Blue Mass Group

Reality-based commentary on politics.

ENDA: It’s Time…Again…Maybe!

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–>UPDATE (11/6) 365gay.com says that HRC, NAACP, AFSCME and others have submitted the following very disappointing letter (pdf) to Congress.

  Tuesday, however, it appeared there are not the votes to pass an all inclusive version of ENDA and in an open letter to members of Congress, HRC, the NAACP, the National Education Association, the National Employment Lawyers Association, the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, the American Federation of State, County, Municipal Employees and a number of other groups said they would support ENDA without gender identity.

So, HRC has revealed its duplicity.  They have been saying all along that they support a fully inclusive ENDA.  Apparently it is the same way Rep Frank supports it – in theory but not in practice.  The vote has apparently been postponed again until later this week. 

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Congress is expected to vote on ENDA on Tuesday, November 6th.

URGE YOUR CONGRESS MEMBERS TO LISTEN TO THE LGBT COMMUNITY AND SUPPORT ANTI-DISCRIMINATION LEGISLATION THAT INCLUDES GENDER IDENTITY.

HR 3685 is the version of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) to be voted on Tuesday.  It bans discrimination based on sexual orientation but NOT gender identity. It also includes a far more sweeping religious exemption than seen in any other civil rights legislation of this kind.

Please contact your representative to let him/her know that the House should only consider a version of ENDA that includes gender identity. Sure, progress is often incremental.  But now is the time for the LGBT-A community to say loudly that we will not be divided.

Tens of thousands of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people and our allies have contacted our members of Congress to urge them to enact anti-discrimination legislation that includes gender identity.  Please  stand united with us and over 355 organizations at the local, state, and national levels who support an inclusive ENDA.

Call your US Rep at 202-224-3121 or send them an email by clicking here (n.b. calls are MUCH more effective).

For background info, past BMG diaries here and here.  Info from UnitedENDA here and National Gay and Lesbian Task Force here.  H/t Equal Rights Washington.

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Comments

  1. Here’s some good stuff from NHFTM

      The House leadership just signaled that it intends to bring the non-inclusive ENDA to the Rules Committee today, which would mean a likely vote on the floor tomorrow [Tuesday].  (The Rules Committee meeting is scheduled for 5 PM ET today.  We have no info yet about when tomorrow a vote may occur.)  They’ve certainly signaled that they intended to take action on the flawed bill before – and we’ve stopped them in their tracks every step of the way.  But, despite hearing loud and clear that the community this bill is supposed to protect does not want this bill or agree with this strategy, it appears to us as if House leadership is intent on moving the bill anyways.

      The Baldwin Amendment is apparently off the table despite promises from leadership to allow a vote on the amendment. 

  2. Congress should not be considering a bill that the community it affects does not support.  It would be unprecedented for Congress to move forward with a civil rights bill that does not have the support of a single organization in the affected community.  No LGBT group supports this bill, and more than 350 LGBT and allied organizations have come together to oppose it. Members who vote no stand with the LGBT community.
  3. Civil rights advocates should not compromise on basic principles of fairness. In the hopes of broadening support, leadership has made too many compromises on this bill.  It has become too weak and would protect too few people. By moving a weak bill now, especially at a time when there is no possibility of it becoming law, we set a precedent for the next Congress to consider another weak bill. A strong message must be sent that this is unacceptable.
  4. Federal legislation should reflect the progress at the state level, not impede it. No state legislature has passed a bill that does not include both sexual orientation and gender identity in the past five years.  We have already heard that the public debate to strip gender identity from the federal bill has impacted the legislative climate at the state level. Federal legislation is looked to – and should be – a model for the states; this bill is just the opposite. 

    Incrementalism CANNOT mean leaving some in the community without any protections at all. While many have claimed that the strategy of moving the weak, non-inclusive bill is similar to previous incremental civil rights advances, those advances never singled out a part of the community to be exempt from protections, but rather tackled areas of discrimination one at time (such as housing, voting, etc.).  Anyone who claims that leaving transgender individuals out of ENDA is incremental is saying that they are separate from the rest of the community. A vote against a non-inclusive ENDA shows that the member unequivocally disagrees with this perception. 

    Vote NO on ENDA 3685

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