Our diverse group included Randy Floyd, Co-chair for the local HRC Steering Committee and Roberta Dunn, a leader in the local transgender community who sits on the steering committees of HRC and the Mecklenburg Gay and Lesbian Political Action Committee (MeckPAC).

Jennifer Roberts, the Chairwoman of the Board of County Commissioners for Mecklenburg County, was there with constituent and straight ally Jacqueline Galante.

Everyone at the meeting shared stories about workplace discrimination in Charlotte with Legislative Correspondent John Trippi. The staff in Kissell’s office were told about a transgender woman who worked as a mechanic for the city in the Department of Auto Maintenance that lost her job shortly after letting her supervisor know of her desire to begin transitioning. They also shared a story about a grade school teacher who was fired once parents got wind of her sexual orientation and called the principal.

Roberts spoke to the staff about the economics and family benefits of ENDA. She talked about Mecklenburg County passing an employment non-discrimination policy five years ago that did not protect transgender people. This past December, MeckPAC and Roberts teamed up to pass domestic partner benefits and this year they teamed with Mayor Anthony Foxx and City Manager Curt Walton to create a non-discrimination policy in Charlotte. They are still working to include gender identity in the policy.

Charlotte is an up and coming city and there have been great strides to improve the livelihood of the LGBT community, but there is still much more work to be done. I hope that everyone will contact their lawmakers tell them to support and pass ENDA.

Visit our Pass ENDA Now website to find out more about ENDA and contact your members of Congress at countdown2010.hrc.org.

As a result of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United, corporations are now permitted to give unlimited amounts of shareholder cash to certain political committees. Target has made a conscious decision to place stores in LGBT communities throughout the nation. In fact, two stores are currently under development in the City of San Francisco.

All eyes are now on Best Buy, another Minnesota-based company, that also made a political contribution to MN Forward, the group supporting Tom Emmer, one of the most strident opponents of equality in Minnesota to vie for the governor’s mansion. Best Buy has yet to respond.

HRC President Joe Solmonese released the following statement:

“All fair-minded Americans will now rightly question Target’s commitment to equality. If their initial contribution was a slap in the face, their refusal to make it right is a punch in the gut and that’s not something that we will soon forget. However, with full marriage equality hanging in the balance in Minnesota, regardless of Target, it’s important that we as a community send a message that we will work tirelessly to elect pro-equality candidates.

“Target and Best Buy have – and no doubt will continue to have – model employment policies for LGBT people. We will continue to support those efforts. But before they can regain that exalted status among their consumers, they need to make things right in Minnesota. The nation’s LGBT community has shown these two companies enormous customer loyalty. Now it’s time for that faithfulness to be returned.”

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!

We can’t let this one go. So we put together a quick video showing why this fight could have a huge impact – and the truth about the anti-equality candidate at the center of this storm…

Watch the video and forward this email to ten friends!

P.S. Posting this video on Facebook is another great way to share this with all your friends at once.

In the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United, Minnesota-based retailers Target and Best Buy, among others, contributed a combined $250,000 to MN Forward, an independent expenditure committee advocating for the election of a strident opponent of LGBT equality as the state’s next governor. The same candidate sings the praises of a Christian rock band that advocates violence and death to gays. The state’s next governor will have the opportunity to either sign or veto legislation allowing for marriage equality in the North Star State.

In response to the announcement, HRC President Joe Solmonese remarked:

It’s a huge slap in the face to LGBT people and for that matter to all fair-minded Americans. Two of our most trusted brands have contributed shareholder money that could help elect a candidate that wants nothing but the worst for us. Both companies talk about this contribution as a business decision. I would offer that it’s a really bad business decision. Both companies have now earned the bad will of LGBT people and fair-minded Americans. They need to make it right.

This afternoon, HRC sent out a national email alert to its members and supporters asking them to sign on to an open letter to Target and Best Buy. The letter chronicles the outrage and asks both companies to make equivalent donations to groups that support pro-equality candidates. HRC has also purchased a full page ad featuring the letter in Sunday’s Minneapolis Star Tribune. The controversy around these political contributions should serve as a warning to other corporations mindful of the perceptions of LGBT and allied consumers.

Both companies have consistently received a 100 percent rating on the HRC Foundation’s Corporate Equality Index, a measure of workplace equality.

An Open Letter to Target and Best Buy

When lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender consumers — not to mention our millions of supportive friends and family members — used to think about Target and Best Buy, we saw two shining examples of corporations that respected the equality and dignity of every American. As nationwide retailers, both of your brands gave other corporations a standard to which they could aspire. In fact, your consistent ratings of 100 percent on the Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s Corporate Equality Index were a solid signal of your commitment to a diverse workforce. As a community, we are grateful for that commitment and we fully expect it will continue.

Now, Americans are questioning their loyalty to your brands with word of significant contributions to the political action committee MN Forward that hopes to install one of the most strident opponents of equality in the Minnesota Governor’s mansion. With these contributions, you have severely damaged those carefully cultivated reputations and violated the spirit of the gold standards bestowed on you. In fact, the long-term effects on families that shop at Target and Best Buy throughout Minnesota and the U.S. will be devastating.

At this critical time in Minnesotans’ quest for equality, MN Forward and the candidates they are supporting would turn Minnesota backward, away from the promise of equal opportunity and fairness that we hold dear. No matter your motivations in making these donations, they didn’t occur in a vacuum. Same-sex couples in your home state are denied the equality given to other couples in marriage and many state leaders are poised to right that inequity very soon. $250,000 in contributions to those who would stand in the way is a punch in the gut to those of us who want to see all families treated fairly. What may have sounded like a “good business decision” in the board room turns out to be a horribly short-sighted business decision when millions of consumers lose respect for your companies.

With the Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United, the landscape for political contributions has changed in ways that no one fully appreciates yet. Your foray into this uncharted water has proved choppy and should serve as a warning to other corporations mindful of the perceptions of LGBT and allied consumers.

It’s time to make things right. The very least you can do to begin rebuilding your image among fair-minded consumers is to make equivalent donations to groups that support candidates who will put all Minnesota families first and fulfill the promises of our highest ideals.

We’re watching and we’re waiting.

In introducing the bill, Senator Durbin remarked:

“I am proud to introduce the Family and Medical Leave Inclusion Act – a bill that takes a very good law and makes it even better by extending the important protections of the Family and Medical Leave Act to same-sex couples in America. This bill’s message is simple: all Americans are deserving of dignity and respect. I hope we can join together on a bipartisan basis to pass it.”

Today’s introduction is a welcome step forward to addressing the denial of one of more than 1,000 federal rights and benefits conditioned on marital status, and thus unavailable to same-sex couples because of the so-called Defense of Marriage Act. Earlier this summer, the Department of Labor took another step toward equality for LGBT people under the FMLA when it issued guidance making clear that an LGBT individual acting as parent, even where he or she is unable to become the legal parent of a partner’s child, are able to take unpaid leave to care for that child or attend to his or her birth or adoption. In the meantime, states and corporate America have taken the lead on making sure all families have access to this critical protection, with nine states having adopted laws extending FMLA-like leave to same-sex couples, and, at last count, 461 employers providing such leave as an employee benefit. But for same-sex spouses and partners across the country to have access to FMLA leave, Congress must act to expand the law and protect LGBT families.

We thank Senator Durbin for introducing this important legislation and for his long-standing commitment to LGBT equality.

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.

Today, HRC in partnership with Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (SLDN), announced the “Countdown 2010″ campaign – a  nationwide effort that will mobilize grassroots supporters of equality across the country through in-district meetings as well as a call-in and email campaign.

HRC and SLDN’s efforts will be specifically focused on 10 states with key lawmakers whose votes on DADT repeal are critical: Arkansas, Indiana, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, and Virginia.  HRC will also engage the LGBT community and our allies in those states on an inclusive ENDA in addition to on-the-ground work for ENDA in North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Texas.  Supporters of equality are encouraged to meet with Representatives and Senators while they are in their districts and states for the August Congressional recess.

To participate, sign up at countdown2010.hrc.org .  There, you’ll find information on scheduling meetings, videos on in-district visits and information on how to schedule a meeting and report back on how it went.

In a release, HRC President Joe Solmonese said:

“As we approach the waning days of this Congressional session, we must continue to demand immediate action on critical legislation. LGBT voters and our allies will be keenly aware of Congressional action or inaction as the November elections approach.”

Aubrey Sarvis, an Army veteran and executive director for Servicemembers Legal Defense Network added:

“We need supporters to contact their senators and tell them to repeal ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ and follow the lead of Chairman Carl Levin who will be managing the defense bill on the floor.  It is critical that we beat back any filibuster threat, defeat attempts to strike repeal, and defeat any crippling amendments.  Senators need to hear from us now, especially in the 10 key states where our combined SLDN and HRC field teams are working now.”

President Henry addresses SEIU's LGBT Pride event

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. With Randi Weingarten (President, American Federation of Teachers), Mary Kay – or MK as some of us have come to call her – is now the second openly-LGBT leader of a major union in our country. Her ascendance makes her one of our country’s most influential LGBT leaders.

(L to R:) Cuc Vu, Mary Kay Henry, Allyson Robinson and Marty Rouse

As a woman, a lesbian, and former employee of SEIU I was proud to stand and celebrate progress. Knowing SEIU’s culture and history, it’s not surprising to me that a leader of Mary Kay’s talent and charisma could rise to the highest level of the union. You see, SEIU is the most diverse union in the country. More than half its members are women and some 40% are people of color. SEIU also represents more immigrant workers than any union. With that kind of diversity, it’s hard not to imagine great possibilities.

Mary Kay’s victory is a victory for all people, but it’s understandable that LGBT people are especially excited. Before becoming President, Mary Kay led the effort that successfully resulted in the passage of a resolution supporting marriage equality in 2005. This made SEIU the only union to recognize marriage equality. And two years ago, Mary Kay made SEIU a key supporter of the No on 8 campaign in California.

So next time you see “the purple people”, the speaker they are cheering for just might be their new President and our LGBT champion, Mary Kay Henry.

Alderman Shane Cohn was given a platform to introduce the amendment to the Civil Rights bill at a town hall sponsored by the two Missouri-based advocacy groups in May, and last Friday Board Bill 67 was unanimously approved by the St. Louis Board of Aldermen. Mayor Slay signed these basic rights into law yesterday, protecting his constituents from unjust discrimination in The Gateway City. With this inclusive bill, St. Louis joins Kansas City and University City in offering these protections and setting an example for the rest of the Show Me State, where diversity is embraced rather than marginalized.

Our congratulations and thanks go out to PROMO, TransHaven, and St. Louis!

This announcement capped two weeks of organizing efforts that saw member after member distancing themselves from a call for a veto of civil unions.  To say that this action was a game changer in the fight for equal rights in Hawaii is an understatement.  The community has really coalesced in this final push for HB 444 and it’s great to see so many of the people I have worked with over the past two years pulling together to present a united front in these final days before the Governor acts.

I want to especially express our gratitude to Equality Hawaii for being the ideal partner over the past two years in this struggle for equality and I look forward to working with them and all the other advocates in the state for years to come.

Mahalo.

This guest post is from Deb Guidry of HRC”s New Orleans Steering Committee:

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.

Our group consisted of committed HRC volunteers: Dr. Jody Gates, Board of Directors and PAC committee member, Regina Matthews, Religion and Faith Sub-Committee member, Patrick Miller, Board of Governors, Steering Committee Co-Chair and myself, Deb Guidry, PAC Co-Chair. 

When asked for his support of ENDA, Rep. Cao said he is still reviewing the bill, but that he leans towards voting for it and perhaps co-sponsoring.  His clear concern was that “nothing gets sneaked in the bill.”  He says he is the only Member of Congress who read every page of the health care bill–over 1000 pages. 

We also discussed issues around tax equity and the Domestic Partnership Benefits and Obligations Act, which would provide the same family benefits to lesbian and gay federal civilian employees as are already provided to employees with different-sex spouses.  While Rep. Cao feels that discrimination is wrong and needs to be righted, he said he struggles with his Catholic upbringing and deep religious faith regarding the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and said in no uncertain terms he could not support the repeal. 

Overall Rep. Cao is well-liked by his constituents and is considered to be fair and truly concerned with his district.  He is a Republican in a predominately Democratic district and will face a huge challenge as he seeks to secure a second term.  We were very grateful to him and his staff both in DC and New Orleans for always making the effort to meet with us.