May 27, 2008

TELL YOUR ASSEMBLY REP TO VOTE FOR GENDA!

Ask your assemblymember to tell Silver to bring GENDA to a vote!

Attention New Yorkers!

After years of hemming and hawing by Assembly leadership (see picture to right), the Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act (GENDA) is finally on the Assembly calendar and could be voted on any day now by the full Assembly. Today and tomorrow are the statewide GENDA call-in days. The time to act is now to get the Assembly to vote to end discrimination against transgender New Yorkers.

Call your assemblymember to tell him or her to vote for GENDA. We're in the final stretch and it is vital that they hear from you.

If you don't know who your assemblymember is, click here and put in your address to find your representative.

GENDA will ensure that all New Yorkers, including transgender people, are protected from discrimination based on gender identity and expression in housing, employment, credit, public accommodations, and other areas of everyday life. Passing GENDA will mean that transgender New Yorkers will no longer have to live in fear that they will lose their jobs, get kicked out of their homes, or be denied service in restaurants.

With 75 co-sponsors and more than 100 assemblymembers on record supporting GENDA, we know that we have enough support to get it passed in the Assembly if it comes to a floor vote. So now is the time to call your assemblymember!

Talking Points:

Find your representative's phone number here (http://assembly.state.ny.us/), and then call your representative's office to say that now is the time to end discrimination against transgender New Yorkers.

Remember to give the number of the GENDA bill (A.6584).

Ask them to vote for GENDA, and to ask Speaker Sheldon Silver and their fellow assemblymembers bring the bill to the floor for a vote now. Tell them about the broad support for GENDA statewide, including:

• 78 percent of New York voters
• Unions representing 461,000 working New Yorkers
• 26 Fortune 500 companies based in cities like Rochester, Corning, New York City and White Plains
• 130 clergy and lay leaders, representing 20 different denominations

The Housing Works AIDS Issues Update is reported, written and edited by Diana Scholl, David Thorpe, Phil Fox Rose, Christine Campbell, terri smith-caronia and Housing Works staff. Send your feedback, leads and story ideas to d.scholl@housingworks.org.

You can reach us by phone at 212-967-1500 x168, by fax at 212-868-4222, and by email at d.scholl@housingworks.org. Housing Works provides housing, advocacy and services to homeless people living with AIDS and HIV. Housing Works is the nation's largest community-based AIDS organization and the nation's largest minority-controlled AIDS organization.

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