Archive for the ‘Workplace’ Category

Last week, members of the Charlotte community and I met with the Legislative Correspondent of U.S. Representative Larry Kissell from the 8th District of North Carolina to talk about supporting the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. Kissell voted in favor of the Matthew Shepard Act, which passed last year, and voted to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”

After two weeks of good-faith discussions – and two tentative agreements – with Target Corporation, the company has informed HRC that it will take no corrective actions to repair the harm that it caused by contributing $150,000 to an organization supporting a vehemently anti-gay candidate closely associated with a Christian rock band that advocates death and violence to gay people. In response, HRC announced that it will devote $150,000 of its own resources to help elect a pro-equality governor and legislature in Minnesota. The next governor will likely have the opportunity to either sign or veto marriage equality legislation in the North Star State.

Nearly 100,000 people have signed our open letter calling out Target and Best Buy for supporting a rabidly anti-equality candidate. Our campaign is spreading like wildfire, from Facebook and Twitter to Keith Olbermann’s show and major newspapers.

Target and Best Buy are feeling the heat – but they still haven’t made it right!

Today, the Human Rights Campaign condemned donations by Target and Best Buy to a political committee supporting the election of an anti-equality candidate and asked them to make it right by contributing to groups that support pro-equality candidates.

Today, Senator Richard Durbin (D-IL) introduced legislation to expand the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) to include protections for same-sex partners and spouses. The bill, the Family and Medical Leave Inclusion Act, is almost identical to legislation that has been introduced in the House for the past three congresses by Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) and is the first of its kind to be put forward in the Senate. The FMLA, a statute enacted in 1993, grants legally married spouses up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave from work to care for a seriously ill spouse, parent or child.

Frustrated with the pace of progress? Today we’re launching a grassroots campaign to urge action on an inclusive Employment Non-Discrimination Act and repeal of the discriminatory “Don’t ask, Don’t Tell” law. LGBT people and our allies can make a real difference by making our voices heard face-to-face and in the districts where we live.

Last week, several HRC colleagues and I attended the LGBT Pride celebration of the 2.2 million member Service Employees International Union (SEIU), sometimes referred to as “the purple people” by their distinctive colors: purple and yellow. It was a powerful event for me not only because I am a former employee of SEIU, but because the keynote speaker was the newly-elected President of SEIU, Mary Kay Henry.

Thanks in large part to the work of PROMO and TransHaven, Saint Louis, MO., has added gender identity to the city’s Civil Rights Ordinance. Gender identity now joins the list of protected categories in the city, offering protections in housing, public accommodations, and employment to all St. Louisans.

Today, Adrian and I, along with four other leading LGBT organizations in Hawaii, delivered letters from members of the Hawaii Business Roundtable to the Governor. 23 HBR members – a full 50% – have come out in opposition to the original stance by the executive committee of the organization calling for a veto of HB 444, the civil unions bill. This was a significant development and complete turnaround following the news on June 10th that Hawaii’s most prominent business policy working group had urged a veto of the bill.

Members of the New Orleans Political Action and Steering Committees recently had the opportunity to meet with our 2nd Congressional District Rep. Joseph Cao. We thanked him for his support and co-sponsorship of Hate Crimes legislation that passed last year, discussed the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell (DADT), which he also co-sponsored, and asked for his support and co-sponsorship of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA). He was very well informed and educated on all of our issues. He gets discrimination.