Please call Senator Voinovich today to ask for his support of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. Facts and contact info after the jump.
By the way, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pension (HELP) Committee has announced that it will be holding a hearing on ENDA on Thursday, November 5, 2009 at 10 a.m.
Please join us as I liveblog the event from Bilerico.com, as we did for the House hearing. I will be posting informational items about the points made by Committee members and witnesses as they occur, and you can also post your comments and questions during the hearing for me and other participants to respond. During the House hearing, we had almost 300 people join us. You can review the previous liveblog here.
Ohio is a key state in the fight for the Employment Nondiscrimination Act.
Senator Voinovich is a fair-minded Republican who seems to be leaning yes on ENDA. He voted for the hate crimes bill on several occasions, and was one of five Republican Senators who voted last week to stop the Republican filibuster on that bill. That's key in terms of bringing ENDA to an up-or-down vote on the Senate floor, where we only need 50 votes (which we now have).
Senator George Voinovich... indicated in July that he was undecided. However, he has cosponsored a previous bill that included sexual orientation and gender identity language, and his assumed support for ENDA has even been decried by some conservatives. His fellow Ohio Senator, Sherrod Brown, is a co-sponsor of ENDA.
I'd like to note again the recent GAO report, in case you missed my mention of it yesterday, which suggests that ENDA will not cause a flood of litigation. It shows that, in states with similar laws, sexual orientation and gender identity complaints account for about 4% of all employee complaints. This is going to add very little burden to businesses in general.
Please call Senator Voinovich and ask that he support S1584, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. If you're not sure what to say when you call, click here for a "Step-by-Step Script For Calling Legislators On ENDA."
You may get a staffer who is unaware of the Senator's position on ENDA. Take a moment to explain what it is, and to ask if he or she can get some information on the Senator's position. Tell us what they said in the comments below.
Senator Voinovich:
DC office 202-224-3353.
(Toll free DC Capitol line: 866-220-0044)
District Offices:
Cleveland 216-522-7095
Toledo 419-259-3895
Cincinnati 513-684-3265
Nelsonville 740-441-6410
Columbus 614-469-6697
(Click here for email)
This was originally written by Dr. Jillian T. Weiss at Bilerico. It is reposted here with her permission.