World Net Daily Lies About ENDA

The nation's most widely read conservative/Christian site issued yet another of its classic lies today, claiming in a headline that the Employment Non-Discrimination Act requires employers to hire gays. The site makes no substantiation of the claim in their story.

Now that the health-care fight has proven House Democrats can muscle through legislation without a drop of bipartisan support, plans are underway to resurrect a bill that would make employers susceptible to lawsuits for refusing to hire "gay" or transsexual employees. H.R. 3017, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act of 2009, or ENDA, makes it unlawful for government agencies or businesses with more than 15 employees to refuse hire or promotion of anyone based on "gender-related identity, appearance or mannerisms or other gender-related characteristics of an individual, with or without regard to the individual's designated sex at birth." The bill does make exceptions for the U.S. military, religious organizations and some businesses with non-profit 501(c) designations, but makes no provisions for business owners' consciences. A small construction company that wanted to maintain a Christian reputation, for example, could be sued if it refused to hire transvestites. Openly homosexual members of the House, enthused by the health-care victory, are now looking to return from the congressional recess to begin work on ENDA.

ENDA, of course, would create no "requirements" or quotas for employers regarding LGBT employees. It merely says that sexual orientation and gender identity cannot be a factor in making hiring, firing, and promotion decisions. World Net Daily goes to the usual whiny asshats for quotes:

"This bill would unfairly extend special privileges based upon an individual's changeable sexual behaviors, rather than focusing on immutable, non-behavior characteristics such as skin color or gender," said Shari Rendall, director of legislation and public policy for Concerned Women for America. "Its passage would both overtly discriminate against and muzzle people of faith. "Former Secretary of State Collin Powell put it well when he said, 'Skin color is a benign, non-behavioral characteristic. Sexual orientation is perhaps the most profound of human behavioral characteristics. Comparison of the two is a convenient but invalid argument,'" Rendall quoted. "Over the years, the homosexual lobby has done a masterful job of co-opting the language of the genuine civil rights movement in their push for special rights," explained former CWFA Policy Director Matt Barber, who now serves with Liberty Counsel. "This bill represents the goose that laid the golden egg for homosexual activist attorneys."

World Net Daily previously claimed that the now-passed Hate Crimes Act would bar the prosecution of child molesters, dubbing the legislation "the Pedophile Protection Act."