I think anyone with some political experience could have seen this coming. Barney Frank proved right on the lack of votes to pass a transgendered inclusive version of ENDA. Why some of the gay rights organizations refused to see reality is baffling to me. Hopefully, now a LGB version can pass Congress and the Chimperator will be in the bind of either (1) signing it into law (to the screams and vapors of his Christianist supporters) or (2) vetoing a bill that the majority of Americans agree with in terms of fair employment opportunities for gays and setting the GOP for more depiction as the party of religious extremist. Either way, in my view gays will make progress. Yes, even if Bush vetoes ENDA, it will have passed Congress and the veto will set the stage for further support for future passage. Here are highlights of The Hill's coverage (http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/freshman-democrats-kill-transgender-amendment-2007-10-25.html):
Reps. Tim Walz (Minn.) and Ron Klein (Fla.), leaders of the class of freshman Democrats, carried a message to Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Tuesday that their fellow first-term lawmakers did not want to vote on an amendment extending civil rights to transgender employees.House Education and Labor panel Chairman George Miller (D-Calif.), whose committee passed the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, said he told the freshman lawmakers at their Wednesday breakfast with Pelosi that the amendment did not have the votes to pass and would not be brought to the House floor.
Frank approves the transgender language but maintains it lacks the votes to pass.“People didn’t want to force a ‘hard’ vote that might hurt their election chances,” Hilary Rosen, a Democratic lobbyist and gay and lesbian advocate, wrote on the Huffington Post, a liberal blog.
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