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Written by Lisa Neff, Staff writer
Apr 22, 2010
U.S. Rep. Barney Frank is sponsoring ENDA in the U.S. House. – Photo: Courtesy
The U.S. House of Representatives may vote on the long-pending Employment Non-Discrimination Act this spring.
There is a Capitol Hill buzz about the bill to ban workplace bias based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
A vote in the House Education and Labor Committee is expected in the next several weeks, followed soon after by a vote on the House floor.
“ENDA has been delayed time and time again, but now it looks like it will be up for a vote very soon,” said Rea Carey, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force.
The District of Columbia and 12 states, including Wisconsin, prohibit discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation. Nine states prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation.
But protections for LGBT people do not exist in many mountain states of the West and in the South.
“Right now people can be fired in 29 states for being lesbian, gay or bisexual and in 38 states for being transgender. It’s wrong – dead wrong,” Carey said. “There’s no excuse for this kind of backwards discrimination in this day and age. ENDA can’t wait.”
LGBT activists have called for a federal anti-discrimination law for decades. On May 14, 1974, U.S. Reps. Bella Abzug and Ed Koch introduced legislation that would have amended the U.S. Civil Rights Act of 1964 to include “sexual orientation.”
Activists and lawmakers took a new course in the early 1990s, working to enact legislation aimed at protecting gays and lesbians in the workplace. Gerry Studds introduced the first version of ENDA in 1994. Lawmakers have introduced ENDA in every session but the 109th since 1994.
ENDA, modeled on Title VII of the Civil Rights Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act, would protect LGBT workers from discrimination based on irrational prejudice. The bill explicitly prohibits preferential treatment and quotas, and does not permit disparate-impact suits. In addition, it exempts small businesses, religious organizations and the military.
In the 111th Congress, U.S. Reps. Barney Frank, D-Mass., and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., are ENDA’s sponsors in the House. Senate sponsors are Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., and Susan Collins, R-Maine.
Last September, the House Education and Labor Committee held a full committee hearing on the legislation.
The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions also held a hearing on the bill last fall.
Now state and national LGBT groups, including NGLTF and the Human Rights Campaign, are building a citizen’s lobbying campaign, urging constituents to ask the representatives and senators to support ENDA.
“This legislation is being fought tooth and nail by the right wing, so no supporter of equality can afford to be silent,” Carey said.
HRC president Joe Solmonese said, “Every bit of pressure we can place on key representatives will count.”
As of WiG press time, a House committee vote had not been placed on the legislative calendar.
