In 29 states in this country, it is legal for a company to fire you from your job because of your sexual orientation or gender identity. As one might suspect, the largest block of those states not banning such discrimination is the South. From the Virginias to Texas, from Missouri to Florida, LGBT's have no protection from being fired by their company from their job on account of their sexual orientation or gender identity.
A Harris Poll showed that some 42% of Americans falsely believe that there already exists a federal law banning employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. Two in five Americans could not believe that there wasn't a law already, that it isn't illegal already. And that was in 2001. I suspect the number would be even higher today.
Gallup polling from 2009 shows that some 89% of Americans believe gays and lesbians deserve equal employment opportunities, and yet we don't have a federal employment non-discrimination law. Hell, in the last Congress, the one with huge Democratic majorities, they failed to even take a vote on the proposed Employment Non-Discrimination Act in committee and yet this was a law that came within a single vote in the 1996 Congress of becoming law.
It is a little known fact in general circles and I suspect in many LGBT circles, that we almost got ENDA a decade and a half ago. At the time, the nation was embroiled in a national discussion on same sex marriage. Bill Clinton was running for re-election and Republicans were whipping up the spectre of "TEH GAY" coming to a marriage near you that summer. Enter the so called "Defense of Marriage Act," a law that was designed to stop marriage equality from becoming reality nationally via one state legalizing it. Democrats, in a rare display of cajones, agreed not to filibuster the bill in the Senate if the Congress also voted on ENDA. We all know DOMA passed, but what of ENDA? It passed the Republican controlled House easily with, obviously, some Republican support. In the Senate, which was controlled by Republicans 52-48, the bill failed by a vote of 49-50 with one member absent, Arkansas Senator David Pryor, who had left Washington to be with his son, current Arkansas Senator Mark Pryor, who was having surgery. If Pryor had been there and voted yes, Al Gore would have been able to use his tie-breaking power to send the bill to Bill along side DOMA to soften the blow the LGBT community. It would have put in place sexual orientation employment protections leaving us with gender identity protections remaining to fight for.
So, why bring this up again now? After all, in this Congress it is doubtful (though I wouldn't say impossible) that Congress will bring ENDA up for a vote. Because of Arkansas. David Pryor prevented the protections of ENDA from being passed into law in 1996 and 15 years later, the current governor of Arkansas, a Democrat, didn't know there isn't a law making employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation illegal. Didn't know there wasn't such a law in Arkansas or at the Federal level.
Mike Beebe at least had the guts to speak before a gay rights group last night in a church crowded with more than 200 members of the Arkansas Chapter of the National Stonewall Democrats. While there, Beebe laid out his opposition to marriage equality and defended an Arkansas newspaper who recently refused to acknowledge a dead man's partner of 10 years in the free obituary section of the paper. Beebe did however point out his own evolution on the issue of gays as foster parents, a hot issue in the state over the years thanks to a state ban enshrined in the state constitution that has been declared unconstitutional. Beebe pointed out he opposed gay foster parents in 2006, but by 2008 had changed his mind and opposed the ban. But then he was asked about employment discrimination...
Beebe: I think you ought to be judged in employment by how well you do your employment. Period. Regardless of what you look like or what else you're doing.
audience member: If you are fired for being gay in this state, you think that is discriminatory?
Beebe: Oh, I ...If somebody's fired for being gay in this state, I'm not sure that isn't against the law already.
(audible "no"-s and groans from crowd)
Beebe (surprise in his voice): It's not? ... OK!
This is what we are up against in trying to get the most very basic of civil rights protections in this day and age. Most people simply cannot believe that those protections do not already exist. It is an attitude that the LGBT community has to fight against. When we make noise about wanting laws that protect transgendered people, gays, bisexuals and lesbians from employment discrimination, we are often dismissed by people who at least think, if not say out loud, "You already have those protections and all you are trying to get is preferential treatment now."
Some of it is borne out of ignorance. Some out of a cynicism that simply doesn't permit a reasonable person to believe something favored by 89% of Americans isn't already law. That a sitting governor doesn't know if his state or nation bans it, is telling. Despite our best efforts to educate the public on this issue, we've done our job too well it seems. So many people think we are already protected that we need leadership from outside to community to step forward and tell America we don't have those protections yet so let's get them passed.
This is an issue where Democrats could easily paint Republicans as being outside of the mainstream of America, but you barely hear Democrats mention the issue at all. Like all LGBT issues, Democrats ignore it except when it is time to hit the gays up for money. We get promises that next time we'll get it done. Its been a familiar refrain for decades. For a quarter century, its been the same promise again and again with no results.
From the attempts in the mid 80's to pass it, to the near miss in '96 to the failure to even register on the radar in 2009 and 2010, LGBT Americans in a majority of the states have had to go to work each day with some level of trepidation and fear that today could be the day their boss finds out and they get fired. It is a mental stress LGBT people have to live with constantly... always having to change pronouns if they even mention their spouse/partner or boyfriend/girlfriend, not being able to have that person's picture at their desk, not able to bring that person to the company Christmas party. And this hiding often extends outside the work place as well depending on the size of the place they live. Imagine not being able to go out to a restaurant, the movies, a club or bar, the grocery store, etc with your significant other for fear that you will be seen together and the wrong person puts two and two together.
We need a national leader to step forward on this to get it done. Unfortunately the guy that applied for that job in 2008 is AWOL when it comes to leadership on anything LGBT.