[News] [USA] Optimism Grows for National Trans Discrimination Bill

[Stephanie Stevens]

EDGE Boston, MA, USA


Optimism Grows for National Trans Discrimination Bill

by Jason St. Amand
Web Producer / Staff Writer

Friday Jul 20, 2012


The contestants on "RuPaul’s Drag Race" are doing drag. There’s a
difference between female impersonators and someone who is
transgendered.

One of the show’s contestants, Carmen Carrera, found out the
discrimination that comes with being transgendered after she announced
her status on a May 1 episode of ABC’s "What Would You Do?" When the
reality star appeared on an episode of TLC’s "Cake Boss" on June 11,
Carrera was tricked into flirting with a man who didn’t know she had
transitioned <http://www.advocate.com/arts-entertainment/television/2012/06/13/cake-boss-pulls-episode-after-insulting-transgender-star>
.

After the "joke" went on for some time, the man was finally told that
he had been flirting "with a man, baby!"

"Calling me a ’man’ promotes ignorance and makes it OK to call
transgender women men," Carrera wrote in Facebook after the incident,
which was criticized by groups such as the Gay & Lesbian Alliance
Against Discrimination. "People get bullied, beat up and killed for
being trans because of this ignorance," Carrera wrote.

We only know of Carrera’s humiliation because it occurred on national
television. But too many transgendered face harassment in the
workplace - 50 percent, according to Lisa Mottet, a transgendered
attorney with the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. She also told
EDGE that one-quarter have lost a job because they were transgender;
44 percent never even got that chance, because their employers
wouldn’t even hire them in the first place because they were
transgender.

A national bill to add the transgender to the classification of
discrimination has been introduced in nearly every Congress since
1994, but it has never even gotten a hearing in committee. The
Employment Non-Discrimination Act would prohibit discrimination in
hiring and employment on the basis of sexual orientation and gender
identity by civilian, and nonreligious employers with at least 15
employees.

[Photo: Kylar Broadus]

Quiet Momentum Building

Even so, there has been a quiet momentum building.

In early June the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions
Committee held a hearing on ENDA
<http://thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2012/06/12/498293/enda-trans-witness/?mobile=nc>
. For the first time in the Senate’s history, a transgender witness
testified on behalf of the legislation.

Founder of the Trans People of Color Coalition Kylar Broadus told the
committee his story of coming out as transgender and how he has been
mistreated by police and has experienced workplace harassment and
employment discrimination.

Human Rights Campaign spokesperson Michael Cole-Schwartz called the
hearing and Broadus’ testimony "a big milestone," a sentiment echoed
by the Task Force’s Mottest.

"Having a transgender person testify in the Senate was incredibly
important both for ENDA and for transgender rights," she told EDGE.
"As the senators heard Kylar Broadus talk about his life and his
experience of discrimination, they were clearly paying attention and
they really seemed to be moved by his testimony. It was an important
milestone for ENDA in the Senate.

"With Kylar’s testimony, they clearly addressed the issue of
discrimination against transgender people and seemed very comfortable
asking him about his experiences and the gender identity provisions in
the bill. He really put a face on the disastrous consequences that
employment discrimination has for transgender people," she continued.

Gay lesbian members of Congress have been strong supporters of ENDA
over the years, including Rep Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.)
<http://www.edgeboston.com/index.php?ch=news&sc=politics&sc2=news&sc3=&id=132006>
and retiring Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) who introduced the first
version of ENDA
<http://www.edgeboston.com/index.php?ch=news&sc=&sc3=&id=117940> to
include trans (not just gay and lesbian) protections last year; Sen.
Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) introduced it in the Senate.

Considering its past failures, most observers, like Mara Keisling,
executive director of National Center for Transgender Equality, are
hopeful it will pass, just not this year.

"ENDA will eventually pass," Keisling told EDGE. "It has zero chance
of passing this year." What will make the difference is a generational
change in the entire congressional membership, she added.

GOP House Speaker John Boehner "has indicated that he has not looked
at ENDA nor thought much about it," Mottet pointed out. "He said that
if changes were necessary in employment law, he was sure the House
committee would look at it. Therefore, it seems incredibly unlikely
that ENDA would be considered in the House given the current
leadership."

Change in the House Essential

Cole-Schwartz also believes ENDA’s eventual passage will only take
place when the present "anti-gay House leadership" is replaced. "Not
only do they show zero willingness for LGBT rights but they also
undermine our community," he said. "The biggest hurdle is the
leadership."

Currently, only 19 states and the District of Columbia have passed
laws that protect members of the LGBT community against workplace
discrimination, Truth-Out.org reported
<http://truth-out.org/news/item/9720-federal-ban-on-job-bias-still-eludes-gay-rights-groups>
. There are 29 states where a gay or transgender person can be fired
or denied a job because of who they are.

Those who oppose ENDA argue that being gay or transgender is not
something innate in one’s nature, but rather a sickness.

On its website, the Family Research Council maintains that they "have
a mental illness (’gender identity disorder’) which can and should be
treated using gender-affirming therapy, not self-mutilating surgery."
The group accuses ENDA of being "based on false premises and is wrong
in principle. Those are reasons enough to oppose it, regardless of its
practical consequences."

FRC is also trotting out the argument, familiar among the religious
right, that the bill would curtail free speech. According to the
group’s website, ENDA "could lead to a crackdown not only on speech
that is truly harassing, but on any expressions of concern about the
wisdom of homosexual conduct or of "changing" one’s gender. Such
policies have already led to unfair personnel actions, including the
firing of personnel for statements made on their own time and in a
private capacity."

[Photo: Mara Keisling, founding executive director of the National
Center for Transgender Equality.]

End of ENDA Opposition in Sight

Despite fierce opposition on the far right, Keisling believes ENDA’s
enemies are beginning to be outnumbered by supporters.

"Everything is in our direction," she said. "People who hate us are
fading away. There will be ups and downs,but LGBT people are winning
across the board. There will always be bigoted businesses, people and
churches. But even the number of churches that are opposed to our
rights are just shriveling. More religious leaders are coming to our
side, they are not our enemy. It’s just a small group of people who
want to hide their bigotry behind people."

As if to prove Keisling’s opinion about churches, in June a group of
diverse religious groups came together to defend ENDA
<http://thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2012/06/14/499580/religious-coalition-endorses-enda-as-a-matter-of-justice/>
. Members of the African American Ministers in Action, the (Jewish)
Anti-Defamation League, the Episcopal Church, Hindu American
Foundation, and Muslims for Progressive Values in a letter to senators
explained how protecting LGBT people from discrimination would
positively impact their faith.

"Our faith leaders and congregations grapple with the difficulties of
lost jobs every day, particularly in these difficult economic times,"
the coaltion wrote. "It is indefensible that, while sharing every
American’s concerns about the health of our economy, LGBT workers must
also fear job security because of prejudice."

Several large corporations are also voicing support for ENDA.
"Businesses get it," Keisling said. "They get hiring the best people
and treating them good is the right thing to do."

[Photo: Walmart added provisions to its non-discrimination policy to
protect transgender workers.]

A Huge Step: Walmart’s In-House ’GENDA’

The most dramatic instance of corporation support came in September
2011, when Walmart added provisions to its non-discrimination policy
to protect transgender employees
<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/28/walmart-adds-transgender-protection_n_986159.html>
. Based in Arkansas and with a blue-collar customer base, for the
retail giant to take such an action gave proof that big business no
longer looks at transgender issues as too divisive to handle.

"More and more business are embracing equality for transgender
employees because it is the right thing to do and it helps them
attract the most competitive workforce," said Kristina Wertz, the
Transgender Law Center’s director of programs and policy. "Also, the
federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and many federal
courts have held that discrimination against transgender people is
illegal sex discrimination. In order to comply with federal law,
business need to ensure that their transgender employees are treated
equally at work."

In April, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, a federal law
enforcement agency that enforces laws against discrimination, expanded
current non-discrimination protections to cover transgender employees.
The organization ruled that Title VII of the Civil Rights Acts of 1964
covers gender identity.

Although the ruling was a big step for transgender rights, Masen
Davis, executive director of the Transgender Law Center, told the
media that ENDA still needs to pass, the Washington Blade reported
<http://www.washingtonblade.com/2012/04/24/eeoc-ruling-on-trans-rights-triggers-new-call-for-enda/>
.

"We still need ENDA," said Davis. "This decision is incredibly
important. It means that transgender people throughout the United
States now have legal recourse ... We need to make sure that we couple
that with legal protections from Congress and the courts."

But Cole-Schwartz believes that Walmart and other companies are only
following their customers. "We’ve been able to see such great shifts,"
he said.

General Mills’ Executive’s Testimony an Important Step

General Mills has backed ENDA and equal rights. HRC noted that the
food company has had a non-discrimination policy that includes sexual
orientation and gender identity for years
<http://www.hrc.org/blog/entry/general-mills-speaks-up-for-enda/> . In
June, General Mills’ vice president of global diversity and inclusion,
Ken Charles, testified before the Senate and explained how "diversity
and inclusion drive success at a company that has been in business for
over 150 years."

"General Mills defending ENDA at the Senate hearing shows the next
step businesses are taking," Cole-Schwartz noted.

The number of companies that support ENDA has expanded over the years
and now includes corporate titans like Bank of America, Best Buy,
Coca-Cola, Ernst & Young, Google, Goldman Sachs, and even Marriott.

So even if, as looks likely, ENDA will not pass this year, supporters
are more and more confident that it will be passed sometime -- perhaps
in the not-too-distant future.

"Our biggest haters are a small group," Keisling said. "It’s just
politics. ENDA is going to pass as soon as reasonable people get
control over both chambers of Congress. I don’t just mean Democrats,"
she says. "Every Republican president from now on will be better than
the last on LGBT issues. If a friendly House and Senate gets elected,
we’re going to push really hard to get it done really fast."


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EDGE Publications, Inc. / All Rights Reserved

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