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EQUALITY MARYLAND EXPRESSES DISAPPOINTMENT AT PASSAGE OF NON-INCLUSIVE ENDA
Yesterday, the United States House of Representatives voted 235-184 to pass H.R. 3685, a non-inclusive version of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) which protects workers from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation alone, and not gender identity. This is the first time the United States House of Representatives has passed an employment nondiscrimination act that, if enacted, would ban discrimination against most lesbians, gay men, and bisexual people in the workplace. The bill has an uphill battle in the Senate and would almost certainly be vetoed by President Bush.
For some, the passage of a non-inclusive ENDA feels like an important symbolic victory, even though it will not be signed into law to tangibly help lesbian, gay or bisexual Americans in the immediacy. Equality Maryland acknowledges three decades of work by our allies in Congress and by national LGBT organizations who have been passionate and determined to bring this civil rights legislation before Congress. Certainly, passing ENDA may serve an educational value for society as a whole as to the discrimination faced by some in our community. Still, Equality Maryland remains concerned that passage of a non-inclusive bill damages efforts to pass truly inclusive legislation both in Maryland and at a time when such legislation will have the support of the President of the United States.
Equality Maryland believes the most expedient route to protecting the entire LGBT community from discrimination is to remain steadfast in our commitment to legislation that does, indeed, protect the entire community. We will continue our advocacy efforts for an inclusive federal ENDA and for an expansion of laws in Maryland, and urge all members of the LGBT and allied community to join us in working towards one, united movement. Click here to take action, right here at home, on efforts to protect the transgender community in Montgomery County.
CONGRESSWOMAN BALDWIN INTRODUCES AMENDMENT ON GENDER IDENTITY
Prior to the vote on the non-inclusive ENDA, Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) introduced an amendment to the legislation to add back in protections based on gender identity. The amendment received short debate, but no up or down vote.
Said Congresswoman Baldwin, who voted for the non-inclusive bill: "I offered an amendment to H.R. 3685 because I strongly believe that we must prohibit job discrimination against people because of their gender identity. This is a complex issue. Few people are very familiar with it or understand how a person's body might not match one's internal sense of gender. But, there are Americans who confront this reality and therefore seek to live as the other gender in order to feel whole. This is not a new phenomenon... it is not a fad. And it certainly is not a reason to suffer discrimination in the workplace. Some people have asked why I insisted on bringing an amendment to the floor, only to withdraw it without a vote. The reason is simple. Those left behind by this bill deserve to hear, on the floor of the House, that they are not forgotten and our job will not be finished until they, too, share fully in the American Dream."
Seven Democrats voted against the legislation because it was not inclusive of the transgender community and gender non-conforming individuals. All Maryland Congressmen, with the exception of Rep. Roscoe Bartlett, cast a vote in support of ENDA.
UNITED ENDA COALITION WILL LEAD THE WAY TOWARDS INCLUSIVE LEGISLATION
Equality Maryland has been working with United ENDA, a coalition of over 350 national, state and local organizations committed to keeping transgender protections in ENDA. Equality Maryland loaned its field organizer, Mary Zicari, to work for United ENDA full time for two weeks to advance the coalition's efforts.
The way in which the LGBT community came together in an unprecedented show of unity is heartening and will have lasting effects.
Said the United ENDA Coalition:
"While the passage in the House of Representatives today of this stripped down ENDA is deeply disappointing, we have seen a tremendous shift in the commitment of a growing number of legislators to only support an inclusive ENDA in the future when passage in the Senate and the signature of a new President make the enactment of comprehensive employment protections a possibility. We remain frustrated and disappointed that an inferior bill was brought to the floor. The stripping away of gender identity not only abandons transgender people - the most vulnerable within the LGBT community -- it ignores the reality that gender identity and expression are at the root of much anti-gay discrimination.
"Despite the action taken today in the House, the United ENDA coalition continues to expand, and we intend to harness the passion, grassroots activism and local, state and national organization leadership. Collectively, we are committed to working with Congress towards the ultimate goal of passing a fully-inclusive ENDA. We also are committed to working with all the organizations in the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, as the LGBT community needs the support of the entire civil rights community to make certain a fully-inclusive bill is introduced in the next Congress."