GETEQUAL TO PROTEST AT WHITE HOUSE BEFORE PRESIDENT OBAMA’S STATE OF THE UNION

LGBT Civil Rights Group GetEQUAL asks President Obama to Keep His ENDA First-Term Promise

LGBT Civil Rights Group GetEQUAL asks President Obama to Keep His ENDA First-Term Promise

By Melanie Nathan, Feb 08, 2013.

On Sunday, February 10 – just two days before President Obama’s State of the Union Address – members of GetEQUAL DC will gather outside the White House to remind President Barack Obama of a first-term promise not kept.

As he was running for president, then-candidate Obama pledged to extend workplace protections to all lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people employed by federal contractors, but has yet to deliver any policy to protect these vulnerable employees, who can be fired in over half the states in the country based simply on their sexual identity, and 39 states based on their gender identity or expression.

President Obama could offer these protections today to 16 million people with the stroke of a pen by signing an Executive Order which would protect anyone employed by a contractor who receives over $10,000/year in federal funds. As we approach the first State of the Union for the president’s second and final term, GetEQUAL is reminding the president to keep the promises he made that will not only help boost our suffering economy but protect millions of workers and families.

What: GetEQUAL to Obama: “Sign the ENDA Executive Order!”

When: Sunday, February 10, 2013; 6:00 PM – 6:30 PM (EST)

Where: South side of the White House (nearest Washington Monument)

Who: GetEQUAL DC and families, friends, co-workers and supportive members of the community

###

GetEQUAL is a national, civil rights organization fighting for the full equality of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in the United States. Emphasizing direct action and grassroots people power, the mission of GetEQUAL is to empower the LGBT community and its allies to take action to demand full legal and social equality, and to hold accountable those who stand in the way. For more information on GetEQUAL, please visit: http://www.getequal.org. You can follow GetEQUAL on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/getequal, on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/GetEQUAL, or on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/getequal.

GetEqual!!!! Election is over!!! Take the Full Equality Pledge

Sign the pledge to work toward FULL equality for LGBT Americans by entering your name and information below!

IN ORDER TO FULFILL the promises of life and liberty, and to ensure equal protection under the law as guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution,

IN ORDER TO PROTECT the inalienable right to be safe from discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, as required under international laws and treaties,AND IN ORDER TO END the systemic stigmatization, cease the societal rejection, and heal the suffering of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) Americans as mandated by conscience,

I PLEDGE my support for the passage of full equality* legislation that makes LGBT Americans fully equal under the law and grants full non-discrimination protections on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity equal to those accorded other statuses under existing civil rights laws and Supreme Court rulings.

SIGN PLEDGE BY CLICKING HERE

GetEQUAL Statement on FRC Shooting

Wednesday’s shooting at the Family Research Council’s (FRC) headquarters is a stark reminder of the fragility of life. GetEQUAL condemns the shooting and wishes the officer a speedy recovery.

In the aftermath of Wednesday’s events, it would benefit us all to consider the impact of the continued discrimination that lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) Americans face on a daily basis. For decades, LGBT Americans have endured ridicule, stigmatization, demonization, physical abuse — often at the hands of our own families, classmates, co-workers and neighbors — and blame for countless natural disasters, including Hurricane Katrina…all in the name of “family values.”

At a Thursday afternoon press conference, and despite no evidence to substantiate his claim, FRC president Tony Perkins laid the blame for Wednesday’s shooting at the feet of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), stating that by labeling the FRC a “hate group,” the SPLC had contributed to this horrible and violent tragedy. To be clear, the SPLC has worked for decades to track incidents of violence and intolerance in an effort to prevent just such an attack, laboring tirelessly to provide reliable information on hundreds of groups across the country that demonize groups of people simply for who they are — whether that’s based on race, ethnicity, religious affiliation, or sexual orientation and gender identity.

We stand side-by-side with the Southern Poverty Law Center — a group born out of the civil rights movement over four decades ago — and support their work to track incidents of hatred and intolerance directed toward the LGBT community and other marginalized communities across the country. Despite Mr. Perkins’ attempts to paint himself and the FRC as victims, it is groups like the Family Research Council that regularly and routinely use deceptive practices and intolerant rhetoric to create a dangerous environment for LGBT Americans. It is for this very reason that the SPLC has, accurately, labeled the FRC as a hate group.

While Tony Perkins places the blame for Wednesday’s shooting at the feet of the SPLC, we must ask: Where was Tony Perkins when two members of our community were left for dead in the bushes of Violet Andrews Park in Portland, Texas? Where is Tony Perkins’ condemnation of the thousands of LGBT youth being bullied, beat up and laughed at in the halls of our schools? Where was Tony Perkins when North Carolina pastor Charles Worley declared that all gays and lesbians should be rounded up and put in camps surrounded by electric fences, and left to die?

We all know the answer — Tony Perkins is and has been silent. Mr. Perkins has time and again advocated against the humane treatment of LGBT Americans and against any legislation that would protect LGBT people from discrimination or attack. Decades of paid work focused on marginalizing and demonizing LGBT Americans has resulted in tacit endorsement of violent acts and the spread of false information about LGBT Americans. Through his ongoing campaign of discrimination and insistence on pursuing a radical right-wing agenda, Mr. Perkins has advocated for the reinstatement of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” an amendment to the Constitution that would forever outlaw marriage equality, and state laws that would continue to keep LGBT Americans as second-class citizens.

As GetEQUAL is committed to fighting against injustice and for equality by using non-violent civil disobedience, we condemn Wednesday’s shooting even as we also ask the Family Research Council (and organizations that share its views) to think about the environment they have created by marginalizing a minority group and making family members, neighbors, and friends into scapegoats for society’s challenges. GetEQUAL never condones or advocates for violence, and believes wholeheartedly that when violence is used we all lose. There is no power in violence; our power comes by coming together as a community, standing shoulder to shoulder with our brothers and sisters and refusing to be moved under the weight of discrimination, prejudice, and intolerance. Even as we hope for the recovery of the security guard who suffered violence on Wednesday, we also hope for an end to the Family Research Council’s tactics of division and fear-mongering that have created such a toxic environment within our homes, neighborhoods, schools, places of worship, and workplaces.

Telling the truth about a group’s hateful message is not the same as advocating violence. We pray, with all people of good will, for an end to violence as a means of expression.

(For highlights from Tony Perkins’ anti-LGBT record, visit: http://www.glaad.org/cap/tony-perkins.)