Hot Topics April 29, 2010

While it's been sixteen years since the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) was first introduced as a bill in Congress, our community is finally close to getting the most basic of civil rights: job discrimination protection. To most Americans this bill is an obvious and overdue addition to existing law enacted in 1964 that prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex or national origin. Fear-mongers on the right are working hard to demonize us and ENDA, so we must work even harder.

The ENDA bills, House of Representatives (H.R.) 3017 and Senate (S.) 1584 states that for nonmilitary, nonreligious businesses with 15 or more employees, it is illegal to discriminate based on sexual orientation, defined as “homosexuality, heterosexuality, or bisexuality,” or based on gender identity, meaning “the gender-related identity, appearance, or mannerisms or other gender-related characteristics of an individual, with or without regard to the individual's designated sex at birth.”

Gay Representative Barney Frank (D-MA) has indicated that in the coming days the House Committee on Education and Labor will be voting on ENDA, followed by a vote on the House floor. Frank told the blog LGBT POV that all of us have a vital role in making ENDA law: “There's only one way to do it - it doesn't mean waving signs. It means calling up your representative - the members of the House who represents you - and say, please vote for this bill and please oppose watering down the transgender provision.”

Frank refers to past battles regarding transgender inclusion in ENDA. Versions of ENDA introduced from 1994 to 2004 did not include provisions that protect transgender people from discrimination. In 2007, amidst much controversy, a version without transgender inclusion passed the House 235-184, but the bill died in the Senate. There are two reasons that in 2010 transgender inclusion in ENDA is a necessity: it's the right thing to do and the LGBT community and many ENDA sponsors will drop their support of a bill without it.

An educational campaign and lobbying on transgender issues has strengthened the commitment to a fully inclusive ENDA and President Obama, Speaker of the House Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Reid all support the bill's passage. There are currently 199 co-sponsors of ENDA in the House. Gay Representative Jared Polis (D-CO) is confident the bill will pass out of committee and get the 216 votes needed to pass on the House floor.

Senate rules make the situation there more complicated than just getting a simple majority to support ENDA. Anti-gay forces might attempt a filibuster if there are not 60 filibuster-proof votes supporting the bill. Currently there are 45 senators committed to voting for S. 1584: 41 Democrats, 2 Republicans (Collins and Snowe of Maine) and 2 independents (Sanders of Vermont and Lieberman of Connecticut). Sixteen uncommitted Democratic senators and the more moderate Republicans need to hear from constituents to push for ENDA's passage.

As Congress takes up the issues of LGBT employment discrimination, the strategy of social conservatives to promote fear and division is rapidly coalescing. Right wing Republicans will try exploiting skittishness among some Democrats with procedural moves like offering a bill that strikes protections for transgender people, with the goal of killing the bill. The Traditional Values Coalition, designated a “hate group” by the Southern Poverty Law Center, already has a website designed solely to stoke fear of ENDA legislation: “Your children will be trapped in classes taught by drag queens and transgender activists...Young children will be forced to learn about bizarre sexual fetishes.”

The far-right is starting to flood Capitol Hill with letters and phone calls, and it is up to us, our families and friends to counter them. The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) has suggested some points to make in letters or phone calls: “It's unacceptable that it is 100% legal in 29 states to fire someone for being lesbian, gay, or bisexual, and in 38 states for being transgender...it is critical to me that the inclusive bill passes as written, with no harmful amendments or subtractions.” House members must hear from people in their districts and senators from people in their states; all letters and phone calls should be respectful.

To reach your senator or member of congress, call the Capitol switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and they will connect you. Senate insiders estimate that we are still four or five votes shy of a filibuster-proof majority for S.1584, so here are direct numbers to some senators crucial for ENDA's passage: Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL), 202-224-5274 or 954-693-4851; Sen. George LeMieux (R-FL), 202-224-3041. Those with friends and family outside of Florida can ask them to call their senators, specifically: Sen. Evan Bayh (D-IN), 202-224-5623; Sen. Mark Pryor (D-AR) 202-224-2353; Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-AR), 202-224-4843; Sen. George Voinovich (R-OH), 202-224-3353; Sen. Judd Gregg (R-NH), 202-224-3324; Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA), 202-224-4543.

Two South Florida Republican Representatives in particular need to hear from their constituents about the importance of supporting H.R. 3017 as a fully inclusive bill with transgender protections: Lincoln Diaz-Balart, Congressional District 21, 305-470-8555; Mario Diaz-Balart, District 25, 202-225-6866.

In America, no one should lose a job simply because of sexual orientation or gender identity. Now get busy!