ENDA Victory ?

The Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) moves to the House of Representatives following approval thursday in committee. The House Education and Labor Committee voted 27-21 to approve the bill, which would protect gays and lesbians from discrimination in the workplace, but without gender identity, will not cover transgender people. According to Rep. Barney Franks, there are not enough votes to pass ENDA with gender identity included, therefore it was left out of the bill. The exclusion of gender identity has divided the gay community. The National Gay & Lesbian Task Force and the National Stonewall Democrats have led a coalition of 300 LGBT groups to push Congressional Democrats to include gender idendity in ENDA. In an attempt to salvage ENDA and try to bring LGBT groups together, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has agreed to allow an amendment to the bill to include gender identity. Rep. Tammy Baldwin will be presenting the amendment after ENDA is voted on in the House.

I am divided on this one myself. I want ENDA to include gender identity and protect eveyrone, LGBT, from discrimination. But ENDA was first introduced in 1975 and this is the first time it has been brought to a vote in Congress. Can we afford to kill a legislation the gay community has been working on for 25 years? Is it wrong to pass ENDA without gender identity, and get the protection for gays and lesbians now, and work to add gender identity when there is more support for it and enough votes to pass it? I cannot answer these questions to my own satisfaction. Let's do all we can to get ENDA passed with the amendment! If you haven't done so already, CONTACT YOUR REPRESENTATIVE in Congress to urge them to support ENDA and Tammy Baldwin's amendment! If you live in Memphis, call Rep. Steve Cohen (202) 225-3265. Cohen already supports ENDA, but he needs to hear from us to know he has our support.