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Loading ...Dept. of Justice testimony on ENDA: Pass it now
Thomas E. Perez, head of the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice, testified before a Senate committee that the Obama Administration supports ENDA.
He said, “The Administration strongly supports fully-inclusive legislation that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.”Perez thanked Congress for passing the Matthew Shepard hate crimes legislation and said that ENDA was just as crucial for law enforcement.
He said, “On an issue of basic equality and fundamental fairness for all Americans, we cannot in good conscience stand by and watch unjustifiable discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals occur in the workplace without redress.”
Perez noted that the same objections brought against ENDA had been previously brought against the 1964 Civil Rights Act and were found to be baseless.
The 1964 Civil Rights Act also prohibited discrimination in housing, public spaces, schools and government. ENDA is a much narrower bill and includes only employment.
Twenty-nine states currently provide no emoloyment protections for gays, lesbians and bisexuals; 38 states provide no protections for transgender workers.
@Drewski:
“Has Obama specifically requested that Congress draft an ENDA bill?”
He kind of didn’t need to. ENDA was written in 1994, two years before Obama ran for his first office as a state senator for in Illinois.
“Has he said to Congress, present it to me and I will sign it?”
Yes.
“When a Democrat President asks a Dem-controlled Congress for a bill, it can move quickly;”
It can. That does not mean it *will*. Look at health care; Obama has said that was a priority and Congress is *still* working on it. Legislation isn’t quite as easy to fast-track as advertised.
Chick-fil-A is a bigoted company which routinely fires employees simply because they are gay. Franchise owners say that being gay is incompatible with the company’s “Christian” values. (Apparently, loving others is also incompatible with their “Christian” values.)
Passage of ENDA takes priority over same sex marriage. This is a law with immediate NATIONAL effect. Marriage, on the other hand, is simply a state issue.
Good. It should be passed. But, I wouldn’t hold your breath. We have the right to life…and that is about it. The right to work? Housing? Nope. We’re not human enough for that. The right to marriage?
Where is the President’s request that the Congress send him a bill? I thank Mr Perez for his clear and supportive testimony for ENDA. Has Obama specifically requested that Congress draft an ENDA bill? Has he said to Congress, present it to me and I will sign it? When a Democrat President asks a Dem-controlled Congress for a bill, it can move quickly; when he doesn’t assign a priority by requesting it, that bill can easily–very easily–die in some obscure committee. Yet again, all we ask is that he tell Congress that it’s a priority and that he’s waiting to sign it. That’s not much political capital to spend. Somebody please tell me that Obama has in fact taken the lead. Please prove me wrong.
If ENDA passes, there will be one less reason to deny us equality in areas such as marriage. Early state supreme court rulings on the issue of marriage equality refused to recognize us as a “suspect class” with the result that they so no need for a closer look than “rational basis” for excluding us. With the passage of ENDA and the passage of the Matthew Shepherd bill, it will be harder and harder for courts to take this approach. With these laws as stepping stones, the courts may well, in the future, be our best bet for obtaining full equality.