This week's ENDA hearing

This op-ed by Matt Foreman on 365gay.com (http://365gay.com/opinion/oped/oped.htm) states some important truths. Virginia is one of the states in the USA that affords ZERO non-discrimination protections to LGBT individuals unless they work for state agency and fall under the cover of a Executive Order of the Governor. Even that process is very slow and flawed, based on a case I have been handling. All LGBT individuals need to contact their members of Congress and urge them to vote yes. Our enemies among the Christianists are launching insidious campaigns full of untruths to dupe the uninformed into telling their elected officials to vote against ENDA. Here are some story highlights:

This week, a House subcommittee held a hearing on the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA). Given that the bill has been languishing for 17 years — in spite of overwhelming public support — a collective “whatever” would be understandable. But folks, this is big — I mean really big — for two reasons.

One is that for the first time ever, the version of ENDA now moving through Congress will cover all our people — lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender. The other is that for the first time ever, we have every right to expect — yes demand — that both houses of Congress pass ENDA and put it on the president’s desk.

Let me start by saying ENDA is not the be-all and end-all of pro-LGBT legislation, but it’s a start. By covering employment discrimination only — and not including discrimination in housing, public accommodations, credit and education — it is far less comprehensive than the first piece of pro-gay legislation introduced in Congress in 1974.

Nonetheless, ENDA would provide legal recourse to victims of job discrimination based on sexual orientation to people living in the 31 states that don’t have laws covering anti-gay discrimination and to people living in the 39 states that don’t cover anti-transgender job bias. I also have to note how profoundly ironic it is that at a time when marriage equality is at the forefront of national discourse, Congress is only able to take up employment nondiscrimination protections — which has had between 65 percent to 80 percent public support for years on end. But that’s just the way things are — public support leads, Congress follows (or not).