Will We Be Sold Out?

The Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) bill is coming up for a vote in Congress. After all these months of tell us that yes three will be Gender Identity included in the bill, now we hear; “Well maybe.”
This article was in the Washington Blade

ENDA hits snag over transgender inclusion
House Democrats likely to drop gender identity provision
By LOU CHIBBARO JR. | Sep 26, 4:57 PM

House Democratic leaders are strongly considering dropping anti-discrimination protections for transgender persons from the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, or ENDA, after an internal Democratic head count on Wednesday found that the bill would likely be defeated if it included the trans provision, multiple sources familiar with the bill said.
The current version of the bill calls for banning employment discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, terms that are defined in the measure to include gay men, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender persons.
As of late Wednesday, it appeared likely that the trans provision would be removed, setting up a potentially divisive fight within gay activist circles over whether or not to support an ENDA bill that excludes trans people.

But sources familiar with House Democratic leaders, including Speaker of the House
Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), said problems arose suddenly during the past week when a number of Democratic House members expressed objections to the transgender provision.
The transgender objections surfaced shortly after Pelosi and House Democratic leaders agreed to a request by the National Conference of Catholic Bishops to broaden the bill’s exemption for certain religious institutions that act as employers, the sources said.

Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), who is gay, said Pelosi called for an official “whip” count of all Democratic House members at the request of Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisc.), a lesbian. Frank and Baldwin are the only openly gay members of Congress….
… Frank said that if the whip count found that ENDA could not pass with a transgender provision, he would strongly urge Pelosi and his Democratic colleagues to move the bill to the House floor without a trans provision, with the intent of introducing a separate transgender bill at a later date.

Will we be sold out?

I urge everyone to email their congresspersons and ask them to support this bill with gender inclusion. He is the email that I intend to send my legislators.

Dear Representative

I urge you to continue your support of support of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) that includes gender identity.
There has been growing talk of dropping gender identity from the bill. Thirteen states now have legislation that covers gender identity and there have been no problems with businesses with following the law in those states; including the New England states of Maine, Rhode Island and Vermont.
Businesses have been including gender identity in their non-discrimination policies at an increasing rate; 104 of the Fortune 500 now cover gender identity and the HRC has a growing list of company the include gender identity.
Please continue your support of a gender identity inclusive bill and resist the pressures to remove that provision of the bill.

Thank you,
Diana


To find out how to contact your Congressperson, go here and on the upper right is a box for your zip code. That will take you to their contact page. Select create you own message and follow the instructions, but make sure you op-out of the boxes after your phone number if you want to do so. Do NOT use the Advocacy Xpress, it will cost you $9.00.