Sep 28, 2007  |  By: LOU CHIBBARO J  | COMMENTS     

House Democratic leaders are strongly considering dropping anti-discrimination protections for transgender persons from the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, or ENDA, after an internal Democratic head count on Wednesday found that the bill would likely be defeated if it included the trans provision, multiple sources familiar with the bill said.

The current version of the bill calls for banning employment discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, terms that are defined in the measure to include gay men, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender persons.

As of late Wednesday, it appeared likely that the trans provision would be removed, setting up a potentially divisive fight within gay activist circles over whether or not to support an ENDA bill that excludes trans people.

The leader of one of the nation’s most prominent transgender rights groups expressed strong skepticism over reports that support for the transgender provision was eroding.

“I do think we have the votes to pass this bill,” said Mara Keisling, executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality. “We’re getting down to the wire, and whenever you get close to a vote on an important bill like this, some people always get worried.”

Keisling and other gay and transgender rights leaders have been telling their members that ENDA enjoys widespread, bipartisan support and predicted it would pass the House, with some expecting a more difficult effort in the Senate.

But sources familiar with House Democratic leaders, including Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), said problems arose suddenly during the past week when a number of Democratic House members expressed objections to the transgender provision.

The transgender objections surfaced shortly after Pelosi and House Democratic leaders agreed to a request by the National Conference of Catholic Bishops to broaden the bill’s exemption for certain religious institutions that act as employers, the sources said.

“There has been an unraveling of the bill in the last week,” said a lobbyist familiar with the situation, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

“We’re hearing that Speaker Pelosi is very worried about how the gender identity issue will play on the floor,” the lobbyist said.

The lobbyist and other sources said Pelosi and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), among other Democratic leaders, expressed concern that the defecting Democrats would help Republicans garner enough votes to pass a motion either deleting the transgender language from the bill or recommitting the bill to committee, which effectively would kill the entire bill.

“The speaker is committed to passing the strongest possible ENDA bill,” said Drew Hammill, Pelosi’s press secretary.

A decision to drop the transgender language from the bill is likely to cause a split in the coalition of civil rights groups that have lobbied for ENDA for more than a decade.

Two of the largest gay civil rights groups, Human Rights Campaign and National Gay & Lesbian Task Force, have said they would not support ENDA if it doesn’t include a transgender provision. The Task Force was among the first gay rights groups to call for including a trans provision in ENDA.

In 2004, HRC changed its position from opposing a trans provision, on grounds that it would hurt ENDA’s chances of passing, to one of opposing the entire bill unless its congressional sponsors added a trans clause. HRC’s change of position took place shortly after transgender activists staged a protest outside the HRC offices in Washington and threatened to urge supporters to stop contributing money to the group.

As the Blade went to press Thursday, HRC had not yet released a statement on how it would proceed or if it would back ENDA without the trans provision.

Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), who is gay, said Pelosi called for an official “whip” count of all Democratic House members at the request of Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisc.), a lesbian. Frank and Baldwin are the only openly gay members of Congress.

Frank said Baldwin called for the count after learning that House Democrats had expressed concern that a growing number of their colleagues might join Republicans to vote against ENDA if it included a transgender provision.

Baldwin did not immediately respond to a request by the Blade for comment.

Frank said Pelosi made the decision to call for the whip count Wednesday morning during a meeting in her office with Frank, Baldwin, Hoyer and Reps. George Miller (D-Calif.), chair of the Committee on Education and Labor, which has jurisdiction over ...