Accept No Substitutes

Some firepups asked last night “what can we do?” when we discussed our Congressional Democratic leadership’s decision to strip the Employment Non-Discrimination Act of protections for transgender Americans by removing “gender identity.”

National Stonewall Democrats has launched an online petition here.

Discrimination isn’t sweet. Congress has the chance to pass HR 2015, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), which would protect Americans from workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

Now a substitute bill has been introduced as HR 3685, which would not stop discrimination based on gender identity. Removing gender identity from ENDA would leave an artificial aftertaste. Not only would the substitute bill leave some working Americans behind, it would also create divisions among Democrats and fair-minded advocates.

Let’s help Congress continue to build support for the original ENDA. The well-intended substitute just won’t do.

For more information, including our great Sunday Late Nite discussion of this topic, please see “We’ll Pick You Up Later.”

(Nina Simone in Harlem 1969)

UPDATE: Matt Foreman of the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force provides some powerful arguments for inclusion, “All of us, every one of us,” at Pam’s House Blend.

UPDATE TWO: Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin, previously a co-sponsor of the trans-inclusive ENDA with Congressman Barney Frank, has not put her name on the non-inclusive version of the bill.

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