Today the House Education and Labor Committee is hearing the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA). It’s expected to pass out of committee and get a vote on the floor of the House. This should be good news, but its not. Transgender individuals have been removed from the bill to make it more “passable.”
300 LGBT organizations are opposing the passage of the legislation as it stands now because they feel it is wrong to support legislation "that leaves part of our community without protections and basic security." HRC is the only major LGBT group that is not actively opposing it. They are saying they support the inclusion of transgender people in ENDA but they are silent either way on the legislation as it stands currently.
I personally am torn on this issue. I like the idea of finally giving queer people workplace protections in this country but am pissed that we are abandoning our transgender brothers and sisters. Perhaps they will actually go back and pass legislation to protect transgender people. I unfortunately do not think an organization such as HRC that is known to be very lily white and very gay male will actively work for the rights of transgender people. If we leave anyone behind, it’ll be so easy to forget about them in the future.
What do y’all think? Should we support ENDA as it stands now?
3 comments:
Why do we put up with these idiots?
I mean really? What is the point? Concession after concession. We need a people's party.
Vote for Cynthia!
Support ENDA and leave Transgender peoples behind? What kind of bull-crap is that? Hell No, end ENDA as its being pushed. I don't know what Rep. Barney Frank or HRC is thinking... You can't cut deals like that, do we really think that today's conservative reps and shifty democrats are really gonna pass ENDA? So why leave anyone out? You just don't throw people off the boat like that, for all queers who support ENDA as it stands, who's gonna get tossed next?
And another thing... Its ironic that the rationale for omitting transgender folks is that the bill would then be much more "passable" Talk about a community's internalized homophobia & transphobia. Queers are anything but passable! We must push legislation that protects all people no matter how they choose to express themselves or identify. "Passable?" Is that what we're pushing for? To pass for straight/hetrosexual.
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