Today thousands of people across the country are taking a stand against discrimination in the workplace. Some are signing the pledge for workplace equality. Some are encouraging others to sign in pledge-a-thons throughout the day. Some will wear buttons and stickers to work, put up posters in their communities or find a few minutes during the day to educate others about the discrimination lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, transgender people and people with HIV can experience at work.

This is Lambda Legal’s second national day of action for workplace equality. We created this year’s Clock In: Pledge-A-Thon for Workplace Equality to call attention to the realities of workplace discrimination — and give people a simple action that anyone can take to help stop it.

Of the more than 5,000 calls to Lambda Legal’s Help Desks in 2007, questions about the rights of LGBT employees were by far the most common. Also last year, we saw the struggle over an inclusive federal employment nondiscrimination law that would have protected all LGBT people. While the House passed a non-inclusive ENDA, the Senate has not yet acted. That means there is still no federal law that expressly protects LGBT people in the workplace.

Additionally, in 30 states there is currently no statewide law providing express protection against discrimination based on sexual orientation in the workplace; and in 40 states there is no statewide law providing express protection against discrimination based on gender identity. Although the Americans with Disabilities Act and similar state laws protect people with HIV from discrimination, people with HIV still experience workplace discrimination due to confidentiality breaches, unjustified fears about transmission and employers’ refusals to provide reasonable accommodations.

While there has been consistent progress, there is still much more work to be done before all LGBT people and people with HIV can make a living and pursue their professional dreams without fear of discrimination.

Recently Lambda Legal won a five-and-a-half-year battle against the U.S. State Department’s blanket ban on Foreign Service job applicants with HIV. Just as we were set to go to trial on behalf of our client Lorenzo Taylor, the department lifted the ban. It will now evaluate HIV-positive candidates on a case-by-case basis as it does for other applicants. This is a tremendous victory for people with HIV across the country.

We’re also continuing to advocate on behalf of people like Izza Lopez, a transgender woman who had her job offer withdrawn by a medical imaging company in Texas because they said she had “misrepresented” herself as a woman, and Richard Mitchell, who was fired from his position as a high school superintendent in Chicago by a new school board president who had previously campaigned against Mitchell’s hiring because he is gay.

Making change is not easy, and we need to use more than one strategy at a time. At Lambda Legal, we seek to change or enforce laws through legal action, but we know that the legal system does not work in isolation from the community. That’s why we also call on our friends and allies to mobilize, join our work and educate themselves and their neighbors.

Please add your voice to the more than 3,500 people around the country who have already signed the pledge for workplace equality. And on May 15 take a moment to talk to someone about fairness in the workplace — we’ll all be better off for it.