WASHINGTON (ABP) — A bill that would provide the first nationwide anti-discrimination protections for gay and lesbian people is on hold while members of Congress debate whether it should include protections for transgender persons as well.
On Sept. 27, House leaders abruptly pulled the Employment Non-Discrimination Act from consideration after they determined it could not pass the chamber the way it was originally introduced in April, by openly gay Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.).
The original bill prevented most employers from taking sexual orientation and gender identity — whether actual or perceived — into consideration when making hiring and firing decisions. However, in the most recent decision, Frank and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) determined that the bill could pass only if its gender-identity protections were removed.
They say that without the transgender provision, it could pass by about 20 votes.
Virtually all of the nation's gay-rights groups lambasted Frank and Pelosi for the decision — the largest, the Human Rights Campaign, was a conspicuous exception — but they have stood their ground.
“The fact that we are on the verge of passing a bill to protect people against discrimination based on sexual orientation is a wonderful breakthrough in this country. We've been fighting for it for over 30 years,” Frank said, in an Oct. 9 speech on the House floor.
“You don't belong in this line of work making rules that other people have to abide by unless you are motivated by a genuine idealism about how the world should be. But the more committed you are to your ideals, the more you are morally obligated to be pragmatic about achieving them. What good are your ideals if they're never achieved and all they do is make you feel pure?”
Religious Right groups, meanwhile, are fighting against any employment protections for gays, lesbians or the transgendered, even though the bill contains an explicit exemption for houses of worship and other explicitly religious employers.
“If this legislation passes, it will mainstream homosexuality and transgenderism and provide ‘homosexual' activists a legal tool for punishing employers who do not approve of this lifestyle,” said an Oct. 8 statement from the Family Research Council. “An employer's faith, moral view, the sensitivity of their work or service or the makeup of their clientele is of no consequence. Private schools, daycare centers, scouting organizations and quasi-religious organizations will not be exempt.”
The current version of the bill, without gender-identity protections, is H.R. 3685. The original version containing the transgender provision is H.R. 2015.
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