This letter was written to Speaker Nancy Pelosi by Samantha Ames, a DC law student and GetEQUAL activist. Samantha was also one of the four arrested in DC (and six in San Francisco) on March 18th for occupying the Speaker’s office in an attempt to bring a floor vote for a transgender-inclusive Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA)
It is reprinted in full, with permission, from GetEqual.org, Stories From the Streets.
With ENDA passage and DADT repeal hanging by a thread, it may be that the only things that will keep the thread from breaking are the courage and tenacity of people like Samantha who are keeping these issues of fairness and equality in the spotlight.
The letter in full, below the cut.
Dear Speaker Pelosi,
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights ensures every person the right to work and to earn an existence worthy of human dignity. It has been over fifty years since the United States adopted it, yet Americans can still be fired or harassed at work simply for being LGBT, and the Employment Non-Discrimination Act is on life support. Leaks are springing all along the beltway, and their message is clear: We have the votes. Nonetheless, the bill is being held up in committee, ostensibly because a potentially controversial vote could pose a risk to Democrats in the upcoming elections. While I understand that politics necessitates a degree of gamesmanship and the tactical use of political capital, the vast majority of LGBT Americans care more about buying groceries than trading votes.
A cursory glance at your resume, not to mention your recent victory on healthcare, leaves no doubt that you are a brilliant politician. You chose to pursue politics because you wanted to make the world a better place. From the moment you were born, it was in your blood. We did not choose to pursue politics; politics chose to pursue us. From the moment we were born, it criminalized our very identities, stripped us of our rights, and neglected its duty to protect the liberty and justice we were promised.
It was with this painful history in my heart that I, along with four of my friends, walked into your office for a meeting last month, only to be escorted from the premises in handcuffs. As you may recall, we asked you for a public commitment to bring ENDA out of markup and to a vote by the end of the month. We did not consider this an unreasonable demand – ENDA has been on the table in one form or another for nearly 40 years now. It has been introduced in nearly every Congress since 1994. The language has been reworked countless times, and its protections have been compromised over and over. At long last, we are closer than ever before to passing it the right way, with vital protections for transgender Americans included. It is agonizing, then, to watch as months pass with only one word from our leaders on making our basic rights a priority and granting ENDA its rightful place on the legislative agenda: Wait.
That night, as I sat alone in a cell, my mind wandered to Letter From a Birmingham Jail. Martin Luther King’s words coursed through my veins. "My friends, I must say to you that we have not made a single gain in civil rights without determined legal and nonviolent pressure... Frankly, I have yet to engage in a direct action campaign that was ‘well timed’ in the view of those who have not suffered unduly from the disease of segregation. For years now I have heard the word ‘Wait!’ It rings in the ear of every Negro with piercing familiarity. This ‘Wait’ has almost always meant ‘Never.’ We must come to see, with one of our distinguished jurists, that ‘justice too long delayed is justice denied."
I am acutely aware of the privilege with which I walked into your office that day. I am a white, cisgender law student. I blended in easily among the swarm of power suits, and I walked down the imposing halls of Congress secure in the knowledge that people who love me had the means and determination to bail me out of jail. For many, it is not so easy. That same day, a type of courage you and I will never know led two transgender activists to your office in San Francisco. They, too, were arrested, and, despite cooperating with the officers, one was deliberately misgendered and mistreated. Several weeks later, a transgender veteran was arrested on the White House fence and similarly abused by the DC police. Inequality is not victimless. Inequality is the conduit through which hatred flows just beneath the surface of our society, erupting ever so often in tragedy. As long as the law treats LGBT people differently, those who would oppress us have your permission to treat us unconscionably. Matthew Shepard was not just a victim of senseless violence, he was a victim of inequality.
Speaker Pelosi, I believe you when you say you genuinely support us in this fight. I also believe you understand the connection between nonviolent direct action and political pressure. Ten years ago, you were the one being chastised from on high for disrupting a Foreign Relations Committee meeting in an attempt to pressure lawmakers to ratify a UN bill prohibiting gender discrimination. After months of being told to wait your turn, ten Congresswomen sent a clear message to the committee chair: "The women of the House will no longer tolerate his delay tactics." In response, he admonished you to "act like ladies." After decades of being told to be patient and polite, frustration has a way of coming to a boiling point. That boiling point caused nonviolent direct action to spill all over the House floor that day. You were through being patient and polite when it came to an issue of basic human rights. You were through acting like ladies. So are we.
John Locke proposed that human beings agree to be governed out of necessity. We renew this agreement every day we come to a crosswalk and stop when the light turns red. In exchange for an agreement by others to do the same, we are able to proceed through the intersection when the light turns green, reasonably free from fear of being sideswiped by anarchy. We agree to live within these laws, and to trust our lawmakers, with the intent that they operate to keep us safe. It is the essence of democracy. Except when they fail. When our laws and lawmakers fail to protect us, they breach the contract. But to simply live outside the law because it failed its duty to protect is to leave a huge number of people defenseless and isolated. As I see it, the social contract doesn’t just arise from the fear of living unprotected from the brutish cruelty of unrestrained human nature. It is, instead, a privilege that imposes a duty. And, when my country fails its duty to me, my duty to my country arises.
We shut down intersections to remind you that our tacit agreement makes their operation possible. We chain ourselves to the White House fence to remind you that the seat of government belongs now and forever to We the People. We sit in your offices to remind you that, no matter our sexual orientation or gender identity, we are the people, and you must answer to us. We both know that, when push comes to shove, you’ll be on the right side of history. ENDA will pass; Don’t Ask Don’t Tell and the Defense of Marriage Act will be repealed; and, one day, sexual orientation and gender identity will no longer be grounds for denying people the right to public accommodations, housing, and education. But that day is not today, and it is dishonest to stand quietly on the right side of history when your voice has the power to lead others to stand beside you.
It is for this reason that I, alongside others in my community, am prepared to actively work against Democrats in November who have not publicly committed to voting yes on ENDA or who are in any way delaying the decision. To avoid a vote on a human rights issue merely because it could jeopardize another term in office is to betray every one of your constituents. We do not elect representatives to win campaign after campaign. We elect representatives to represent. To do anything less is cowardice.
All we ask is that you use your influence, the influence we entrusted you with when we elected you, to bring ENDA to a vote. We ask that you do this now, before the recess. Again, Dr. King said it better than I ever could. "The time is always ripe to do right."
Every American has the right to earn a living. Please, let us live. We’ve earned it.
Sincerely,
Samantha Ames