With Senate Hearing, Hope for a Jumpstart on ENDA
The long-running campaign to secure federal workplace protections for LGBT employees will take a new step Tuesday morning when a Senate panel holds the first hearing on the Employment Non-discrimination Act in nearly three years. Proceedings in the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee will include the first-ever Senate testimony from an openly transgender witness.
While action may be unlikely in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives for now, advocates are hoping for movement in the Democratic-led senate to showcase the lack of substantial opposition and generate public pressure. A poll last year by the Center for American Progress found that almost three-fourths of voters, including a majority of Republicans, support workplace protections for LGBT employees, but 9 out of 10 respondents mistakenly believe such protections already exist in federal law.
“We build important momentum for ENDA’s eventual passage by having it pass in one chamber,” said Tico Almeida of Freedom To Work, which is organizing the effort with other groups including CAP and the Human Rights Campaign. “There is significant value to having an affirmative vote on ENDA in the Senate. Given that [Senate Majority Leader] Harry Reid has the ability to make that happen, we believe he should, and we will push him to do so.”
http://www.advocate.com/politics/2012/06/12/senate-hearing-hope-jumpstart-enda
