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The Employment Non-Discrimination Act
page updated November 5
Take action today on this vital bill. Click to go directly to our Action Alert.A vote is expected on the non-inclusive ENDA on November 6..
What is ENDA?
The original Employment Non-Discrimination Act of 2007, HR 2015, was introduced on April 24. Key features of the bill included:
- This legislation would address discrimination in the workplace by making it illegal to fire, refuse to hire, or refuse to promote an employee simply based on his or her sexual orientation or gender identity. It would reinforce the principle that employment decisions should be based upon a person’s qualifications and job performance.
- ENDA closely follows the model of existing federal civil rights laws, including Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Americans with Disabilities Act, ensuring that gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people are treated in the same way as other groups protected under law – no better, no worse.
- Most of America’s smartest business minds understand that a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity has nothing to do with their job performance. That is why 200 Fortune 500 companies include gender identity in their nondiscrimination policies.
- Federal law has also been outpaced by the actions of state and local leaders. Thirty-seven percent of the country, including thirteen states, the District of Columbia and more than 90 cities and counties, have passed protections for the transgender community.
What does it say?
You can read the text here. It is H.R. 3685, a subsitute bill, which does not include gender identity protections. Representative Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisconsin) has introduced an amendment to add gender identity back into the bill. The original bill was HR 2015.
What is happening...
On September 27, leadership in the House of Representatives announced they were moving forward with a nondiscrimination bill that would not have protections for transgender people, H.R. 3685. The outcry from the LGBT community was united, and intense. We stood together and said we would rather have no ENDA than a bill that left some of us behind.
You changed the course of Congress. On Monday, October 1, the House leadership announced that the committee vote that was scheduled for this week was postponed. But that doesn’t mean we’re out of the woods yet. We need to make sure that every single member of Congress has heard from constituents, urging him/her to support a transgender-inclusive ENDA.
"Our community has spoken with one voice over the last few days to insist that H.R. 2015 remain on the table," said Mara Keisling, Executive Director of NCTE. "That strong voice has worked wonders on Capitol Hill."
The LGBT community is insisting in a clear voice that ENDA remain a transgender inclusive bill. Leaders and grassroots activists from across the country are connecting daily to strategize, to organize, and above all, to insist that we remain a united, strong community. Our organizations in Washington are working literally around the clock on this issue. And it's working–
Congress is hearing us that we will not be divided on this vital civil rights issue.
On October 16, Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) announced that she has secured an agreement from the Democratic leadership to introduce an amendment to H.R. 3685 that would restore gender identity protections to the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA). The amendment would be considered on the House floor next week, after the bill moves through the House Education and Labor Committee this Thursday. Read Rep. Baldwin's statement on ENDA.
On October 18, the House Committee on Education and Labor passed, by a vote of 27 to 21, the substitute Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), HR 3685 that was introduced specifically to exclude transgender and other gender variant people. Read more about it here. Since then, Rep. Baldwin has introduced an Amendment to restore protections for transgender people.
Who is working on this...
Less than 24 hours after the House Leadership announced they would postpone a committee mark-up of a sexual orientation-only nondiscrimination bill due to the tremendous outpouring of community resistance to stripping transgender people from the bill, the organizations that signed a joint letter to the Hill formed a united campaign called "United ENDA" to push for passage of a transgender-inclusive ENDA and oppose any legislation that leaves transgender people behind.
The organizations, including the National Center for Transgender Equality, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, the Equality Federation, the National Association of LGBT Community Centers, the National Black Justice Coalition, the National Center for Lesbian Rights, Parents Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, Pride at Work, National Stonewall Democrats, and many, many others, will meet daily to keep up the pressure on Congress that made such an impact over the weekend.
This campaign will allow organizations to better coordinate lobbying strategies, grassroots mobilization efforts, online activism, media, and legal strategies. The 356+ (and growing) organizations that share this position will continue to do their own lobbying, release their own statements, and mobilize their own members; the unified campaign will make sure that every organization has the latest information from the Hill, the latest strategic plans, and the most up to date reports from the grassroots.
What you can do...
Action Alert
(October 19, 2007)
So many people have done so much already to try to fix ENDA. It's time for one final push for this year.
PLEASE ASK CONGRESS TO SUPPORT THE BALDWIN AMENDMENT TO ENDA ( H.R. 3685).
For several weeks now, Congressional offices in DC and around the country have been flooded with calls, emails, faxes and even visits from transgender people, our families and other allies. We must now raise one more tremendous effort in our last chance to fix ENDA and make a bill that will protect all LGBT people. As of now, it looks like there will be a vote on the Amendment and then on the overall ENDA bill next Wednesday, October 24.
ASK CONGRESS TO SUPPORT THE BALDWIN AMENDMENT TO ENDA (H.R. 3685).
The message has been coming through loud and clear that LGBT people and our allies demand an Employment Non-Discrimination Act that is inclusive of the full range of LGBT people. Now we need to convey a specific, very targeted message that we want our Congressional representatives to vote YES on the Baldwin Amendment to put gender identity back into ENDA.
WE SHOULD BE VERY PROUD OF THE WORK EVERYONE HAS DONE.
It is very clear on Capitol Hill that we now have this final opportunity to pass the Baldwin Amendment because of all of the amazing hard work that has been done by people like you all over the country. Congresswoman Baldwin has said so and that is echoed all over Washington. Congressional offices have been clearly shocked at how deeply people care about transgender-inclusion in ENDA. Now is our final push.
PLEASE ASK CONGRESS TO SUPPORT THE BALDWIN AMENDMENT TO ENDA (H.R. 3685).
Call, write or visit your member of the U.S. House of Representatives. They all have offices in DC and back home near where you live. This weekend, many members of Congress will be available at town meetings and picnics and fairs and parades.
LET CONGRESS KNOW THAT YOU SUPPORT THE BALDWIN AMENDMENT BECAUSE YOU BELIEVE ENDA MUST BE INCLUSIVE OF ALL LGBT PEOPLE.
Thank you so much for everything you have done and will do.
Mara Keisling
Executive Director
National Center for Transgender Equality
CALL TODAY!
Call the Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121 to be connected to your Representative based on your zip code. Here is a suggested message:
Hello, my name is _____ and I live in your district. I am calling to ask the Representative to support the Baldwin amendment to the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. The Baldwin amendment adds gender identity protections back into ENDA and it is critically important to me that all lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people are protected by this legislation. This amendment is the only way to fix this bill, and I only support passage of H.R. 3685 if the amendment passes. Thank you.
Talking Points on ENDA
ENDA Must Contain Explicit Protections for Gender Identity
- ENDA should protect the entire gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community from unequal treatment in the workplace, especially those of us who are most vulnerable to discrimination.
- The LGBT community is one community, and we want to move forward, together, in one bill.
- Including explicit protections against discrimination based on gender identity not only helps transgender people; it also strengthens ENDA for the rest of our community by ensuring that an employer cannot fire or refuse to hire a gay employee for an “effeminate” walk or a lesbian employee for dressing “too butch.”
- Despite advances in protecting transgender people on the state and local level, as well as in the private sector, it remains perfectly legal in 37 states to fire someone solely based on his or her gender identity.
- Recent national surveys have found that 65% of people believe it should be illegal to discriminate against transgender people in employment.
Talking Points on the Baldwin Amendment
Political Talking Points
- Our group is a part of United ENDA, a coalition of over 300 organizations with a collective membership of over 2 million LGBT and allied people. Over the last 3 weeks, these groups have urged Congress to oppose a sexual-orientation only ENDA (HR 3685) and instead either move the original ENDA (H.R. 2015) or consider no bill this year.
- The Baldwin amendment is House leadership’s last attempt to fix the damage that they have done to passing the original ENDA over the last few weeks.
- The lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community is one community and the community ONLY wants to move forward together with one unified bill.
Substantive Amendment Talking Points
- The Baldwin amendment restores the Employment Non-Discrimination Act to its original language regarding gender identity. The gender identity protections are necessary to protect the entire lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community from discrimination.
- Transgender people are especially in need of gender identity discrimination protections. A survey conducted in Washington, D.C., showed that 60 percent of transgender respondents report either no source of income or incomes of less than $10,000 per year, a clear indication of the desperate need for employment protections for transgender people.
- The leading LGBT litigation organizations (Lambda Legal, National Center for Lesbian Rights, and the Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders), and the ACLU, have issued joint legal analysis that explains that gender non-conforming people (whether lesbian, gay, bisexual or straight) would also not be fully protected by an ENDA that does not prohibit gender identity discrimination.
- Transgender-inclusive laws have passed on the local and state level, even in conservative places. Nationally, 37% of the U.S. population lives in a jurisdiction with a transgender-inclusive law. For example, the states of Iowa, Colorado, and Oregon passed inclusive laws this year and lawmakers in three Kentucky jurisdictions (Covington, Louisville/Jefferson County, and Lexington-Fayette Urban County) have all passed these laws.
Important Links
What you can do to support a transgender-inclusive ENDA
Report about your visit with your Representative on this form. We need this vital information.
Visit our blog for updates from Mara Keisling and more information
