A project of Pride at Work and National Stonewall Democrats

Senator Diane Feinstein, a champion of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), has not offered her firm support for the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA). The Employee Free Choice Act, if passed, could have just as much impact on the ability of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender workers to have full equality and parity on the job as ENDA. Please join members of the LGBT community and implore Senator Feinstein to support the Employee Free Choice Act. ENDA and EFCA together provide a one-two punch, knocking out LGBT discrimination on the job. Let her know our community expects her to support both.

Dear [ Decision Maker ] ,

From LGBT Elected Officials, Marriage Equality Activists, LGBT Leaders, LGBT constituents, and LGBT Allies

Dear Senator Feinstein,

We are writing you to request your support for the Employee Free Choice Act.

The Employee Free Choice Act is essential to addressing the problems facing the LGBT community. Recently, the Williams Institute at UCLA released a new report that undertakes the first analysis of the poor and low-income lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender population.

The report found:

- After adjusting for a range of family characteristics that help explain poverty, gay and lesbian couple families are significantly more likely to be poor than are heterosexual married couple families.

- Notably, lesbian couples and their families are much more likely to be poor than heterosexual couples and their families.

- Children in gay and lesbian couple households have poverty rates twice those of children in heterosexual married couple households.

A survey of median weekly earnings in 2007 revealed that union workers make 30 percent more than their nonunion counterparts, and are 59 percent more likely to have employer-provided health coverage than other workers. Being part of a union clearly means higher wages and benefits, something that those in poverty within our community desperately need, particularly in these difficult economic times.

Last year, the California Federation of Labor, representing every union in the state, not only opposed Proposition 8, but also donated heavily to the No on 8 campaign. Labor understands that marriage equality is an essential component of basic dignity and human rights for thousands of LGBT union members.

We, as leaders and allies of the LGBT community, understand that the Employee Free Choice Act is the single most important piece of legislation for labor in decades, and we strongly urge you to support it. But our support for Employee Free Choice Act is not just based on our long history and alliance with the labor community. It is also about the rights of LGBT workers who so desperately need the protections that a union can provide.

Appeals from our community support to support the Employee Free Choice Act have been met by a reiteration of your commitment to passing a united Employee Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) to legally protect LGBT workers on the basis of gender identity and sexuality. While we sincerely applaud your commitment to passing a united ENDA, ENDA by itself with out the Employee Free Choice Act is not enough.

LGBT workers need more than legal protection against discrimination, we are also seeking the means to stand up against discrimination at work. To be able to enforce our rights we need to be able to organize at work free from intimidation. We need the Employee Free Choice Act to bring workers out of poverty and have a voice on the job.

Already the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF), the National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE), Pride at Work, AFL-CIO, National Stonewall Democrats, National Youth Advocacy Coalition, the Human Rights Campaign, National Center for Lesbian Rights, Equality California, Harvey Milk LGBT Democratic Club, and Alice B. Toklas LGBT Democratic Club have endorsed the Employee Free Choice Act. The Employee Free Choice Act is a priority for our community.

We implore you to support the Employee Free Choice Act and help make LGBT parity and equality on the job a reality.

Signed by:

Campaign Launched:
May 05, 2009