Dear Editor:
This letter is in response to "Getting to ENDA: Is it lost, or obsolete?" by Lisa Keen in the March 9 issue of Windy City Times.
While providing an excellent history and synopsis of the current state of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, or ENDA, Keen's article did little to answer the headlined question proposed: is ENDA lost, or even obsolete?
Most would agree that the majority if not the entirety of the LGBT populous and its supporters would resound in uniform disagreement to the latter half of this question. But to the former inquiry, I cannot help but ponder the reality found in the weight of this question.
It is in my firm belief that victories for the LGBT community in the 111th Congressnamely, the removal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell"have shrouded the priority of equality in the 112th Congress. I further believe that this disposition has been widely accepted across the general population and even the LGBT community. ENDA hasn't necessarily lost support in the populous, but it has clearly lost its priority in our fight for equality.
We are lucky to live in a state where sexual orientation and gender identity are protected across all public, private, and state employment sectors, but the same cannot be said for the entirety of the country. Today, only 11 other states and the District of Columbia provide the same equal employment rights as Illinois. Only an additional nine states have protection for sexual orientation alone. Clearly some progress has been made, but it is undeniable that there is much more to achieve.
Equality is notnor should it ever bean exclusive entitlement. To exclude gender identity from ENDA is not an option. An all-inclusive ENDA should not only be our priority, it should be our rightand while the socially conservative Congress provides a daunting challenge, it is not one we should step down from. ENDA hasn't yet been lost, but it is time that we revisit this lapsed legislation. Discrimination does not rest, and neither should the fight to defeat it.
Adam Gilbert
HRC Chicago Political
Abortion argument
Dear Editor:
As an African-American woman and the former chair of Planned Parenthood of Illinois' board of directors, I am offended by the condescending billboards that have been posted in Chicago's South Side.
Anti-choice activists are using racial attacks to further their extremist agenda to outlaw abortion. They don't care about women's health, equality or social justice. They simply want to deny women the ability to make private medical decisions, and they are using race as a political wedge issue.
These activists from Texas are stigmatizing women of color and are attempting to discredit Planned Parenthood, an organization that provides critical preventive healthcare to more than 60,000 women and men in Illinois every year. More than 90 percent of Planned Parenthood's services are preventive, with services such as life-saving breast and cervical cancer screenings, contraception, and STD testing and treatment.
The reason African-American women have higher abortion rates is because more African-American women are uninsured or underinsured and don't have access to basic preventive healthcare, such as contraception to prevent unintended pregnancy.
I urge readers to reject the racial attacks by out-of-town, anti-choice activists and support real solutions for the real issues women face. And I hope the sponsors of these billboards take them down.
Joanne Howard
Former chair
Planned Parenthood of Illinois board of directors