Hate Crimes & ENDA: Bad Bills Come and Bad Bills Go
by: Kathleen
Wed Feb 25, 2009 at 21:56:03 PM EST
http://www.pamshouseblend.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=9649 http://www.bilerico.com/2009/02/hate_crimes_enda_bad_bills_come_and_bad.phpalso
Perhaps the greatest hopes of the lgbt communities on the national level are the inclusion gender identity/expression and sexual orientation in federal employment nondiscrimination legislation and hate crimes legislation. We place a good deal of hope in the new administrations commitment to equality, in the changes in Congress and in the solidarity the lgbt community exhibited via the 391 United ENDA organizations around the country that pushed for only legislation inclusive of all members of the lgbt communities.
That a hastily thrown together coalition of smaller, mostly outside the beltway groups could persuade some of the most powerful people in the country to reconsider moving forward on the "bad bill" was so unexpected that several votes had to be taken in committee to confirm the fact. This was so unlikely that the organizations in opposition can be forgiven for scratching their heads and wondering how they wandered onto the set of "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" reading the Claude Rains part.
