ACTION: Hate crimes bill (NCTE / HRC)

[Sherrie Z]

*** NEW actions on pending hate crimes bill ... please read ... : )


NOTE: You may have already responded to the "PFAW, urgent action" thread posted here on 4/8 by "lady in red" ... (Re: Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, and the Military Readiness Enhancement Act) ... if not, please do so ... thank you!


*** In addition, please consider responding to the following:


NCTE = National Center for Transgender Equality

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/nctequality/

The above link takes you to NCTE's *petition* in support of the "Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act"


Please consider contacting your Reps in Congress about this legislation.


*** CALLS: Ask for their support for: H.R. 1592 -- "The Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2007"

*** EMAILS: Follow this link from Human Rights Campaign ... about contacting Reps on HR 1592

http://www.hrcactioncenter.org/actioncenter/hatecrimes.html


Thank you! : )


***********************************

From HRC -- April 12th:

WASHINGTON -- Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese and Judy Shepard, executive director of the Matthew Shepard Foundation and mother of hate crime victim Matthew Shepard, joined Sens. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., and Gordon Smith, R-Ore., today as they introduced the bipartisan Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act. The Senate bill would strengthen the ability of law enforcement officials to investigate and prosecute the more than 9,000 bias-motivated, violent crimes reported each year. An identical bill (H.R. 1592) was introduced last month in the U.S. House of Representatives by Reps. John Conyers Jr., D-Mich., and Mark Kirk, R-Ill.

[Zerbie]

Hey Sherri thanks for posting!!

Please folks - make a phone call! Tell the staffer you are a constituent of (your congressional representative) and strongly support expanding federal hate crimes legislation to include sexual orientation and gender identity.

[Sherrie Z]

Hey Sherri thanks for posting!!

Please folks - make a phone call! Tell the staffer you are a constituent of (your congressional representative) and strongly support expanding federal hate crimes legislation to include sexual orientation and gender identity.

You're very welcome ... and thanks for the added encouragement for calls! : )

[akbdc99]

Just a quick note from someone that has handle answering contituent concerns. Phoning is ok for a US Representatives office, but they usually only keep tallies of phone calls. Emails are probably better, especially for Senate offices, and are easier to keep track for reports. All said and done, most office do monthly or bi-weekly mail reports for the bosses to see. This is where they get an idea of what people are writing about.

So as you can see keeping things electronicly you will be able to get a response a lot faster and it will be comunicated to "the boss" a lot faster of what people are writing about. Also, don't expect to get an indvidual response, no matter how much you and the person you are writing would like to give you an individual response, the amount of mail offices get it makes it impossible. I can attest that one of the offices I worked in sent out over 50,000 responses one month ot individual letter or emails.

It is also best to contact your representative or Senator through thier website, not a lobbying organization site. Most of the time they use a third party vendor to send the email. Some of the congressional offices have blocked IP address from vendors that have abused email address. (using email addresses for other purposes and causes with out the persons knowledge) The better vendors have worked with offices and they are not blocked.

Use one of these two sites to contact your member of congress:

http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

or

http://www.house.gov/


Also, any comunication with a congressional office is good Congressman/women really do keep track of what is going in and out of thier offices. If you have done it electonicly it will also allow that office to keep you informed of what is happening on that issue if they are so inclined. Emails are a wonderful tool, it allows representatives to keep in better contact with constituents and at minimal cost to the taxpayer so I know a lot off office are now taking advantage of this tool.

I hope this is helpful, I did this fast so please fogive any spelling or grammatical errors. ;)

[Sherrie Z]

Thanks very much for the helpful info, akbdc99! : )

[Zerbie]

Interesting, thanks.

I've heard conflicting things: I've also been told that phone calls make more of an impact than emails. Usually, if I'm really fired up about an issue, I will use BOTH.

Most of my elected officials will never respond via email. If there's time, an old-fashioned paper letter seems to work quite well, and often garners a response.

Anyway, I especially appreciate the tips about emailing through a lobby site versus through the legislator's own webpage - I've wondered about that. I will definitely remember what you said on that point.

Thank you!!

[Sherrie Z]

Thanks, Zerbie ... my thoughts pretty much exactly! : )

[sjbouza]

I was thinking, late one night, about this bill. It occured to me that if this bill does pass into law wouldnt that finally classify homosexuals as a miority class of citizen? If that is true, that we do become a recognized class, then how can the government deny us the civil right of marriage? We will be classed into a minority group status, and all other minority groups get full civil rights under the law.

Can anyone else see my logic, or was I just as tired as I thought I was? I would like to know what everyone else has to say about my thoughts here. Can we see this as a huge stepping stone to legalized same sex marriages, at least a big foot in the door.