By LOU CHIBBARO JR, Washington Blade
Mar 26 2009, 9:27 AM |
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The board of directors of the Human Rights Campaign approved a policy statement Wednesday saying the group will not support the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, or ENDA, if it excludes language protecting transgender persons from discrimination.
HRC came under fire from transgender advocacy groups in 2007 when it announced it would not oppose a “gay-only” version of ENDA, which called for banning employment discrimination based on sexual orientation.
That decision came after Democratic leaders in the House of Representatives said they did not have the votes to pass a trans-inclusive version of the bill and the bill would be defeated unless trans protections were stripped from the measure.
“It’s the policy of HRC that the organization will only support an inclusive ENDA,” says the statement, which the board approved in a closed meeting in Washington on March 25.
“In 2007 House leadership informed us that there were insufficient votes to pass an inclusive bill, so they decided to vote on a sexual orientation only bill,” the board says in its statement. “We made a one-time exception to our policy in 2007 because we strongly believed that supporting this vote would do more to advance inclusive legislation.
“We will not support such a strategy again,” the statement says. “We look forward to Congress sending President Obama a fully inclusive ENDA for his signature.”
HRC spokesperson Trevor Thomas said the policy described in the statement is not new.
“The statement is a reiteration of our current policy and should not be portrayed as new or a shift — this has always been our policy and is a clarification considering what happened in 2007,” Thomas said.
Over the objections of a coalition of gay and transgender advocacy groups, the House passed a gay-only version of the bill in October 2007. Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), who supported the gay-only version, introduced a separate bill calling for non-discrimination protections in employment for transgender people.
Both bills died in 2008 when the Senate failed to vote on ENDA and the trans measure remained stalled in a committee.
The same coalition of gay and transgender groups opposing the gay-only version of ENDA lobbied hard for the Senate not to take up the bill in 2008. The coalition argued that it would be better to wait until 2009, when they believed a Democratic president and a more gay- and trans-supportive Congress would be better inclined to pass a trans-inclusive version of the bill.
Democratic leaders in the House and Senate have said they would like to bring up both ENDA and a gay- and trans-inclusive hate crimes protection bill this year, but they have yet to place either measure on their legislative calendars for a debate and vote.
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