The Queer Youth Organizing Project of SF Pride at Work calls for candlelight vigil outside of Human Rights Campaign Store in SF to coincide with National Gala for HRC in Washington D.C. this Saturday night.

Location:
SF HRC Store
600 Castro Street
(near 19th Street)
San Francisco, CA

Time: 7-8:00 PM

SF Pride at Work, the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) constituency group of the AFL-CIO, the Harvey Milk LGBT Democratic Club, And Castro For All, and the Transgender Law Center announced today that it would be holding a candlelight vigil outside of the HRC store in San Francisco to coincide with the HRC Gala in Washington, D.C. on Saturday, Oct. 6th. Representative Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House, will be giving the keynote speech at the Human Right’s Campaign National Gala.

Last week, Congressman Barney Frank and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced that they would be introducing a bill that would protect people under sexual orientation only and would drop gender identity protections from ENDA.

Over 100 national, statewide, and local organizations have signed onto a letter to Congress stating that they will oppose ENDA unless gender identity is included. However, people should know that gender non-conforming gays and lesbians would be unprotected by ENDA unless gender identity is included. In fact, LAMBDA and the ACLU have recently stated that Congress would be creating a loophole for discrimination if it excludes gender identity.

The only major LGBT group that has not come out against this decision is the Human Rights Campaign (HRC). Only a few weeks ago, HRC leader Joe Solomonese pledged at a major transgender conference that HRC would outright oppose any federal anti-discrimination legislation that did not include gender identity. While they are supportive of including gender identity, they will not join the over 100 organizations who have signed a letter stating they would oppose. We hope that HRC changes course and joins with us. Furthermore, we call on all LGBT and allied organizations that support transgender inclusion in ENDA to join us. We believe that Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, a staunch ally of the LGBT community, has been misled about the issue and we hope through education that we can reach her and help her to understand what a disastrous mistake moving forward without gender identity is for the entire LGBT community and that the majority of the LGBT community understands this and is asking her to change course.