On passing the Employment Nondiscrimination Act.
Senator Robert Byrd is the oldest and longest-serving member of the Senate. While some feel that his recent fragile health means that he cannot be counted on for a vote, he has been quite active in the past few weeks after recovering from a fall, and he plans to be active in the health care reform debate.
I believe that Senator Byrd, like the junior Senator from West Virginia, Jay Rockefeller, could very well support ENDA if he knew that people in his state supported the bill.
Please call Senator Byrd and ask for his support for S.1584. Send this to your friends and LGBT organizations in West Virginia. Contact info and more after the jump.
Senator Byrd has changed greatly, as the nation has, during his half-century of tenure in the Senate.
According to Wikipedia, Senator Robert Byrd renounced his Klan membership, which occurred in 1942 for one year, starting when he was 24. He said he had joined the Klan because he felt it offered excitement and was anti-communist. He said, in 2005, "I know now I was wrong. Intolerance had no place in America. I apologized a thousand times... and I don't mind apologizing over and over again. I can't erase what happened." Byrd also joined with other Southern and border state Democrats to filibuster the Civil Rights Act of 1964, personally filibustering the bill for 14 hours, a move he now says he regrets.
As proof of the fact that he can be supportive of the LGBT community, in June, 2002, he voted YES on adding sexual orientation to definition of hate crimes, reversing his June 2000 position. He did not vote on the July 16, 2009 bill to add hate crimes to the Defense Authorization Act, but I don't know whether that was because of opposition or poor health or some other reason.
Call Senator Byrd and ask him to support S.1584
DC: 202-224-3954
Martinsburg 304-264-4626
Charleston 304-342-5855
(click here for email).
This was originally written by Dr. Jillian T. Weiss at Bilerico. It is reposted here with her permission.