From: Date: Tue, 05 Jul 94 11:44:22 -0400 Eastern ***************************************************************** PRESS RELEASE PRESS RELEASE PRESS RELEASE THE HUMAN RIGHTS CAMPAIGN FUND The Nation's Largest Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Political Group ***************************************************************** To contact the HUMAN RIGHTS CAMPAIGN FUND, please call us at (202)628-4160, fax us at (202) 347-5323 or write to us at PO Box 1396 Washington, DC 20013. WE CANNOT RESOPND TO E-MAIL. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE WEDNESDAY, JUNE 29, 1994 EMPLOYMENT NON-DISCRIMINATION ACT GAINS UNPRECEDENTED SUPPORT; CALLS TO CONGRESS ENCOURAGED Federal Bill Would Prohibit Job Discrimination on the Basis of Sexual Orientation WASHINGTON -- A bill that would prohibit job discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation has gained an unprecedented showing of bipartisan support from Members of Congress and the civil rights community. The Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which would provide equal rights in the workplace for lesbian and gay Americans, won 30 sponsors in the Senate and 112 in the House soon after the bill's introduction on June 23. Currently, no federal law protects people from being refused work, fired, demoted or otherwise discriminated against on the job because of their sexual orientation. Polls show a solid majority of the American public supports such an anti-discrimination law. "Workers face anti-gay discrimination every day, and have no federal law to protect them," said Tim McFeeley, executive director of the Human Rights Campaign Fund (HRCF), the nation's largest organization devoted to ending discrimination against lesbian and gay Americans. "We have found cases across the country in which people have been fired, denied jobs or treated unfairly -- for reasons totally unrelated to their job abilities. Until the Employment Non-Discrimination Act is signed into law, people who experience such discrimination have nowhere to turn." Readers and their friends are encouraged to call Congress at (202) 224-3121 to urge their Senators and Representatives to co- sponsor the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (bill number S.2238 in the Senate and H.R.4636 in the House). The original Senate sponsors of the bill are Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Sen. John Chafee (R-R.I.). In the House, original co-sponsors include Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), Rep. Gerry Studds (D-Mass.) and Rep. Constance Morella (R-Md.). They have been joined by Representatives and Senators from 30 states, Guam and the District of Columbia. No federal civil rights bill covering lesbian and gay Americans has enjoyed such broad initial support. The Human Rights Campaign Fund is continuing to gather support in both houses of Congress. Coretta Scott King, widow of the late civil rights leader Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., spoke at a press conference at the bill's introduction. She highlighted the commitment of the civil rights community to equal rights for gay Americans, "who have worked as hard as any other group, paid their taxes like everyone else, and yet have been denied equal protection under the law." She was joined by Ralph Neas, head of the nation's leading civil rights coalition, who committed his organization to championing the bill through Congress. The Leadership Conference on Civil Rights includes 185 organizations representing minorities, women, persons with disabilities, labor, older Americans, and major religious groups, and has helped pass every major civil rights law in the past half century. National polls show that 76 percent of Americans support equal employment rights for gay people -- but most Americans (70 percent) do not realize that anti-gay job discrimination is still legal and widespread. The Human Rights Campaign Fund is collecting personal stories of discrimination in the first nationwide project ever to document job discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. Individual cases will be made available to the news media and presented to Congress during hearings on the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. Personal stories of discrimination include: - a Detroit postal service employee whose discrimination claim was rejected by a federal appeals court -- even though he was harassed and beaten at work -- because no federal law prohibits anti-gay job discrimination; - a Georgia woman who was fired from her job as an award-winning cook because her company adopted a written policy against employing gay people; - an Arizona man who was fired for being gay but lost a discrimination case when the jury was instructed that "an employee is not wrongfully terminated if he is fired for being homosexual;" - a married, heterosexual Kansas man who was refused a teaching job because a school employee suggested that he might be gay; - a Mississippi social worker who was fired for showing co- workers a photo of herself and her partner -- after being encouraged by her co-workers who had passed around family photos of their own. Details and contact information for these and other stories are available from the Human Rights Campaign Fund. Readers and their friends are encouraged to contact the Campaign Fund with their own personal stories at 202-628-4160. - 30 - 1101 14th Street, NW Suite 200 Washington, DC 20005 phone:(202)628-4160 fax:(202) 347-5323