A Republican congressman from New Jersey is backing the bill.
As the bill is written it will allow religious owned businesses to refuse to hire LGBT employees in non-religious positions like janitors or cafeteria workers. Right now the EEOC has ruled the trans-people are protected under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and that does not allow those exemptions so if ENDA passes we would lose protection in those jobs. So I am going to email my legislators asking them not to vote for the bill as it is written now.
This New Jersey Rep. Just Became the 8th Republican to Cosponsor ENDAI was thinking about going to the Lobby Day this July but I am not comfortable with the religious exemption which is broader than the Connecticut law.
U.S. Rep. Frank LoBiondo's deputy chief of staff confirmed that the New Jersey Republican has signed on as a cosponsor of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act.
The Advocate
By Sunnivie Brydum
June 11, 2014
Republican U.S. Rep. Frank LoBiondo of New Jersey has signed on as a cosponsor of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, bringing the long-languishing legislation's total House sponsors to 204.
[…]
LoBiondo is the eighth House Republican to support the legislation, which would make it illegal to fire, refuse to hire, or decline to promote an employee simply because of their sexual orientation or gender identity.
But LGBT advocates eager to pass the legislation — which has been introduced in some form in every Congress but one since 1996 — are pushing to override the speaker's resistance by building a bipartisan coalition of congresspeople to sign on to the legislation, demonstrating its urgency and relevance in today's American workplace. Currently, an employer can fire a worker for being gay, lesbian, or bisexual in 29 states, while transgender people can be fired for their identity in 32 states.And I’m afraid that is the problem, they are too eager; they are going to throw out the baby with the bathwater. They want to pass the legislation so bad that they are willing to pass a bad bill.
As the bill is written it will allow religious owned businesses to refuse to hire LGBT employees in non-religious positions like janitors or cafeteria workers. Right now the EEOC has ruled the trans-people are protected under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and that does not allow those exemptions so if ENDA passes we would lose protection in those jobs. So I am going to email my legislators asking them not to vote for the bill as it is written now.
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