Has ENDA's Time Finally Come?

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Submitted by Barbara on Sat, 03/27/2010 - 2:29pm

The long cold winter of health care is over. Spring is in
the air in Washington, DC, as the President and Congress are finally prepared
to seed some hope into the lives of the LGBT community. 

Barbara Sehr waits in the office of US Senator Patty Murray. For some of us it can’t come soon enough.  The signs are coming together, beginning with
a demand by San Francisco activist Cleve Jones, the creator of the NAMES
Project AIDS Memorial Quilt to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi that the House take
up the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) debate as soon it returns from
its Spring Break on April 12. ENDA was the subject of discussion by the House
Labor and Education Committee back in November of last year. There was a
promise that it would become law before spring. Still, Congress has maintained
an attitude of “don’t ask, don’t tell.”

A large group of us went to the other Washington a couple of
weeks ago, in the hopes of landing some influence during the March madness
sweeping the Capitol.  We carried a
message of commitment to our representatives and US Senators that Trans folks
are not some sort of Sasquatch creatures known only to natives of the Pacific
Northwest rain forest. Joining me from the state of Washington were Cheryl
Cristello from Gig Harbor, and Krystal Mountaine from Everett.  “We are here and ready to steer,”  was our calling card as we infiltrated the
House  and Senate  office buildings, and stepped on a Teabagger
rally at the bottom of the Capitol Steps. 

The President of the United States was apparently impressed.
Today, a week after our appearance, he wasted no more time on getting Chai Feldblum
on the Equal Employment Commission.  Ms.
Feldblum, a Georgetown Law Professor is one of the authors of the ENDA language.
Feldblum was appointed in September, but like too many of the President’s
appointments had been held in GOP limbo. 
As a recess appointment, Ms. Feldblum can sit as the commissioner for
the remainder of this session of Congress — and is expected to be get Senate
confirmation for a full term later on.

ENDA already has 198 co-sponsors in the US House of
Representatives, and another 40+ in the US Senate. The bill would add the words
“sexual orientation” and “gender identity” to the language that currently bars
discrimination in employment based on race, creed, national origin, age, or sex.
Small businesses, religious organizations, and the military would be exempt
from its provisions. 

In 2007, the US House passed a stripped-down version of ENDA,
without the words “gender identity.” That version never made it past the US
House at the time, and it was considered unlikely that then-President George W.
Bush would have signed the bill. Sources in Congress say this version of ENDA
will retain the gender identity provision, and is likely to pass the House with
bi-partisan support.  As usual, success
in the Senate remains in doubt, but there is strong support from the leadership
of both houses. President Obama has already expressed a desire to sign the
bill.