Petrese
12-12-2008, 02:22 AM
Hi,
The North Dakota Human Rights Coalition has been working on a bill to present to the state's legislature in early 2009. This bill, patterned after similar legislation in other states that now have GLBT human rights protections, is intended to provide protections for GLBT people with respect to issues such as: housing, jobs, medical care, credit and anti harassment. I currently work with the NDHRC on their board and live out of state. We started working on this over a year ago and it has been a very concentrated effort ever since. The realization that the time is close makes me both apprehensive and excited.
Why, you may ask, would a bill in an upper Midwestern state that ranks second only to Wyoming in lowest U.S. state population, be of any consequence to you? In fact, the issues related to sexual orientation discrimination in North Dakota are indicative of many other areas around the country both large and small. But where the lack of population, coupled with closer knit conservative communities makes for any act of discrimination or bigotry to be very devastating to those who are victim to it, their stories can possibly have more of an impact to move the general populous, then perhaps in larger metropolises where incidences can get lost in the shuffle.
So too can legislation such as this, if passed in an ultra conservative place, be a glaring signal for other areas of the country to become enlightened and progressive as well. There is a much larger minority of GLBT population residing in the Peace Garden State then one would realize and these people for the most part must live under the radar if they are to live productively in the state. If they are outed/come out, they run the risk of losing jobs, housing and basic services, all things currently protected for the rest of the population in the state. In many cases, such as with mine, entire families are subjected to losing everything they have worked so hard for and have to move out of state to live.
My hope is to have this bill passed so that others in the state will not have to endure the hardships that My family and I and so many others did without recourse. A bill like this makes it harder for discrimination to occur and provides some legal basis to provide basic protections to people who, for no other reason than their orientation, are currently afforded no protection at all in these regards. If you are a current or past resident of ND or feel compelled you may wish to lend your support for the NDHRC’s efforts in January when we will be in Bismarck presenting this to the states Legislators.
If you have questions or wish to find out how you may help with this effort please visit our web site at: http://www.ndhrc.org/wp-publish/
and contact Mitch Marr at: mitchmarr@ndhrc.org
And if you believe in prayer say a few for us to prevail in January with this much needed legislation.
Thank You!
The North Dakota Human Rights Coalition has been working on a bill to present to the state's legislature in early 2009. This bill, patterned after similar legislation in other states that now have GLBT human rights protections, is intended to provide protections for GLBT people with respect to issues such as: housing, jobs, medical care, credit and anti harassment. I currently work with the NDHRC on their board and live out of state. We started working on this over a year ago and it has been a very concentrated effort ever since. The realization that the time is close makes me both apprehensive and excited.
Why, you may ask, would a bill in an upper Midwestern state that ranks second only to Wyoming in lowest U.S. state population, be of any consequence to you? In fact, the issues related to sexual orientation discrimination in North Dakota are indicative of many other areas around the country both large and small. But where the lack of population, coupled with closer knit conservative communities makes for any act of discrimination or bigotry to be very devastating to those who are victim to it, their stories can possibly have more of an impact to move the general populous, then perhaps in larger metropolises where incidences can get lost in the shuffle.
So too can legislation such as this, if passed in an ultra conservative place, be a glaring signal for other areas of the country to become enlightened and progressive as well. There is a much larger minority of GLBT population residing in the Peace Garden State then one would realize and these people for the most part must live under the radar if they are to live productively in the state. If they are outed/come out, they run the risk of losing jobs, housing and basic services, all things currently protected for the rest of the population in the state. In many cases, such as with mine, entire families are subjected to losing everything they have worked so hard for and have to move out of state to live.
My hope is to have this bill passed so that others in the state will not have to endure the hardships that My family and I and so many others did without recourse. A bill like this makes it harder for discrimination to occur and provides some legal basis to provide basic protections to people who, for no other reason than their orientation, are currently afforded no protection at all in these regards. If you are a current or past resident of ND or feel compelled you may wish to lend your support for the NDHRC’s efforts in January when we will be in Bismarck presenting this to the states Legislators.
If you have questions or wish to find out how you may help with this effort please visit our web site at: http://www.ndhrc.org/wp-publish/
and contact Mitch Marr at: mitchmarr@ndhrc.org
And if you believe in prayer say a few for us to prevail in January with this much needed legislation.
Thank You!