My thoughts on ENDA passing...
So. ENDA (the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, a bill that would ban discrimination of GLB(T?) people in the workplace) passed today. This in my opinion is a VERY good thing. Why wouldn't it be? It's taken 30 years since the first thought of GLBT workplace protection to get it passed. However, my issue with ENDA is that to get it passed they changed the bill to be non-trans inclusive. That is - to not protect the rights of the transgendered population.
At first HRC (the Human Rights Campaign - which introduced the bill, and was a big portion of the push behind it) dropped their support the non-trans inclusive bill to make a statement that they would not support something that discriminates on any level. But then they decided (for whatever reason) to support the bill.
It came to a vote today and passed. My thoughts are 1) YAY it passed because it's a step in the VERY right direction, but 2) BOO because it's not trans inclusive, and I can see when they go to add the trans inclusive parts the conservative law makers will say "but there is already GLBT protection on the books" because they don't understand gay let ALONE transgenderd.
I guess my final opinion is the same as HRC. It's better than nothing, but they still need to push to get the transgendered population represented in the bill.
That is all. You may now return to your regularly scheduled lives....
At first HRC (the Human Rights Campaign - which introduced the bill, and was a big portion of the push behind it) dropped their support the non-trans inclusive bill to make a statement that they would not support something that discriminates on any level. But then they decided (for whatever reason) to support the bill.
It came to a vote today and passed. My thoughts are 1) YAY it passed because it's a step in the VERY right direction, but 2) BOO because it's not trans inclusive, and I can see when they go to add the trans inclusive parts the conservative law makers will say "but there is already GLBT protection on the books" because they don't understand gay let ALONE transgenderd.
I guess my final opinion is the same as HRC. It's better than nothing, but they still need to push to get the transgendered population represented in the bill.
That is all. You may now return to your regularly scheduled lives....