If you Want to Lobby for the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, Stay Home

apartment

I recently received an email from Mara Keisling asking me to join the:

“National Center for Transgender Equality and the Transgender People of Color Coalition in Washington, DC on June 17, 2013 to lobby for basic job protections and fair treatment in the U.S. immigration system.”

In years past, the lobby days put on by the National Transgender Advocacy Coalition, GenderPAC, and the National Center for Transgender Equality, were invaluable in educating both citizen lobbyists and the US Congress about the issues transgender people face.  I’ve lobbied Congress and the tools I learned there were invaluable.

But, that being said, I didn’t need to go to Washington DC to do it and neither do you. Lobbying Congress shouldn’t be just a day of the year, it should be done year round. If you want to lobby Congress, your Senators and Representatives have offices in your state. Instead of spending hundreds of dollars on hotels, airfare, and fancy galas, you simply need to pay for fuel to get you your representative’s offices. Take a friend next week, take a family member next month. Make sure people in their home offices see the faces of people who will be effected by this legislation. Congress doesn’t need educated. They need to hear from you, loud and often.

 

 

Marti Abernathey is the founder of the Transadvocate and the previous managing editor. Abernathey has worn many different hats, including that of podcaster, activist, and radiologic technologist. She's been a part of various internet radio ventures such as TSR Live!, The T-Party, and The Radical Trannies, TransFM, and Sodium Pentathol Sunday. As an advocate she's previously been involved with the Indiana Transgender Rights Advocacy Alliance, Rock Indiana Campaign for Equality, and the National Transgender Advocacy Coalition. She's taken vital roles as a grass roots community organizer in The Indianapolis Tax Day Protest (2003), The Indy Pride HRC Protest (2004), Transgender Day of Remembrance (2004), Indiana's Witch Hunt (2005), and the Rally At The Statehouse (the largest ever GLBT protest in Indiana - 3/2005). In 2008 she was a delegate from Indiana to the Democratic National Convention and a member of Barack Obama's LGBT Steering and Policy Committee. Abernathey currently hosts the Youtube Channel "The T-Party with Marti Abernathey."