Recent days have seen some bruising and inevitably painful discussions about a trans inclusive or non-inclusive ENDA. Today saw an update. According to Gay.com, markup of the bill has been postponed in order to allow an attempt at more inclusive legislation...(more after the fold)
"After discussions with congressional leaders and organizations supporting passage of ENDA, we have agreed to schedule mark-up of the bill in the Committee on Education and Labor later this month, followed by a vote in the full House," Pelosi, D-San Francisco, said in the statement.
"This schedule will allow proponents of the legislation to continue their discussions with members in the interest of passing the broadest possible bill."
(gay.com)
I'm not particularly interested in rehashing the arguments here. I did think that the folks on dkos who've been following this, but aren't hooked into the gay press and associated mailing lists, deserved an update.
From my perspective, having watched the trans community get hit up for donations, board members and volunteers over the last few years -- and watching the compromise form -- this has been a lesson on coalitions and their nature. I barely understand my friends, much less Washington politics in full swing, but I do know the Human Rights Campaign shift during the initial battle for inclusion was a huge deal, and that their local contact focus changed enormously with inclusion. I also know that an inclusive ENDA is something which has energized queer activists across the LGBT spectrum for the last few years. Watching this play out has been a personal lesson in politics, on a number of levels.
If you support an inclusive ENDA, and would like to help move this forward, please contact your representative and let them know. ENDA has gotten this far because of the intensive and years long lobbying effort. Even if your representative is republican...please drop them a line for both ENDA and inclusivity. Unless they have specific religious objections...they might be, in the end, more receptive than you anticipate.
The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force has a link for sending advocacy emails or faxes supporting both sexual orientation and gender identity in ENDA. We've got a little time to make a difference...let's use it:
http://www.thetaskforce.org/...
Thanks for reading...for those who are supportive, please take a moment to click through, if you are up for it...