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| Winnie Stachelberg, HRC’s political director, said the group lobbied for gender identity to be added to the Employment Non-Discrimination Act and was ‘disappointed’ that it wouldn’t be. (File photo by Clint Steib) |
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HOME > NEWS > NATIONAL NEWS
By: BRYAN ANDERTON COMMENTS
 
When gay rights groups lobbied members of Congress to resubmit the Employment
Non-Discrimination Act this session, for the first time ever nearly all of the
groups advocated adding language to the bill that would expand protections based
on sexual orientation to include “gender identity” as a covered category.
Despite the apparent sudden solidarity among activists on the issue of trans
inclusion in ENDA, sponsors of the measure are planning to reintroduce the
bill without specific protections for transgendered people, leading to speculation
that new legislation might be created to update and eventually overtake ENDA
by broadening its scope and adding gender identity protections.
According to the Human Rights Campaign, ENDA will most likely be reintroduced
in the House after the summer recess, with Reps. Christopher Shays (R-Conn.),
Barney Frank (D-Mass.), James Greenwood (R-Pa.) and Ellen Tauscher (D-Calif.)
signing on as lead co-sponsors.
Meanwhile, Sens. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.) and
James Jeffords (I-Vt.) are likely co-sponsors of the bill’s Senate version.
But, according to HRC officials, neither version is likely to include protections
for transgendered people.
“The decision has been made by the lead sponsors that now is not the
time to add gender identity to ENDA,” said Winnie Stachelberg, HRC’s
political director. “I listen to members of Congress and many of them — not
all of them, but many — have said [adding transgender protections] will
slow passage of this bill down.”
Congressman Barney Frank, one of only three openly gay congressmen and a co-sponsor
of the bill, confirmed Stachelberg’s analysis.
“ENDA will not [include gender identity] because there would have been
a very significant fall-off, especially among Republicans,” Frank said. “We
had talked about that, … but my sense is that, particularly among Republicans,
it’s a problem.”
As a result, an effort is underway between HRC and other gay rights groups
to develop a new piece of legislation that will address the needs of transgendered
people. In addition to being trans-inclusive, the new legislation could also
have a broader scope than ENDA by addressing discrimination in areas such as
housing and public accommodations as well as employment.
“What’s become obvious over the last couple of years is that ENDA
is inadequate in a lot of ways,” said Mara Keisling, executive director
of the National Center for Transgender Equality. “The new effort is aimed
at addressing some of those inadequacies, only one of which is gender identity
and inclusion.”
“It’s an idea we’ve been talking about for a long time,” said
Matt Coles, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Lesbian & Gay
Rights Project. “I think the question is about drafting a more inclusive
civil rights bill. I don’t think the initial thinking is to do a transgender-inclusive
version of ENDA; I think the thinking is about cleaning the slate and saying, ‘What
do we think a good civil rights bill should look like?’”
First introduced in 1994, ENDA has retained much of its original scope and
purpose over the last nine years. In 1996, it came within one vote of passage
in the Senate.
For years, transgender rights activists have sought to have gender identity
and expression protections added to the bill, but it wasn’t until this
year that they received support from more than 20 of the nation’s largest
gay rights groups.
Perhaps the biggest change came from the HRC, which officially changed its
stance last December, when its board of directors voted to support transgender
inclusion in the bill for the first time. The organization had added gender
identity to its mission statement in March 2001.
“We felt like we needed to put our legislative posture in sync with
our mission statement,” said Tim Boggs, co-chair of HRC’s board
of directors. “It seems like a very natural progression of our position
to now encourage legislators to make sure that ENDA protects those who are
discriminated against because of their gender identity.”
As recently as 2001, the group had actively declined to support transgender
inclusion in ENDA.
Paisley Currah, founder of the Transgender Law & Policy Institute, praised
HRC’s new stance on the issue, and attributed the change to efforts by
transgender rights activists.
Human Rights Campaign
1640 Rhode Island Ave., NW
Washington, DC 20036
202-628-4160
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