Does ENDA Have A Shot In Congress?

| Dec 16, 2013
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Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid

ENDA has long been recognized as an important political bill for the LGBT community. Standing for “Employment Non-Descrimination Act,” the bill has sought to brought about sweeping reform in the workplace, ending by law any discrimination based on gender identity or sexual orientation. In fact, when you consider this definition of ENDA, and our society’s love of freedom and obsession with claiming equal rights, it seems almost shocking that the bill wasn’t enacted long ago.

Yet in over 40 years of existence and slight transformation, ENDA had never succeeded in making it through both houses of Congress. This past November, however, Senator Harry Reid re-introduced the bill to Congress in the hopes of continuing what had been a rather progressive year (about time) for the government regarding LGBT rights. Earlier in 2013 the Supreme Court made a landmark decision in allowing the federal recognition of same-sex marriages, and with the GOP (where most of the opposition to ENDA would theoretically lie) reeling a bit these days, there were many who believed that the bill would have a chance this time around. And fortunately, it seems, they may have been correct! ENDA passed the Senate on November 7, 2013, and now awaits a vote in the House. The Senate vote showed strong bipartisan support, and while Speaker of the House John Boehner opposes the bill, there seems to be str
ong pressure on him to call a vote, and equally strong pressure on the House to pass the bill.

In examining the need for and motivation behind ENDA, however, the Pew Research Center found some rather troubling numbers specifically relating to the transgender community. The article found that while in many ways acceptance and equal treatment of LGBT community members has slowly but steadily been rising, TGs seem to be at the back of the line. In a sample of LGBT community members about their own acceptance, people indicated that bisexual women, lesbians and gay men receive the most social acceptance. 33% said there is a lot of acceptance for bisexual women, 25% for lesbians, and 15% for gay men. The same question in regards to TGs yielded only 3% of respondents saying there is “a lot of social acceptance.”

However, in looking at pop culture and modern society, this indication of low social acceptance is at least a bit surprising. The music industry has long supported, in one form or another, the TG community; if you look at the popular adult shop Adam & Eve online, you’ll find toys and props that even inspire TG fantasies in the bedroom; and we seem to be told every day that the society around us is making strides in LGBT acceptance. All of those things indicate at least some level of TG acceptance, even if it may be in part subconscious for people.

All this is to say, while no law can change the way people think, ENDA would be a very significant stride for the LGBT community, and specifically for TGs in the workplace. If a majority of governing officials can declare gender identity-based discrimination to be legally wrong, perhaps a majority of individuals in society can find their way to acceptance.

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