I invite you to join our political education campaign.
The plan is this: you join Twitter, a free text messaging service, and then set it to follow our Inclusive_ENDA campaign. You can sign up here, and input "follow inclusive_enda" to follow the progress of our campaign. (link: twitter.com) You will not receive any text messages other than the ones you request, and you can set it to follow only via web if you like.
What you should do:
Step 1 -- After you sign up, call Congress at 202-224-3121, tell them you want to speak to your Congressmember's office, give them your zip code, and voila! you're connected.
Step 2 -- Tell the receptionist you support the inclusive Employment Non-Discrimination Act, HR 2015. If you have any knowledge about transgender issues, tell them about what you know.
Step 3 -- Text message Twitter at 40404, and tell us who you called!
Step 4 -- Bask in the knowledge that not only you, but thousands of people know that you supported a fairer world for everyone!
Here's some background:
The Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) is a bill to prohibit employment discrimination based on sexual orientation, and gender identity or expression. Recently, however, Representative Frank, a co-sponsor of the bill, put forward a non-inclusive second bill, withdrawing the "gender identity and expression" language because some members of Congress are hesitant about protecting transgender people from discrimination. He suggests that more public support and education is needed before these lawmakers are ready to grant relief. 300 civil rights organizations protested this move, and many calls were made to Congress, resulting in a delay in deciding which bill to move forward until public opinion could be clarified. For more background, see http://transworkplace.blogspot.com/2007/10/splenda-volokh-conspiracy-responds-and.html
In addition to creating public support for this particular brand of fairness, we just may create a new technology for the public to reach Congress on the issues that you care about most! Also, Twitter is just plain fun, so give it a whirl!
