Intersections: Workers’ Rights, LGBTQ+ Rights & the PRO Act
Published 3/29/2021 · 0 Comments
Our Intersections series highlights NEAT’s work on issues that aren’t always labeled as LGBTQ+ concerns. These topics affect many communities, yet they often land hardest on LGBTQ+ people. Explore the full range of issues we address.
NEAT Backs the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act
This month NEAT joined a coalition letter calling on Members of Congress to back the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act of 2021. The House passed the PRO Act back in 2019, but the Senate never acted on it. Enacted into law, the PRO Act would update long-outdated labor laws and would:
- Give workers the power to exercise their right to organize;
- Make employers answerable when they violate workers’ rights; and
- Ensure union elections are free, fair, and safe.
Further detail on the legislation is available in the House Committee on Education and Labor’s fact sheet.
Labor and LGBTQ+ Rights
Well before the Supreme Court recently held that workers are protected from discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, unions were often leading the defense of LGBTQ+ employees. In the words of AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka in 2018, “For many LGBTQ Americans, a union card is their only form of employment protection.” As we wrote in last month’s piece on raising the minimum wage, addressing financial insecurity in the LGBTQ+ community is a priority — and workers’ rights are central to that work.
Labor and LGBTQ+ rights have a long history of partnership and solidarity. The University of Maryland describes how, after Stonewall, US labor groups started adding opposition to sexual-orientation discrimination to their platforms. The American Federation of Teachers was the first union to pass a resolution, and other major unions followed in the years that came. Since then, per veteran labor activist Arsenia Reilly-Collins, unions have bargained contracts with protections covering pronouns, anti-harassment language, non-discrimination, health and safety, and broad health benefits that include trans benefits.
The topic even inspired the 2014 film Pride (highly recommended!), which recounts the true story of LGBTQ+ people in the United Kingdom who stood with miners during the 1984 national strike.
NEAT Launches #EqualityTime and #DecisionDay
Published 3/24/2021 · 0 Comments
On Monday, March 15, NEAT ran a full day of virtual programming to launch #DecisionDay and #EqualityTime — initiatives that provide coordinated, ready-to-use tools so organizations and volunteers can act around each event. Over 250 people from 200 different organizations joined the webinars, among them the National Center for Transgender Equality, the Trevor Project, and Our Family Coalition, and the day included a nonprofit advocacy training from Bolder Advocacy.
The first half of the event focused on #EqualityTime, a coalition of organizations coordinating actions to pass federal LGBTQ+ nondiscrimination protections. Led by NEAT and other Organizing Committee members such as Freedom For All Americans and the Human Rights Campaign, the session featured remarks from Rep. David Cicilline (D-RI), a co-sponsor of the Equality Act who also helped steer its successful passage through the House. Participating organizations learned about the tools and resources for engaging their supporters in backing nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ+ Americans. Activities range from phone banking and meetings with Senators to emailing or calling Senators and writing letters to the editors of local newspapers that share personal stories about why nondiscrimination protections for the LGBTQ+ community matter so much.
The event also covered organizing tools for the coming #DecisionDay response to Fulton v. City of Philadelphia, which is awaiting a ruling from the United States Supreme Court. The question is whether private groups that take taxpayer funding to deliver government services — such as foster care, adoption, food banks, and homeless shelters — may refuse those services to people including LGBTQ+, single women, Jewish, Muslim, or Mormon people. These private groups assert a constitutional right to do so based on a religious objection to serving these groups. #DecisionDay events will feature a national virtual rally and a Town Hall with a panel of legal experts who will help explain the decision and its impact.
“From our days as Marriage Equality USA, providing a safe and informative space for our community to gather in response to critical Supreme Court cases has been one of our core activities. With the potential negative fallout from this Fulton decision it makes this organizing all the more critical,” said Brian Silva, Founder & Executive Director of NEAT.
Since the #EqualityTime launch, dozens of organizations have signed up to join both the #EqualityTime and #DecisionDay campaigns. If your organization would like to learn more about either campaign, visit #EqualityTime and #DecisionDay for details.
Spotlight of the Month: Zack Lyons (Paris, France)
Published 3/17/2021 · 0 Comments
Spotlight honors the NEAT supporters whose efforts form the backbone of our daily work for LGBTQ+ justice.
NAME: Zack Lyons
PRONOUNS: He/Him/His
AGE: 42
LOCATION: Paris, France
Tell us about yourself outside of your work at NEAT! (e.g. work, family, hobbies)
I’m a cliché: an American in Paris! After 16 years in San Francisco and 4 years in Washington, DC, I crossed the Atlantic for love and education. In a few short months I’ll finish an international relations graduate program at Sciences Po, concentrating on human rights and humanitarian action. I’m also happily building a new expat life here with a French and Moroccan gent who keeps me on my toes. Otherwise, I love being outdoors — cycling, hiking, or just taking a stroll — so I’m looking forward to the vaccinations taking hold soon.
What’s your connection to LGBTQ+ justice work?
Nearly a decade ago, I told a friend that I wanted to get arrested for marriage equality as my birthday present. And he made it happen — we shut down the Clerk’s Office at San Francisco City Hall! I was truly terrified and anxious during most of the experience, but in the end it was easy to become an activist — I just had to take that step outside of my comfort zone. I’m so grateful that I did (and to all of the support that got me there).
What is your role(s) at NEAT? What inspired you to get involved?
I’m the Policy Director for NEAT. After meeting Brian Silva and collaborating with him through Marriage Equality USA, I have always appreciated that he keeps an eye on intersectionality and on supporting human rights for everyone. I’m not surprised at the grassroots success of NEAT and its inclusive activism, and I’m proud to be part of it.
Share a memory from your work with NEAT that sticks out in your mind.
A lot of my position involves opposing problematic policy or political decisions, so it makes the wins all that much more satisfying! Recently I took a few moments to appreciate the historic importance of President Biden’s appointment of Dr. Rachel Levine as the first openly transgender federal official for consideration by the US Senate. I’m so proud of NEAT’s endorsement of Dr. Levine as the nominee for Assistant Secretary of Health & Human Services and look forward to tracking her nomination and hopefully her confirmation by the Senate soon.
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Sources and further reading: coalition letter on the PRO Act, PRO Act bill text, PRO Act fact sheet, AFL-CIO on labor and LGBTQ+ rights, our minimum wage piece, University of Maryland on unions and LGBTQ+ rights, Teen Vogue on LGBTQ+ union activists, the film Pride, #DecisionDay, #EqualityTime, and SCOTUSblog on Fulton v. City of Philadelphia.
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NEAT’s blog keeps supporters informed on the policy fights and organizing drives that shape LGBTQ+ justice. From labor solidarity and federal nondiscrimination efforts to the people behind the work, each post connects you to ways you can take part.