HRC Says No To Gay-Only ENDA

In 2007 the Human Rights Campaign supported a version of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) that did not include transgender citizens, setting off the biggest rift in the history of LGBT activism as a huge coalition of groups aligned against the HRC. Yesterday the HRC announced that they will not go down that road again.

The board of directors of the Human Rights Campaign approved a policy statement Wednesday saying the group will not support the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, or ENDA, if it excludes language protecting transgender persons from discrimination. HRC came under fire from transgender advocacy groups in 2007 when it announced it would not oppose a “gay-only” version of ENDA, which called for banning employment discrimination based on sexual orientation. That decision came after Democratic leaders in the House of Representatives said they did not have the votes to pass a trans-inclusive version of the bill and the bill would be defeated unless trans protections were stripped from the measure.

“It’s the policy of HRC that the organization will only support an inclusive ENDA,” says the statement, which the board approved in a closed meeting in Washington on March 25. “In 2007 House leadership informed us that there were insufficient votes to pass an inclusive bill, so they decided to vote on a sexual orientation only bill,” the board says in its statement. “We made a one-time exception to our policy in 2007 because we strongly believed that supporting this vote would do more to advance inclusive legislation. “We will not support such a strategy again,” the statement says. “We look forward to Congress sending President Obama a fully inclusive ENDA for his signature.”

(Via - Lou Chibbaro @ Washington Blade)