The Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) was recently passed in the House of Representatives. It would make it illegal for an employer “to fail or refuse to hire or to discharge any individual, or otherwise discriminate against any individual with respect to the compensation, terms, conditions or privileges of employment of the individual, because of such individual’s actual or perceived sexual orientation.”
President Bush pledged to veto an earlier version of the bill, but the White House said it would need to review the changes before making a decision on the bill that was passed; it is likely he will still veto it.
The House passed with a margin far short of veto-proof, so while the bill is not likely to become law, supporters are still triumphant, calling it 'historic' and 'momentous'.
In order to get the bill passed, the Democrats pushing it gave some concessions, leaving out protections for transsexuals and adding exemptions for religious groups.
Some problems: some states already have the protections offered by ENDA, and a federal bill would be unnecessary. Also, just because the religious exemption was in the House version, there is nothing stopping the Senate from putting it right back in (guess who would be in charge of the Senate version of the bill...Ted Kennedy, who has repeatedly tied hate crimes legislation to defense spending bills).
As I've blogged about before, this bill is not about equality. It is about creating a specially-protected class of people that will have more rights (or perhaps better rights would be the correct term) than everyone else. It is about attempting to control what people think, not the actions that are taken. This is dangerous legislation.
There's my two cents.
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