Legislation was
introduced Tuesday in the U.S. House of Representatives
that would make it illegal to fire, refuse to hire, or
refuse to promote an employee based on sexual
orientation or gender identity.
The federal
Employment Non-Discrimination Act of 2007 is sponsored by
representatives Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, Barney Frank of
Massachusetts, Deborah Pryce of Ohio, and Chris Shays of
Connecticut. The former two are Democrats, the latter
two Republicans.
Only 17 states
and the District of Columbia now ban sexual
orientation-based discrimination in the workplace,
though 87% of Fortune 500 companies include sexual
orientation in their corporate nondiscrimination
policies, according to the employee rights law firm of
Outten and Golden.
Only five states
have laws banning discrimination based on gender
identity, although courts or agencies in some other states
have interpreted other antidiscrimination laws to
apply to transgender people.
"Twenty-five
years ago, my own state of Wisconsin was the first in
the nation to add sexual orientation to antidiscrimination
statutes," Baldwin said Tuesday in a written
statement. "Since then, 16 states have done the same.
We call on Congress now to set a new and higher
standard."
Efforts to amend
federal civil rights statutes to cover antigay
discrimination date from 1974, when congressional Democrats
Bella Abzug and Ed Koch introduced the first Equality
Act. Activists had high hopes for a similar bill 20
years later, but those hopes were dashed when the
midterm elections of 1994 ushered in the Republican
"Contract With America." When Democrats retook
Congress in November 2006, they vowed to reintroduce
this and other rights bills.
Most small
businesses, the military, and most religious organizations
are exempt under the 2007 iteration of the bill, the
first to add protections for trangender people.
"For many
Americans, ENDA could be as important as Title VII of the
Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Americans With Disabilities
Act," Outten and Golden said in a written statement.
"As a practical matter, it will not impose a
significant burden on corporate America." (Barbara
Wilcox, The Advocate)