North Dakota Senate Bill 2278 Heard by Judiciary Committee

[Petrese]

Hi

A Sexual Orientation Rights bill has been introduced to the North Dakota State Senate (SB 2278). The States Senate Judiciary Committee, made up of 3 democrat and 3 republican Senators had the Bill presented before them and heard testimony for and against it on Tuesday morning in Bismarck. This is a historic bill in a historically conservative state.

The North Dakota Human Rights Coalition has been working on this legislation for over two years. Patterned after similar legislation in other states that have passed similar bills (Washington, Minnesota and New York) this bill would make it illegal to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation, including gender identity, in: employment, housing, and other public access facilities. You can read the full bill on the NDHRC website http://www.ndhrc.org/wp-publish/

If you or someone you know is from the region or if you wish to participate, please send/email your letters of support for this bill to any of the senators, who are also linked on the NDHRC. The vote for this bill should come up early next week so please send your letters in soon.

Compelling testimony was given on Tuesday by members of our community who have been denied jobs, medical care and housing among other things, have had to move out of state to get away from the most blatant of hate and bigotry and by family members who's GLBT relatives have been the victims of this ugliness. Of course there was some opposition and, of course, much of it came from the Catholic Church.

The news media up there has been alive with news stories on this all week and some of the comments on the newspaper web sites, etc have been so nasty but many have been very supportive as well. (I think the bigots that comment on these sites actually do more to show just how important it is to pass legislation like this.) You may wish to view some of the editorials etc. from the: Fargo Forum, Inforum, Bismarck Hearald, Grand Forks Hearold, the Minot papers or others.

All in all the importance of passage of SB 2278 cannot be overemphasized.

Thank You!

[Petrese]

Just a quick update. The Judiciary Committee is due to vote on this bill on Monday with a full Senate vote later in the week. An email to the state senators on the committee in support of the bill can always help!

Emails for the 6 Senators are given through the link on the North Dakota Human Rights Coalition website : http://www.ndhrc.org/wp-publish/archives/641

once you follow the link, scroll down to the Judiciary committee and send to all six Senators:
Dave Nething - Chairman
Curtis Olafson - Vice Chairman
Tom Fiebiger
Stanley W. Lyson
Carolyn Nelson
Mac Schneider

You can also follow the other news releases etc. from the NDHRC Home Page:

http://www.ndhrc.org/wp-publish/

Thanks!

[Petrese]

The Senate subCommittee passed this bill 6 - 0. The bill now goes to the full senate for a vote either Wednesday or Thursday. If you have not already done so please follow the links given above and email the ND State Senate to voice your support for this important GLBT legislation.

Thank You!

[Petrese]

The North Dakota State Senate today Passed SB2278, a GLBT rights bill. In a Historic move the full Senate Voted 27 to 17 to pass this Bill. It now moves on to the House and has to pass there before being signed by the governor into law. We've still got a lot of work to do but I am optimistic that this bill will pass into law. Thank You to all who worked on, sent letters of support and otherwise supported this legislation!.

[offog]

Woo hoo!

Here's hoping the bill gets past the House and the Governor. (I'd send a letter of support too, if I wasn't Canadian.)

Best wishes to all the GLBT people in North Dakota!

Offog

[Petrese]

This bill, SB2278 is now to the House. We would like many people to write in support of this bill to the North Dakota house. It has been assigned to subcommittee. Please see the NDHRC web site http://www.ndhrc.org/wp-publish/ for information on where to email your support. The side bar on the web site has a number of links related to this.

Thank You to all that have worked for this success so far, lets keep the momentum going!

[Petrese]

On Friday the North Dakota House voted down SB2278 and in essence gave its citizenry the Green Light to deny, housing, jobs, credit and public accomodation to anyone for being GLBT. The reasons for failing the bill are all the same homophobic BS that is spewed out anytime GLBT issues arise so no reason to repeat that all here. The good point is that 34 votes were cast to pass the bill, the bad news is that there are still at least 54 bigots sitting in their capital seats that don't realize they are driven by hate and not by Christ.

[Gennee]

Petrese,did they use the bathroom as an issue. They tried it in Florida but it didn't work.

Gennee

[Petrese]

yep, and like I mentioned in your thread previously, pretty ridiculous, because if someone is going to risk a felony to commit an assault they sure aren’t going to be worried about getting caught and a slap on the wrist for going into the girls bathroom ahead of time.

[prairielesbian]

Originally Posted by Petrese

On Friday the North Dakota House voted down SB2278 and in essence gave its citizenry the Green Light to deny, housing, jobs, credit and public accomodation to anyone for being GLBT. The reasons for failing the bill are all the same homophobic BS that is spewed out anytime GLBT issues arise so no reason to repeat that all here. The good point is that 34 votes were cast to pass the bill, the bad news is that there are still at least 54 bigots sitting in their capital seats that don't realize they are driven by hate and not by Christ.

I would be very shocked to know that N.D. passed a bill for the rights of gays and lesbians. Bismarck, my old stomping ground is very conservative. But it seems that every year, this issue (voting on a bill) arises - so maybe in time we'll be respected there. ???

[BruceChris]

For the March for Women's Rights. Whenever we would stop, the women, who had already taken over Both bathrooms, would graciously allow me to use a stall in their men's room. No Biggie.

Namaste', Bruce Chris