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Today (March 8, 20101) is International Women’s Day. Sometimes it’s easy to forget that trans women are folk that are included in the celebration of the day.
Today is also a day that the Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund (TLDEF) tells us is the Statewide GENDA Call-In Day.
Not all trans people are trans women (there are lots of trans men too!), but it’s not too much of a stretch to say to connect these two days. It’s a day that lesbian, gay, bisexual, feminist, and progressive New Yorkers to think about giving their State Senators a call in support of the trans women in their state — to call in and support trans women on International Women’s Day. In my mind, it would be a powerful way to celebrate the day.
From the TLDEF:
Last week, the New York State Assembly passed the Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act (GENDA). The only remaining obstacle to the bill becoming law is the New York State Senate. The time is NOW to take action and make our final push to get the Senate to vote to end discrimination against transgender New Yorkers.GENDA would amend the state’s human rights law to ban discrimination in housing, employment, credit and public accommodations. It also expands the state’s hate crimes law to explicitly include crimes against transgender people.
We need you to call your Senator and the lead Senate sponsor Tom Duane at their Albany offices to tell them that you want them to bring GENDA to the Senate floor and pass it. We’re at a crucial moment and it is vital that they hear from you.
Here’s how to make your calls:
1. Find your State Senator’s Albany phone number here. You can reach Senator Tom Duane at (518) 455-2451.
2. Tell them the number of the GENDA bill (S.2406) and ask them to support GENDA and bring it to the floor for a vote.
3. Use these talking points to convey the urgent need for GENDA and the broad support it has:
• Transgender people experience tremendous job discrimination. One-fifth of transgender New Yorkers have incomes below $10,000 a year.• 28% of transgender New Yorkers have experienced a serious physical or sexual assault motivated by hate.
• 78% of New York voters support GENDA.
• Unions representing 2.1 million working New Yorkers support GENDA.
• 30 Fortune 500 companies based in cities like Rochester, Corning, New York City and White Plains already have non-discrimination policies that include gender identity and expression. It’s time for the rest of the state to catch up.
• 547 clergy and lay leaders representing over 20 different religious denominations support GENDA.
4. After your call, please report your results to our partners at the Empire State Pride Agenda. Tell them which Senators you called, who you spoke to in the Senator’s office, and what response you received. Your feedback will help us pass GENDA in 2010!
Working together, we can win! If you can’t call today, call tomorrow. Start making those phone calls now!
Can you help phone bank for GENDA this Thursday?
Phone banking is a key element in the strategy to win protections for transgender New Yorkers. If you have some time to spare, you can make a huge difference. The GENDA phone bank will take place this Thursday, March 11th, from 5:30 – 8:30 pm at the offices of the Empire State Pride Agenda. You can arrive any time between 5:30 and 7:30 pm and stay for as long as your schedule allows.
Please respond by calling Joanna at 212.627.0305, x103 or sending an email letting her know that you are available.
Please forward this message to anyone you think might be interested in helping.
Well, I’m forwarding this message. So to all of our New York blenders, please strongly consider giving your State Senator a call today. It’s important.
3 Comments
HopefullyThe senate will at least have the decency to do some damage control with the LGBT community by passing this important piece of legislation…
Here’s the supplement I sent out to a large number of folks:The folowing was piggybacked onto the Call-In Action Alert sent out by the EMpire State Pride Agenda, very similar to the TLDEF alert:
Hi friends,
Today is GENDA call-in day! GENDA passed the Assembly for the third time, last week, this time by a vote of 100-43. Now it’s time to move the bill in the State Senate!
WHAT WE NEED TO DO TODAY:
Call our State Senator’s Albany office (See the Pride Agenda Action Alert below on how to do this).
Ask to speak to the Senator or a staffer familiar with legislation.
Tell your Senator (or the staffer) that you are a constituent, and ask that the Senator to vote for Senate Bill 2406A – the Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act. (Make sure you mention the Bill Number!)
Ask your Senator to be on the lookout for and sign a “Petition for Consideration” under Senate Rule XI Section 3. The GENDA Sponsor, Senator Duane, can file such a petition as of TOMORROW, Wednesday, March 10, 2010, which is 45 days after the bill was placed in committee.
If you have a chance, pitch a personal story or use one of the talking points in the Pride Agenda Action Alert below, to show why it’s so important.
If you know your Senator supports GENDA, thank the Senator for her or his support!
- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – -
For those who want to know more about why this particular “ask” for the “Petition for Consideration,” here is some background information:
New York State Senate Rule XI § 3
This replaces the old “motion for discharge” and is one way around the GENDA gridlock in the Senate Investigations and Government Operations committee.
The problem is that even though a bill needs 32 votes to pass, the Petition for Consideration must be signed by 38 Senators (technically, it’s 37.2 but we round up partial senators). Once we have the minimum necessary votes to pass GENDA (we are really close to the magic number), it might be possible to convince fair-minded opponents or fence-sitters to consider signing a Petition for Consideration, so we can get to a vote.
Tomorrow, Wednesday, March 10, 2010 is the FIRST DAY Senator Duane can file such a petition with the Journal Clerk for GENDA, which was committed to the Senate Investigations and Government Operations committee on January 20, 2010,.
So, as I indicated, our ASK today is not just the vague “support and call for a vote,” but a more specific one – for our Senators to support a Petition for Consideration for Senate Bill 2406A, also called GENDA, once it is filed by Senator Duane, hopefully tomorrow! (This, of course, assumes that Senator Duane will be filing the petition with the Journal Clerk. We hope he does!)
Yours in the struggle for justice, fairness and equality,
Joann Prinzivalli
State Director
New York Transgender Rights Organization (NYTRO)
excellent informationand thank you for explaining how Petition for Consideration works, and how important it is to ask for specific things when calling your senator.