Echelon Magazine is reporting that Congressman Barney Frank will be testifying up on Capitol Hill tomorrow on workplace discrimination. This is testimony in support of a House bill called the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA). It would extend employment anti-discrimination laws to make it a crime to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation and sexual identity.
A similar, if not the same bill was introduced in the waning years of the reign of George W. Bush (2007). This bill had the best chance of passing as its predecessors did not have the support required to pass such a bill. The bill died in committee for a few reasons. First, the final draft of the bill did not contain language that would prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual identity, which excludes transgender and intersex persons from legal protection under the law. Many Democrats did not think that it was a strong enough bill and would only vote on a bill with those protections. The bill was originally trans-inclusive, but it was thought that there would not be enough votes to get it passed with that stipulation. Also, Bush would never have signed the bill into law. It was a futile attempt, especially during a nasty presidential campaign that ran LGBT issues under the bus in an effort to win over the “moral” and God-fearing.
Representative Barney Frank (D-Mass.) was an ardent supporter of this bill. He supported both the trans- and non-trans- inclusive bills. He reasoned that having a bill that only protected lesbians and gay men was better than nothing. While many see Mr. Frank as a fat, loud, cranky guy from a leftist state… umm. Let me try that again. Barney Frank is an outspoken House leader with decades of legislative experience. He was, I believe, the first “out” person in Congress. He has championed the rights of the LGBT community more than most people could dream. His presence up on Capitol Hill is an ardent reminder that we gay and lesbian citizens do have the ability to be elected to public office and have our voices heard.
Whatever form it takes, if ENDA is to be passed, we MUST support it. I am not talking politically here, just from the standpoint of a fellow LGBT citizen that can get fired for being gay. My opinion is that the final bill will not be trans-inclusive. At this point, Gender Identity Disorder (transgenderism[sic]) is still classified as a mental illness. That will be a major sticking point. The American Psychiatric Association appears to be discussing the declassification of this as a “disease” which “affects” transgender individuals. Don’t expect an answer before mid to late next year. Until then, let us see where the U.S. Congress takes us.
For more information on gender identity disorder, go to your local library [!?] and check page 576 of the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, Text Revision[2000] (DSM-IV-TR). Echelon Magazine can be found at: http://www.echelonmagazine.com/
Photo from a Flickr user under the Creative Commons BY-NC-SA license.
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