I had promised that I would draft a memo with information on writing a letter of objection regarding Rep. Denny Rehberg’s recent “prank.” The only newspaper to cover this story has been The Hill, a congressional trade rag, and that story is appended at the end of this email.

Tips for writing letters:

• Keep them short. Most newspapers have a 200 word limit for signed readers’ letters.
• Letters to both newspapers and congress need to have your first and last name, as well as the city in which you reside.

• For newspapers, they will also need your address to verify that you are who you say you are
• For congress, they need it to determine if you’re a resident or a constituent.

• It helps to “sign-post”- this means stating where you are in your letter. “Firstly, Rehberg… Secondly, he…”, etc.
• Your main point should answer the reader’s question: why should I care?
• Your supporting points should do that: support and complement your main point.

Major talking points to include in your letters:

• Rehberg is not a comedian or a celebrity whose actions only get mentioned when the paparazzi want to sell a magazine. He is an elected official expected to behave accordingly.
• As an elected official, representing a state-wide constituency, his actions impact and influence legislature and attitudes.
• As an elected official of a small rural state, he will never know that his actions offended unless his constituency tells him so.
• Gay people have long been the butt of jokes that in any other minority would be considered racist, sexist, or extremely discriminatory.
• Had this been a racist or sexist comment/joke, Rehberg would be facing a censure from his Congressional colleagues.
• Jokes about being gay have deadly consequences: 15-year-old Lawrence King of Oxnard, Cal. He was shot in the back of the head last week, by on of his classmates who thought the jokes about King being gay were true.
• If homophobia weren’t still prominent in our society, we could let this slide as a simple prank. However the fact that homophobia still prevails and dominates, social discourse especially in Montana

The original story that covered Rep. Denny Rehberg’s practical jokes.

In the Know, The Hill, February 14, 2008
by Betsy Rothstein

Rep. Rehberg’s practical plane joke

When you’re from Montana, it’s hard to find things to do - so practical jokes come in handy.

Rep. Denny Rehberg (R-Mont.) recently played a gag on Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) on their Middle East congressional delegation trip last month.

Rehberg left an “Idaho Travel Package” on Simpson’s airplane seat.

Contents included a stuffed sheep with gloves attached to it (draw your own conclusions), a Village People CD, books on cross-dressing and sign language and a T-shirt that reads, “My senator may not be gay, but my governor is Butch.”

Rehberg is proud of the gift bag. “I spent a bit of time putting the things together,” he boasted.

Simpson was amused but not surprised that Rehberg was the bearer of such presents. “You can always find those materials in Montana,” he said, laughing.

The Senate will vote on the Matthew Shepard Act THURSDAY.

We’ve worked for years to get a federal law against anti-GLBT hate crimes through both houses of Congress, and we’re finally incredibly close.

Tell your Senators to vote YES on the Matthew Shepard Act! Email them at the HRC.org website, or call the Capital switchboard at (202) 224-3121. Then, spread the word to everyone you know!

The U.S. Senate could vote as early as this week on a key piece of hate crimes legislation that would protect gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people from bias-motivated violence. The House of Representatives has already passed this crucial bill — and if the Senate passes the bill, it will mark the first time in history this legislation will have passed both houses of Congress in the same session.

Call your senators ASAP at 202/224-3121 and urge them to vote in favor of the Matthew Shepard Act, S. 1105.