Signatures 1536 total
Page: « ‹ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, ... 31 › »
-
101
Name: Diane Rankin on Jul 21, 2009Comments:Flag
-
102
Name: Tim Urban on Jul 21, 2009Comments: As an unemployed transgendered citizen born with an intersex condition, I have had a very difficult time finding stable long term employment. I need the protections that ENDA with gender idenity and expresion will provide. This is a matter of great importance to me. Please pass into law the fully inclusive version ENDA.Flag
-
103
Name: Mary Ortiz on Jul 21, 2009Comments:Flag
-
104
Name: Zachary Ortiz on Jul 21, 2009Comments:Flag
-
105
Name: Angie Green on Jul 21, 2009Comments: In support of my transgender partner/spouse and our friends who we consider extended family.Flag
-
106
Name: Willie Taylor on Jul 21, 2009Comments:Flag
-
107
Name: Ewan Tristan Booth on Jul 21, 2009Comments:Flag
-
108
Name: Jude Mcneil on Jul 21, 2009Comments:Flag
-
109
Name: Amy Garbati on Jul 21, 2009Comments:Flag
-
110
Name: Terry McCorkell on Jul 21, 2009Comments: Discrimination is unAmerican!Flag
-
111
Name: Dave Waugh on Jul 21, 2009Comments:Flag
-
112
Name: Leo Soucy on Jul 21, 2009Comments:Flag
-
113
Name: Linda Rogers on Jul 21, 2009Comments:Flag
-
114
Name: Lisa Kerr on Jul 21, 2009Comments:Flag
-
115
Name: Nancy Granshaw on Jul 21, 2009Comments:Flag
-
116
Name: Sabrina Schnur on Jul 21, 2009Comments:Flag
-
117
Name: Erica Rogers on Jul 21, 2009Comments:Flag
-
118
Name: Bonnie Shopper on Jul 21, 2009Comments:Flag
-
119
Name: Tommy Theollyn on Jul 21, 2009Comments:Flag
-
120
Name: Ronnie Anne Spang on Jul 21, 2009Comments: Hi my name is Veronica. This is a story of overcoming adversity and pain. I am a professional middle aged woman, and grandmother of 5. Although I am female and the state of California recognizes me as a female, the United States does not. I am a female as much as any woman is. The ONLY differences between me and another woman are that most are fortunate enough to be born that way. I had to endure tens of thousands of dollars in painful procedures to become one. I had to endure the self-loathing terror of my earliest 4 year old memory as already aware that I was female. Try to imagine the horror of being in the wrong gender Picture the misery of seeing parts of your body and wishing that you could change them Every day from that age on, I would see a terrifying body that I wanted out of. The pain and agony of being in the wrong body rips at one incessantly. I begged for death for 30 years daily and even a few times since. I was filled with hate and rage at being caught in this terror. I wished nothing more than to be free of this body. In my mid teens, I stopped fighting within myself and decided to live as myself or to die trying. My first attempts to be female as a teen resulted in my being thrown out of my home and family at the age of 16. As a homeless teen I was repeatedly attacked, victimized and assaulted by members of my own family as well as those who once were friends. I have been shot at, and had my life threatened at the end of a gun several times. . Of course I needed money to become a female. So during my 20s I tried going back to working as a male in an effort to save enough money to get fixed to medically solve my problems. I was forced to work as a male, and when employers discovered my crossdressing makeup wearing outside of the work place, I quickly became blacklisted. This kept me in poverty and tough times for nearly 20 years as I could not live as a man and no one would accept me any other way. Imagine how many jobs that I held from 1982 until 2003. Imagine the hundreds of jobs that I applied for. Imagine the hundreds of blatant rejections. How would you feel being told: “We don’t hire tranny faggots” ‘We don’t want your kind around here” “cut your hair you freak or you will be fired” I actually heard these from companies like US TelePacific and others. But in 2004 things finally turned around. The State of California legally recognized my right to exist. A law was passed granting my equality. Things did not completely improve overnight. I still have to apply for double the jobs of other women in order to get hired. But with perseverance, someone eventually does hire me. I have succeeded and overcome the challenges. I am still the last hired and the first fired. There are still more employers who will not hire me than who will. But I have learned that it is a numbers game and that persistence does pay off EVENTUALLY. Once I am given a chance I have excelled. At Renkus-Heinz despite my work on breakthrough prototypes that resulted in new patents for new technologies, I was laid off over less capable, qualified and less senior engineers. But my answer to this adversity was to find a job paying $8 more per hour. I worked as an engineer at Crestron until I could not stand another day as a male. I went to the HR department and explained my predicament and began to transition. Shortly after I was fired and blacklisted. My answer to this blatant discrimination was to find another job paying $20,000 per year more than the last one. In this position I solved problems that were once thought to be impossible. I accomplished things for this company that they and the manufacturer of the products that they sold said could not be done and I make it work seamlessly, smoothly and AUTOMATICALLY. My solution took 15 minutes to implement and was based in part on technology that had existed since the 1950s. I not only helped the company win a major oil company account but saved the customer tens of thousands of dollars. It was never that I lacked anything other than an opportunity. Life is better now, but not perfect. Despite all of the wonderful progress and improvements, my new employer’s insurance does not cover ANY of my transition related expenses. No insurance covers me or ever has. Although the state that I live in allows me to live as I see fit, a majority of society still does not. The media spews people like Rick Warren, Dr Phil and James Dobson who have labeled me a sicko and a pervert. Women like me are still being slain every year. During 2008 in Memphis Tennessee alone, Memphis Police officers were fired for violently assaulting a woman like me. Shortly after those police were fired the woman was found executed with a bullet to the head lying in the street. A string of murders of women has followed with no suspects and no justice. These are NOT isolated incidents 2008 a US District Supreme Court ruled that the US Government has a policy of economic genocide of women like me in the form of employment discrimination. It is legal to deny me housing, employment or existence in 48 states of the US. This knowledge weighs heavily on my heart to see year after year how my friends are killed for being who they are. You may have heard that this is a choice. Well it is a pretty damn hard one if that is the case. It has it’s rewards to be certain. But it is a painful and difficult path. Few of us will have success and many will fall or be struck down in our youth. But I am living proof that despite it all, we CAN overcome adversity. We are stronger than hate, bigotry or misunderstanding. Love can conquer all. Hardship can make us jaded or more polished. Diamonds are only created under great pressure and much polishing is required to make a pearl. Nothing of value is without sacrifice or pain. Those who have lived in both genders are a gift and a treasure of great value but are all too often thrown away and cast aside. It is not the lack of value of ANY person, but rather the lack of perception of that value that is why our most gifted are also our most reviled. Someone once said that “what does not kill us will make us stronger.” I feel that strength, it is what has gotten me this far and what will encourage me to seek greater achievement. I believe in myself and others. For none of us are any better than the other, but rather each uniquely gifted in our own ways. If I can achieve success, anyone can, and all deserve an opportunity. I hope that I have given some insight into who Transgender people are. We are people with the same wants needs and desires. We might be a little bit more challenged in some areas, but that yields greater strength in others. When we take a persons sight, does not their hearing improve Or by taking hearing the ability to read lips Humans are adaptable, powerful and filled with potential.. Within each of us is all that we need to accomplish ANYTHING that we so desire. But we must be given the opportunity. How many Einsteins, how many Mozarts, and how many Piccasso’s were never given the chance because they were different How many of the oppressed or slain held the potential to cure cancer, to cure AIDS or to get us to planets and stars far away What makes us a better nation and better people To oppress and destroy those who don’t look like us Or to live up to the idea that all men are created equalFlag
-
121
Name: Robyn Webb on Jul 21, 2009Comments:Flag
-
122
Name: Christina Robertson on Jul 21, 2009Comments:Flag
-
123
Name: Joe Haffner on Jul 21, 2009Comments:Flag
-
124
Name: Alex Friedman on Jul 21, 2009Comments:Flag
-
125
Name: Janet Williamson on Jul 21, 2009Comments:Flag
-
126
Name: Donna M Rayment on Jul 21, 2009Comments:Flag
-
127
Name: Bob North on Jul 21, 2009Comments: This is long over due.! Pass it because it is the right thing to do !Flag
-
128
Name: Sarah Vestal on Jul 21, 2009Comments:Flag
-
129
Name: Skylar Seward on Jul 21, 2009Comments:Flag
-
130
Name: Martin Berbusse on Jul 21, 2009Comments:Flag
-
131
Name: Amanda Birmingham on Jul 21, 2009Comments:Flag
-
132
Name: Anonymous on Jul 21, 2009Comments:Flag
-
133
Name: Melissa Strait on Jul 22, 2009Comments:Flag
-
134
Name: Douglas Girling on Jul 22, 2009Comments:Flag
-
135
Name: Tyler Wood on Jul 22, 2009Comments:Flag
-
136
Name: Coletta A Katz on Jul 22, 2009Comments:Flag
-
137
Name: Linda on Jul 22, 2009Comments:Flag
-
138
Name: Cheryl Katz on Jul 22, 2009Comments:Flag
-
139
Name: Bonnie Males, PhD on Jul 22, 2009Comments: Transgendered persons like myself have endured economic discrimination just for being gender variant. We do not have to do anything to be fired or for employers to deny us jobs. It is time that national legislation is passed that affords transgendered individuals the same rights to employment and all that we Americans consider as fundamental to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Please pass ENDA.Flag
-
140
Name: Christine Blanco on Jul 22, 2009Comments:Flag
-
141
Name: Jamie Cooper on Jul 22, 2009Comments: all people in this country have a right to work without being discriminated against for any reason.Flag
-
142
Name: John M. Ohle on Jul 22, 2009Comments:Flag
-
143
Name: Sean Locke on Jul 22, 2009Comments:Flag
-
144
Name: Paul Hasler on Jul 22, 2009Comments:Flag
-
145
Name: Sandra Coutts on Jul 22, 2009Comments:Flag
-
146
Name: Anonymous on Jul 22, 2009Comments: Please pass ENDA that includes rights for Transgendered people. They should also have the right not to be disciminated against just for the wanting/trying to live their lives in the gender they so feel should have been the one they should have been born into.Flag
-
147
Name: Mary Sweaney on Jul 22, 2009Comments: .Flag
-
148
Name: Alison Gee on Jul 22, 2009Comments:Flag
-
149
Name: Cheyanne Sanchez on Jul 22, 2009Comments:Flag
-
150
Name: Marilyn Traver on Jul 22, 2009Comments:Flag