilerico Project.

House Resolution Condemns Uganda's "Kill the Gays" Bill

Ugandan Anti-Gay Legislation Threatens Human Rights, Reverses Gains in HIV/AIDS Fight, Berman Says.

Washington, D.C. – Howard L. Berman (D-CA), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, today introduced a bipartisan congressional resolution condemning anti-gay legislation now making its way through the parliament in Uganda.

“The proposed Ugandan bill not only threatens human rights, it also reverses so many of the gains that Uganda has made in the fight against HIV/AIDS.  This issue has united leaders of different political and religious views in Uganda and worldwide in one common belief in the rights of all human beings regardless of sexual orientation.”

More than three dozen members of Congress joined Berman in introducing the resolution (H. Res. 1064), including Committee Ranking Republican Ileana Ros-Lehtinen; House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-MA); Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health Chair Donald Payne (D-NJ); Congressional Black Caucus Chair Barbara Lee (D-CA); and Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Co-Chair of the Congressional LGBT Equality Caucus. 

Out Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin Takes LGBT Issues to the Hill

(From GayPolitics.com) Capitol Hill - Wednesday, July 8

"Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin testified in support of her Domestic Partnership Benefits and Obligations Act, which would extend health insurance and other benefits to the same-sex partners of Federal employees. Also on Tuesday the House Subcommittees on Early Childhood, Elementary and Secondary Education and Healthy Families and Communities heard testimony on “Strengthening School Safety through Prevention of Bullying,” which featured testimony from parents and families of children who have been affected by bullying in schools.

The hearing on Baldwin’s bill included testimony from OPM Director John Berry, Former U.S. Ambassador Michael Guest, Carolyn E. Wright, a vice president at American Airlines, and others. “It is time for the federal government to follow the lead of many private sector employers who value all their workers and provide employee benefits that cover all families” said Baldwin, testifying in front of the U.S. House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee."