PASS ENDA NOW

Campus Pride Statement to U.S. Members of Congress

I write on behalf of the thousands of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) and ally college students, faculty and staff who are members of Campus Pride, a national nonprofit organization working to create safer, more LGBT-friendly colleges and universities. We strongly support the federal Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) (H.R. 3017/S. 1584), which would prohibit discrimination in the workplace based on sexual orientation and gender identity. We urge your support to ensure that the Employment Non-Discrimination Act becomes law in the near future. Specifically, we urge you to co-sponsor this measure, vote for it, and oppose any efforts to weaken it.

A clear and unambiguous federal law is needed to fully address the continuing problem of discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. While some states and localities have laws in place to prohibit this type of discrimination, the patchwork of laws in this country remains inadequate. Discrimination is a very real problem that affects lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people, leaving them and their families economically vulnerable. For all of these reasons, passage of ENDA remains a top priority for the LGBT community.

Higher education is not immune from discrimination in hiring practices and employment when it comes to LGBT populations. Less than 650 of the nearly 2500 public and private four year colleges and universities have the words “sexual orientation” in their nondiscrimination statement and only 82 have “gender identitiy/expression” protections. This August 2010, Campus Pride will release a national monograph looking for the first time at the “State of Higher Education for LGBT People.” It is not a surprise that one of the real fears for LGBT staff and faculty is the loss of a job because of who they are.

All workers deserve the same protections and the same security in their employment. We need a federal law that clearly bans discrimination on the bases of sexual orientation and gender identity, because job security should not depend on the college or university, state or city in which a person works.

The time has come to end workplace discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans. We hope you will join the majority of Americans in supporting basic fairness in the workplace by supporting ENDA and helping to ensure its passage.

For more information, please contact us at 704-277-6710 or email info@campuspride.org.