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WASHINGTON — A bipartisan assembly of congressional lawmakers led by Vermont's James Jeffords, Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut and Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts reintroduced the Employment Non-Discrimination Act on the floor of the US Senate in June.
ENDA would add sexual orientation to age, disability, gender, national origin, race, and religion as categories protected from discrimination under federal law.
In the 25 years since the first civil rights bill to protect gays and lesbians from discrimination was introduced in the US Congress, ENDA is the only such bill that's ever received a floor vote in either house. It fell one vote shy of passage in the Senate in September, 1996, around the same time as the Senate overwhelmingly passed the Defense of Marriage Act.
The bill is largely the product of the Human Rights Campaign. "We have seen growing support for ENDA since it was first introduced in 1994," said Winnie Stachelberg, HRC political director. "For the first time we see support coming from key lawmakers in leadership positions in both parties."
President Clinton, who first endorsed ENDA in October 1995, said the bill is about "ensuring that Americans, regardless of their sexual orientation, can find and keep their jobs based on their ability and the quality of their work. It is designed to protect the rights of all Americans to participate in the job market without fear of unfair discrimination." Clinton reiterated his support in his 1999 State of the Union address.
Gender identity and gender expression are not included as a protected category in ENDA. A survey by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, the Center for Lesbian Rights, and the national transgender lobby group GenderPAC found that 28 percent of gay, lesbian and bisexual respondents reporting job discrimination said that discrimination was based in part on their gender expression. Because of this omission, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force this year did not endorse ENDA, in what may be the first time a national gay rights group has withheld support from the bill because of the transgender issue.
NGLTF executive director Kerry Lobel said in a statement earlier this month, "We do not oppose ENDA, but advocate adding language that is more inclusive. We intend to do no harm to ENDA, but just as our African-American colleagues in several states have refused to move forward on hate crimes legislation that covers race but not sexual orientation, we too feel obligated to move forward together." Lobel said this was "not about political pragmatism, it's about progressive principles," and emphasized that NGLTF amended its mission statement in 1997 "to include the struggle for equal rights for transgendered people."
HRC was "saddened" by NGLTF's stance, and did indicate that if an amendment were offered to add gender identity to ENDA, HRC would support it. But in the words of HRC's David Smith, "This bill is where Congress is," and HRC does not believe a transgender-inclusive bill would pass.
A bipartisan 1998 poll conducted for the Human Rights Campaign by Lake Snell Perry and Associates and American Viewpoint shows that 58 percent of Americans support the Employment Non-Discrimination Act.
ENDA would not cover small businesses with fewer than 15 employees. There is an exemption for religious organizations, including educational institutions substantially controlled or supported by religious organizations. Under this legislation, preferential treatment and quotas are explicitly forbidden, and the legislation clearly states that affirmative action programs may not be imposed as a remedy for sexual orientation discrimination.
