Trio travels to New York, advocates to former senators on LGBT rights
By William Duffee
Today, three Earlham students will return from presenting their support of a legislative bill in front of former U.S. Senators in New York City.
The students, freshman Conor Hall and juniors Hannah Hale Leifheit and Mary Jones, participated in the 2010 Debating for Democracy National Conference, which comprised workshops and legislative hearings on public policy issues.
The three students presented a five-minute introduction about the Employment Non- Discrimination Act of 2009 (ENDA) and then responded to questions for 15 minutes by a legislative committee, which included former U.S. senators Nancy Kassebaum Baker (RKan.), Bob Kerrey (D-Neb.) and Harris Wofford (D-Pa.). An audience, including college presidents, provosts, journalists and social entrepreneurs, was also present.
The 103rd Congress first proposed ENDA, a bill that would prohibit employer discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, in 1994. Every subsequent Congress, with the exception of the 109th, has introduced a version of the bill.
One of the most controversial aspects of the current bill, proposed by Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) is the inclusion of transgender employees, which Leifheit, Jones and Hall support.
The bulk of the conference occurred on Thursday, with the legislative hearings beginning at 3:30 p.m. and continuing until 6 p.m. The conference officially concludes today at 2 p.m.
At the conference, Leifheit, Jones and Hall joined five other teams of presenting participants. After the legislative hearings, a panel of judges selected a winning team, who received $3,000 to create an advocacy campaign for their public policy issue. The other teams will each receive $500 for their own issues. However, this decision came too late for the Word to report.
The conference is organized by Project Pericles, an organization “that encourages and facilitates commitments by colleges and universities to include social responsibility and participatory citizenship,” according to its web site.
The students’ chance to attend the conference began at the beginning of the semester, when Vice President of Community Relations Avis Stewart sent an e-mail to faculty asking for the names of students who “embody civic engagement,” Leifheit said.
Leifheit’s and Jones’ names came up, and Stewart proposed an idea to them.
Project Pericles, which invited Earlham to join its ranks this past summer, was asking for students to write letters to elected officials about a public policy issue. A selection committee chose the six best letters.
The writers of the best six then presented their letter to the conference’s legislative committee. In addition to those writers, the other letter-writers from the winner’s school presented the case as well.
“Both [Leifheit’s and Jones’ letters] would have been in the top six,” Stewart said, “but you can only have one representative from a college.”
Project Pericles selected Jones’ letter about ENDA to Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) of Indiana’s sixth congressional district.
Because Earlham only had two representatives, Project Pericles permitted a third member of the group.
Hall, whose name had appeared often in response to Stewart’s e-mail, then joined Leifheit and Jones to present a case in support of ENDA.
Since early semester break, when Project Pericles informed them that they would be presenting, the three have been researching all aspects of ENDA.
“What we’ve been spending a lot of time doing … is just trying to find every possible way you could come at it, and then build up a bulletproof argument to counter that,” Hall said last weekend. “It’s been a challenge, but it’s also been kind of fun. It’s kind of like a puzzle, just putting together every piece so that we have a really strong argument.”
The group was “preparing for the worst,” Hall said, in anticipation of the experience.
Jones agreed.
“We don’t really know how intense it is, since Earlham’s never gone before,” she said.
All three agreed that they were excited about the opportunity.
“It’s a pretty incredible opportunity that not a lot of people get, to try to effect some change,” Hall said.
Stewart felt that this opportunity demonstrates the three students’ involvement in the community, as well as Earlham’s dedication to civic engagement.
“This really is an honor for them to be going and being able to give this presentation,” he said. “It speaks to the quality of the student body and it also speaks to the quality of the education … that our teaching faculty are providing for our students.”
Project Pericles was founded in 1999 by philanthropist Eugene M. Lang, and now includes 27 institutions of education. Colleges and universities can only join through invitation.
Stewart said he hopes that Leifheit’s, Jones’ and Hall’s participation in Debating for Democracy would demonstrate how fruitful Earlham’s connection with Project Pericles can be.
“[For] students who are obviously involved and want to become even more involved, hopefully we can use Project Pericles to help,” he said. “This just gives us another very good avenue for our students to pursue.”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
