Today, 87 national, state, and local LGBTQ, civil rights, and community organizations urged the U.S. Senate to reconvene and move quickly to pass the Delivering for America Act, legislation recently passed by the U.S. House of Representatives in a bipartisan vote that would protect and strengthen the U.S. Postal Service (USPS).
In a letter to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and other Senate leaders, 60 state and local LGBTQ community organizations – spanning the country from Jacksonville to Seattle – joined 27 national civil rights organizations to underscore the critical importance of reliable mail delivery to the health and safety of LGBTQ people and everyone living with HIV, in urban and rural communities alike.
Passed earlier this week by the House on a bipartisan 257-150 vote, the Delivering for America Act would prohibit the USPS from implementing any new changes that would impact mail delivery until January 2021 or the end of the COVID-19 pandemic; provide $25 billion in emergency COVID-19 funding that USPS requested; require USPS to treat all official election mail as First-Class mail; and explicitly reverse any changes already implemented to the operations or policies of the Postal Service that delay mail delivery.
It also prohibits:
- Removal, decommission or other termination of mail sorting machines and removals of mailboxes;
- Any revision of existing service standards;
- Closing, consolidating, or reducing the hours of any post office or postal facility;
- Any prohibition on paying overtime to Postal Service officers or employees, and;
- Any change that would prevent the Postal Service from meeting its service standards or cause a decline in measurements of performance relative to those standards.
Read the full letter here.
The United States Postal Service’s importance goes well beyond the election. Many in the LGBTQ community, particularly transgender and people living with HIV are especially dependent upon the mail for prescription medications. The reliance on the postal service is also profound for those in communities of advanced age or with disabilities, and/or those living in rural or Native communities who often lack other affordable delivery options. There are nearly 4 million LGBTQ people living in rural America and 3 million LGBTQ people 50 years of age and older.
As stated in the letter:
“To ensure that the USPS can continue to play the vital role it always has for our economy, our health, and our democracy, it is imperative that the Senate return to session and pass H.R. 8015, the Delivering for America Act. This is a bipartisan issue, and we urge you to exercise the leadership necessary to ensure the health and stability of this crucial institution.”
National signatories include: Advocates for Youth; AIDS United; Athlete Ally; Center for Disability Rights; Family Equality; FORGE, Inc.; GLMA: Health Professionals Advancing LGBTQ Equality; Human Rights Campaign; Lambda Legal; Minority Veterans of America; Modern Military Association of America; Movement Advancement Project; National Black Justice Coalition; National Center for Transgender Equality; National Equality Action Team (NEAT); National LGBT Cancer Network National; LGBTQ Task Force Action Fund; Out & Equal; People For the American Way; PFLAG; National Planned Parenthood Action Fund; PowerOn, a program of LGBT Technology Institute; Pride at Work; SAGE (Advocacy and Services for LGBT Elders); The Fenway Institute; The Trevor Project; TransFamily Support Services.
The local organizations include: Atlanta Pride Committee; Bradbury-Sullivan LGBT Community Center; Brooklyn Community Pride Center; Center on Halsted; Compass LGBTQ Community Center; Equality California; Equality Community Center; Equality North Carolina; Four Corners Rainbow Youth Center; Gay City: Seattle's LGBTQ Center; GenderNexus; Guilford Green Foundation & LGBTQ Center; Howard Brown Health; Hudson Valley LGBTQ Community Center, Inc.; Identity, Inc.; Jacksonville Area Sexual Minority Youth Network, Inc. (JASMYN); LGBTQ Center Orange County; LGBT Center of Greater Reading; LGBTQ Community Center of the Desert; Los Angeles LGBT Center; Mazzoni Center; Newark LGBTQ Community Center; North County (San Diego) LGBTQ Resource Center; Oakland LGBTQ Community Center; Oklahomans for Equality; Dennis R Neill Equality Center; one-n-ten; Out Boulder County; OutCenter of Southwest Michigan; OutFront Kalamazoo; OutNebraska; Perceptions; Pride Center of Staten Island; Pride Center of the Capital Region; Pride Center San Antonio; Pride Community Center, Inc; Pride Community Services Organization; Rainbow Families; Resource Center (Dallas, TX); Rockland County Pride Center; Sacramento LGBT Community Center; Seacoast Outright; Shenandoah LGBTQ Center; Silver State Equality-Nevada; SOJOURN; Stonewall Columbus; The Center on Colfax; The Gala Pride and Diversity Center; The LGBT Center; The LGBTQ+ Community Center of Southern Nevada; The LOFT LGBT Center; The Montrose Center; The Pride Center at Equality Park; The San Diego LGBT Community Center; The Source LGBT+ Center; The Spahr Center; Transgender Michigan; TriVersity Center for Gender and Sexual Diversity; Waves Ahead Puerto Rico; We Are Family; William Way LGBT Community Center.
