Jun 26, 2009  |  By: Lou Chibbaro Jr.  | COMMENTS     

Gay U.S. Reps. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), and Jared Polis (D-Colo.) teamed up with eight other House members Wednesday to reintroduce an employment non-discrimination bill that includes protections for gay and transgender people.

The Employment Non-Discrimination Act, known as ENDA, was dropped into the legislative hopper with at least 118 co-sponsors as of Wednesday afternoon, with more expected to sign on shortly, Frank said at a news conference on Capitol Hill.

“We can now take for granted that there will be a vote on the floor of the House of Representatives, almost certainly this calendar year, on a fully inclusive ENDA,” Frank said.

Minutes later, he added, “We are on track to pass this bill in the House this year.”

A companion bill has yet to be introduced in the Senate, but Hill observers have said a Senate version would be introduced shortly.

Joining Frank in speaking at the news conference were Baldwin, Polis, fellow sponsor Rep. Mike Quigley (D-Ill.), and officials from labor and business groups as well as representatives of gay and mainline civil rights organizations.

No Republican House members attended the news conference. A list of the initial group of 118 co-sponsors shows that only six GOP House members have signed on to the bill so far. They include Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.), Michael Castle (R-Del.), Mark Kirk (R-Ill.), Leonard Lance (R-N.J.), Todd Platts (R-Pa.) and Judy Biggert (R-Ill.).

Ros-Lehtinen, Castle, Kirk, Platts and Lance signed on as lead sponsors, along with Democratic House members Frank, Baldwin, Polis, Reps. John Conyers (D-Mich.), Rob Andrews (D-N.J.) and George Miller (D-Calif.).

Civil rights group representatives speaking at the news conference, including David Smith, vice president of the Human Rights Campaign, and Nancy Darner of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, said they were committed to resuming the lobbying that they have conducted on behalf of ENDA for more than a decade.

“We look forward to its swift passage and standing in the Rose Garden watching the president sign it,” Darner said.

Baldwin and Polis said they, too, were hopeful that a trans-inclusive version of the measure would pass the House and Senate this year.

Baldwin said she understands that many LGBT activists are disappointed that Congress hasn’t moved more quickly on ENDA, a hate crimes prevention bill covering gay and transgender people, and other gay-related bills, including calls for repealing the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” law on gays in the military and the anti-gay Defense of Marriage Act.

“It will be the first piece of major LGBT civil rights legislation ever enacted by this Congress,” Baldwin said of ENDA.  “And once that is in the statute, we don’t have any justification for all the other types of discrimination that exists.

“So this piece of legislation is incredibly powerful. It’s saying once and for all we know that this discrimination and this bigotry exists, we see it, there’s clear evidence, it is wrong, and now, with our work, it will become illegal.”

Polis pointed to the support ENDA is receiving from business and industry representatives.

“Discriminating against people on the basis of race, gender, or physical disability, sexual orientation, or gender identity is simply inefficient and puts American businesses at a disadvantage in the global economy,” Polis said. “By passing ENDA, we can be sure that American businesses will have access to and hire the very best and brightest to be able to compete and build leaders through those organizations.”

Frank reiterated what he earlier told the Blade — that he believes prospects for passing a trans-inclusive ENDA have improved significantly since 2007, when he and other House Democratic leaders said the measure would be defeated if a gender identity clause were kept in the bill.

Over the strong objections of transgender activists and many gay advocacy groups, House Democratic leaders dropped the transgender provision from the bill in September 2007. The House went on to pass it the following month, but the measure died when the Senate took no action on it.

“Things have gotten better,” Frank told the Blade earlier this month. “The transgender community is lobbying hard.”

At Wednesday’s news conference, Frank said Andrews, who chairs a subcommittee of the House Education & Labor Committee, which has jurisdiction over ENDA, has promised to hold a hearing on ENDA. Frank said the hearing would most likely occur in July.

He said that while the election of Barack Obama as president and the election of more Democrats to Congress in 2008 improved the chances for passing ENDA this year, obstacles still exist and LGBT activists need to continue to step up their lobbying for the bill.

“I know ...