Democratic Socialists Win Elections
7 years ago
Saturday, September 29, 2007
ENDA: A tough choice
The Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), which would prohibt employment discriminaton based on sexual orientation and gender identity, has a good chance of passing in Congress, IF, gender identity is dropped. This is forcing LGBT rights activists and organziations to make a tough choice: Do we work to pass ENDA with gender identity and sexual orientation and it fail or get vetoed, or do we pass ENDA without gender identity have have a better chance of it passing and not getting vetoed? The National Gay & Lesbian Task Force and transgendered actitivists say NO WAY to excluding gender identity, while Rep. Barney Frank argues that we should go ahead and pass ENDA without gender identity and work on adding it later. Tough decision.
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2 comments:
Pass ENDA now without including "gender identity." Gender identity has NOTHING to do with being Gay or Lesbian.
All discrimination is wrong, but we've been fighting this battle for a LONG time. We must take our win and let those with Gender Identity come along later.
We may not be able to win the war, but we can win this battle if we dont surrender.
article worth reading on the subject:
http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2007/10/11/transgender/index.html
fwiw, i can't agree that gender identity has nothing to do with being gay or lesbian. from the perspective of those who discriminate against gays and lesbians, part of what is wrong with gays and lesbians is the fact that they are not acting according to prescribed gender roles.
i understand the narrow & pragmatic argument for passing the bill without gender identity now. i ultimately reject that argument, but whether or not you accept it, i don't see how you can argue that there is no relationship between homosexuality and gender identity. both groups suffer from persecution based upon gender role expectations.
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