Blogswarm: it's time to move ENDA

by: Adam Bink

Thu Mar 18, 2010 at 11:30

We're asking folks to contact Speaker Nancy Pelosi at 202-225-4965 and ask that she move the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (HR 3017) to a floor vote.

Dr. Jillian Weiss over at The Bilerico Project explains:

The Employment Non-Discrimination Act, first introduced in 1994, would prohibit job discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.  But LGBT people have never been able to achieve the enactment of the bill, known by the acronym of "ENDA".

Last year, the Administration's highest ranking gay official, Office of Personnel Management Director John Berry, indicated that ENDA was highest priority on the LGBT civil rights agenda.

"If we can get ENDA enacted and signed into law, it is only a matter of time before all the rest happens," he said. "It is the keystone that holds up the whole bunch, and so we need to focus our energies and attention there."

Hearings were held in the House and in the Senate to demonstrate the need for the bill, and testimony was heard on the severe unemployment, underemployment and harassment experienced by LGBT workers. Witnesses testified to the scientific studies demonstrating this.

The reason that workers need this protection is that the LGBT community is a relatively small minority, estimated around 5% of the U.S. population, and prejudice is common, particularly in more conservative states.

She's right. 30 states do not have employment protections based on sexual orientation, and 38 states do not have employment protections based on gender identity. That's over half the Union. As Pam Spaulding wrote from North Carolina this morning:

Here in North Carolina, if you do not work for a private company or organization that has its own inclusive non-discrimination policy, you can be fired by your employer simply for being LGBT. All a homophobic supervisor has to say is the equivalent of "I hate fags, and don't want to work with one" and out you go - no questions asked, no recourse of any kind.

The bottom line is this state's legislature has not shown it believes tax-paying, productive LGBTs deserve the same rights as other North Carolinians. Employment protections will happen at the federal level before our General Assembly will move to consider legislation of this kind.

This is a federal law- like the hate crimes law President Obama signed last year- that would apply universally.

Various sponsors promised that the bill would move to a vote in August, September, October, and November of 2009. But in order to go to a vote, the bill had to pass through the House Committee on Education and Labor. Markup was finally scheduled for November 18, 2009. At the last minute, the markup was postponed, and has still not been rescheduled.

As I wrote last year, Speaker Pelosi publicly told Democrats that she would not move controversial bills until the Senate went first.  Meanwhile, the House Committee has stated its readiness to move, but is waiting for movement from the Speaker. That movement has not come.  Meanwhile, LGBT Americans continue to suffer discrimination and harassment with no recourse. Some might say to wait until the health care is finished, but reconciliation is still going to take up time and attention over the next month, and there isn't much time left in the legislative calendar. There's can't be any more "wait".

There is a majority in both Houses of Congress in favor of ENDA. The likelihood that progressives will be able to get anything done after the 2010 elections on issues like ENDA is rapidly diminishing. We need a vote, and we need it soon.

Please join with OpenLeft and other blogs in asking that gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people be protected from job discrimination.

Please call Speaker Nancy Pelosi at 202-225-4965.  Ask that the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, HR 3017, move to a vote.

Please be polite, but firm.

After you call, please tell us how the call went by clicking here. If you get a busy signal or hang up, let us know that too.

Thanks for helping move this critical piece of legislation.