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LOU CHIBBARO JR
Friday, October 19, 2007
The Gertrude Stein Democratic Club and the Gay & Lesbian Activists Alliance — Washington’s two most influential local gay political groups — broke ranks with many of their fellow GLBT groups in states throughout the country by declining to ask Congress to vote against an employment non-discrimination bill that does not include protection for transgender persons.
The Stein Club and GLAA signed on to an earlier statement circulated by the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force saying they favor advancing a fully inclusive version of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, or ENDA, that provides protection for both gay and transgender persons. The earlier statement calls for opposing any version that doesn’t include trans protections.
But spokespersons for the two groups said they have since decided not to ask Congressional Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.), the city’s sole representative in Congress, to speak out against a version of ENDA expected to reach the House floor next week without trans protections. Norton cannot vote on bills on the House floor under D.C.’s limited home rule provisions established by Congress.
The Stein Club reached its decision on the issue Monday night when the club’s members voted, following a heated debate, to ask Norton to push for the strongest and most inclusive bill possible, stopping short of asking her to vote no on a less-inclusive measure.
Leaders of more than 300 national and statewide gay rights organizations have signed a statement asking Congress not to support any version of ENDA that doesn’t include trans protections. Officials with some of the groups, including Jon Hoadley, executive director of the National Stonewall Democrats, said they have yet to decide whether to specifically ask members of Congress to vote against a non-trans inclusive ENDA if it reaches the House floor next week, as expected.
But officials with other groups, such as Equality California and Equality Arizona, said they have already sent messages to the House members in their states calling on them to oppose a non-trans inclusive ENDA. Leaders of these groups said they plan to stick with an “all or nothing” position on ENDA even if that means asking pro-gay members of Congress to join anti-gay, religious rights groups in opposing what many consider the most important gay rights bill to reach congress in more than 30 years.
“Absolutely, we will ask them to vote no,” said Barbara Jones, executive director of Equality Arizona.
“There comes a time when you have to stand up for principles,” she said. “It is an amazing stand for us to say we are not going to pick and choose who will get rights and who will not.”
Jones noted that her organization and other Arizona gay groups made a similar decision in 2000 to delay passage of a statewide gay rights bill because lawmakers said it couldn’t pass with transgender protections.
“We had the vote to pass a sexual orientation-only bill,” said gay Arizona state Rep. Ken Cheverant (D-Phoenix), who said he agreed with the decision by gay groups to hold off for a fully inclusive bill.
“The downside of that is now, seven years later, will don’t have any bill and people are still unprotected,” Cheverant said. He said he and his gay-supportive allies in the legislature will try to push through a trans-inclusive ENDA type bill next year.
Gay Democratic activist Peter Rosenstein, a member of the Stein Club who argued against an “all or nothing” strategy on ENDA, told Stein members Monday night that he did not believe the rank and file membership or constituents of the statewide and national groups support their leaders’ “all or nothing” position.
“I’m not aware of a single one of these groups polling their members or taking a survey of their members,” Rosenstein said.
Jones, of Equality Arizona, and Geoff Kors, executive director of Equality California, said that while they did not conduct a poll of their membership, the feedback they have received by e-mail has been overwhelmingly supportive of their position opposing any form of ENDA that is not trans inclusive.
Gay and transgender rights groups in San Francisco have been among the most vocal in the nation in their demand that Congress reject any version of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act that does not include transgender protections. But according to some of that city’s leading gay rights advocates, “everyone still loves” Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who is moving forward with a version of ENDA that does not include trans protections.
“We are strongly behind Nancy Pelosi but we are still trying to convince her that it is wrong to pass this bill without trans protections,” said gay rights attorney Julius Turman, co-chair of the Alice P. Toklas Democratic Club, which is believed to be the nation’s first gay Democratic group.
“We call Pelosi the Virgin Mother,” said Tom Ammiano, a gay member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. “The queer community is still very supportive of her. Our main concern is she needs to talk to more organizations and people than HRC and Barney Frank.”
Frank, one of two openly gay members of Congress, has emerged as the strongest advocate for a sexual orientation-only version of ENDA as a first step toward passing transgender protections when support for such protections can be attained. Frank and Pelosi have said there aren’t enough votes in the House at the present time to pass a trans-inclusive ENDA.
“I have a lot of respect for Barney Frank,” Ammiano said. “I strongly disagree with him on this. Just because that was always the way they do things in Washington doesn’t mean it’s right.”
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