by Bob Roehr
ENDA
The Employment Non-Discrimination Act (H.R. 3017) was reintroduced in the U.S. House of Representatives on June 24 by Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), with a bipartisan group of 126 cosponsors.
The trans-inclusive measure would create federal workplace protection against discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. About 85 percent of the Fortune 500 largest companies already protect sexual orientation through their personnel policies and about a third also have extended that to include gender identity.
An earlier version of the bill that did not include protection for gender identity almost passed the Senate in 1996, falling just short at 49 to 50 votes. A similar bill passed the House in the last session of Congress.
ENDA has been the crown jewel in the legislative agenda of the Human Rights Campaign ever since it was first introduced 15 years ago. Its president, Joe Solmonese, said, "Just like our friends, neighbors and coworkers, LGBT Americans work hard, provide for our families and contribute to our nation's economy." He called on Congress to pass the legislation to ensure that all Americans "get a fair chance to succeed at work."
"Workplace discrimination is the number one complaint among people seeking assistance," said Lambda Legal executive director Kevin Cathcart. Passing the bill would provide "a powerful tool" for his organization to protect members of the LGBT community before the courts.
Frank vowed passage of the bill by the end of this year. Supporters say that seems feasible in the House, but the rules of debate in the Senate and an increasingly contentious partisan division on a range of important issues make it more challenging to even schedule a vote on the bill in that chamber.
Hate crimes
The Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on gay-inclusive hate crimes legislation on June 25. The Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009 (S. 909) extends federal authority for investigation and prosecution of hate violence to crimes based on the victim's actual or perceived sexual orientation, gender, gender identity or disability. It passed the House in April on a vote of 249 to 175.
Attorney General Eric H. Holder, Jr. testified in support of the measure, something he had done eleven years earlier as a senior official at the Justice Department under Bill Clinton.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada) has hesitated to schedule a floor vote on the bill. He fears that conservatives might filibuster the legislation – in part because of their opposition to its substance, but also as a tactic to delay votes on other bills such as health reform and the confirmation of Sonya Sotomayor to the Supreme Court.
Rea Carey, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, said,
"It is a national embarrassment that bigotry and ignorance have prevented enactment of substantive federal hate crimes legislation, but that goal is finally, truly, within our grasp." She urged prompt action by the Senate.
Health issues
Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisc.), the only open lesbian in Congress, filed the Ending Health Disparities for LGBT Americans Act (H.R. 3001) on June 23.
"Our current health care system fails LGBT Americans on many levels," she said in a statement introducing the legislation. "Although we have ample anecdotal evidence of these disparities, the federal government lacks even the most basic data on sexual orientation and gender identity and health."
The bill would invest in data collection and research; establish non-discrimination policies for all federal health programs; provide funding for cultural competence training for health care providers; extend Medicare benefits to same-sex domestic partners; create a new office of LGBT Health within in the Department of Health and Human Services; and provide funding for community health centers that serve the LGBT community.
On June 25, the Obama administration sent a letter to state Medicaid directors encouraging them to cover the cost of voluntary routine testing for HIV under their guidelines. This would help to implement recommendations issued three years ago by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Some states have chosen not to pay for routine HIV testing for reasons of cost.
"The benefits of HIV testing are well known in terms of both prevention and health care outcomes," said Carl Schmid with The AIDS Institute. "People who know they are HIV positive are less apt to infect others, and early diagnosis significantly improves an individual's health outcome."
The administration also published rules in the Federal Register to lift the HIV ban on travel and immigration to the U.S. The law, a legacy of the late Sen. Jesse Helms, was changed by an overwhelming vote of Congress last summer and this moves the implementation process forward. The change is likely to take effect in the fall.
Gay pundit Andrew Sullivan, who has a personal stake in the change, as it has kept him from becoming an American citizen and threatens his continued residence in the U.S., noted the bipartisan nature of the effort. He wrote on his blog, "For some of us, it means more than we can possibly express.
