By LOU CHIBBARO JR.
Oct 12 2007, 11:50 AM |
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Responding to sharp criticism by some gay and transgender groups, gay U.S. Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) delivered an unprecedented, one-hour speech on the floor of the House Tuesday night defending his position calling for passing an employment non-discrimination bill limited to protections for gays and bisexuals.
Frank followed up Thursday with a press conference, telling reporters that he and House Democratic leaders strongly support non-discrimination protections for transgender persons but they believe a trans-inclusive version of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) could not pass in the House this year.
“The moral issue is, do you deny protection to millions of people because you can’t give it to millions plus several hundred thousands?” Frank said in his speech on the House floor.
He was referring to a letter signed by leaders of more than 200 gay and transgender groups demanding that members of Congress refuse to pass any version of ENDA that does not include protection for transgender persons.
Frank and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) have said if House leaders confirm earlier projections that a trans-inclusive version lacks the votes to pass, they favor passing a sexual orientation-only version this year,
with the goal of adding trans protection later.
“I know, Mr. Speaker, that there are today people who are unhappy with my position because I believe, to get to the central point here, that we have the votes to pass a bill today in the House that would ban discrimination in employment based on sexual orientation, but sadly, we don’t yet have it on gender identity,” Frank said in his speech on the House floor.
“And I differ with some as to what we do about that,” he said.
“One of the things that bothers me, to be honest, is that people who are now demanding that we kill a bill to protect people against sexual orientation discrimination because we haven’t done enough to protect people of transgender were silent on the issue a while ago,” he said. “I had been begging people for months to lobby members of Congress in their home districts on behalf of a trans-inclusive bill.
“People are now having web sites,” he said. “People are bursting forward. Where were they when we needed them?”
Matt Foreman, executive director of the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force, which organized opposition to a sexual orientation-only version of ENDA, has said it would be better to wait until after the 2008 elections to bring a trans-inclusive bill to a vote. Foreman and other activists note that no bill would be passed before the elections anyway because President Bush is expected to veto it and supporters don’t have the votes to override a veto.
Frank and Pelosi have argued that passing a limited version of the bill this year would set a precedent for passing a broader bill in 2009, when Congress returns after the November 2008 elections.
In his speech on the House floor, Frank talked about the disagreements within gay rights circles that have surfaced over ENDA in the past two weeks and how Democrats should respond.
"Does a political party say to its most militant, committed, ideologically driven believers in purity that they have a veto over what the party does?" he said.
"... I have a broader set of responsibilities than to any one group and my job is to advance moral values that I came here to advance as far and as fast as I can and not voluntarily to withhold an advance because it doesn't meet somebody's view of perfection.”
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