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See If Your Congress Member Makes The Grade

The Human Rights Campaign, the nations largest organization fighting for LGBT rights, released its Congressional scorecard yesterday (Download PDF here). The scorecard rates members of Congress on their support for issues of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equality. This is an excellent tool to use during this election year. You can see how the elected official for your area voted on all the LGBT issues that came up during the 110th Congress (Jan. 2007 – Jan. 2009).

Here are some of the successes from this Congressional session:

• For the first time in a Congressional session, the Senate and House both passed hate crimes legislation that provides protection on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity;
• For the first time, the House introduced the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) that includes protections for both sexual orientation and gender identity, with 185 Members of Congress cosponsoring the bill;
• For the first time, the House held a vote on and passed a version of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), that prohibits employment discrimination based on sexual orientation;
• The House held the first-ever hearing focused solely on workplace discrimination faced by transgender Americans;
• The House held the first hearings since 1993 examining the negative impact of the discriminatory “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy;
• The Senate held the first-ever hearing on the Domestic Partnership Benefits and Obligations (DPBO) Act which provides equal family benefits to LGBT federal civilian employees; And with pro-equality leadership in the House and Senate, the discriminatory Federal Marriage Amendment (FMA) was not even scheduled for a vote.
• Also with more fairminded officials being elected, and the work of HRC lobbying and educating Congress we have also seen the number of positive votes improve.

According to HRC we have see the following:

In the 110th Congress, the average score for members of the U.S. Senate increased from 41.7% to 55.4% and for the House of Representatives from 40.5% to 47.9%. The number of Senators scoring 90% or better increased from 11 to 17. The number of Representatives with 90% or better increased from 96 to 128.

The following legislation is what appears on the HRC scorecard:

• The Matthew Shepard Act, H.R. 1592/S. 1105, to allow local law enforcement to access federal resources to investigate or prosecute violent crimes committed because of the victim’s sexual orientation or gender identity;
• The Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), H.R. 3685, to prohibit workplace discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation;
• The Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), H.R. 2015, co-sponsorship of the inclusive version to prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity;
• The HIV travel and immigration ban, included in the reauthorization of the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), that took the first step toward ending the ban on travel and immigration to the United States by HIV-positive individuals;
• The Early Treatment for HIV Act (ETHA), H.R. 3326/S. 860, to allow states to provide Medicaid coverage to HIV positive persons;
• The Uniting American Families Act (UAFA), H.R. 2221/S. 1328, to provide same-sex partners of U.S. citizens equal immigration access;
• The Military Readiness Enhancement Act (MREA), H.R. 1246, which would repeal the military’s ban on open service by gays and lesbians;
• The Tax Equity for Domestic Partner and Health Plan Beneficiaries Act (DP Tax), H.R. 1820/S. 1556, to equalize tax treatment for employer-provided health coverage for domestic partners.

To view the HRC scorecard click here.

Lezzymom has two kids and a wonderful partner. Her political commentary has appeared on C-Span and CSPAN.org. Visit her Lezzymom blog for more of her insights.