The New ENDA Coalition

There is a new coalition with a two million dollar war chest to pass the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA).

Advocates launch campaign to bar workplace discrimination against gays
Washington Post
By Juliet Eilperin
July 30, 2013

A coalition of civil rights groups is launching a $2 million campaign aimed at mobilizing support for the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which has languished on Capitol Hill for nearly two decades.

The coalition, called Americans for Workplace Opportunity, is targeting 13 senators in 11 states in hopes of replicating the strategy gay marriage advocates have used to push successful state ballot initiatives.

The effort includes gay rights groups such as the Human Rights Campaign and the GOP-leaning American Unity Fund, as well as the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and the Service Employees International Union.

The coalition is headed by Matthew McTighe who lead Maine’s marriage equality campaign and that is what worries me, that once again we will be tossed aside in order to get the bill passed. The coalition is heavily weighted with gay and lesbian marriage equality organization with only the National Center for Transgender Equality representing the trans-community.

I think the conservative opposition said it best,

Within the gay movement, Lafferty [Traditional Values Coalition President] argued, transgender people “are kind of like the crazy aunt at Thanksgiving. They put up with the crazy aunt at Thanksgiving, but they don’t want to be seen with her in public.”

Will we find a new set of tire tracks when ENDA comes up for a vote?