ENDA: Out in the cold, again
Transmissions
Published 02/24/2011
by Gwendolyn Ann Smith
http://www.ebar.com/columns/column.php?sec=transmissions&article=158There are some things you can count on. The sun will rise in the morning, and set in the evening. Likewise, spring and summer will follow – and precede – fall and winter. Presuming no other anomalies, a baby will grow into a child, a teen, then an adult. You can always count, too, on death and taxes.
Then there's the Employment Non-Discrimination Act.
I've been in transgender activism since the early 1990s. Some of the first work I got involved with – back in the days when Garth Brooks and Nirvana climbed the music charts – was surrounding ENDA. Specifically efforts to get transgender-friendly language added to the bill. Opposed to this was a then-fledgling gay and lesbian rights organization called the Human Rights Champagne, er, Campaign Fund. HRCF argued that adding transgender protections just wasn't going to happen, but that the passage of ENDA would, perhaps, open the door for some later bill aimed at transgender protections.
