Video: The Senate
voted Thursday, 64-32, in favor of the Employment Non-Discrimination
Act.
The Senate passed a
historic piece of gay rights legislation Thursday
that would ban workplace discrimination against gay
and transgender employees, another milestone victory
for a gay rights movement that has been gaining
favor in the courts and electoral politics.
The 64 to 32 vote to approve the
Employment Non-Discrimination Act marked the
first time federal lawmakers had approved
legislation to advance gay rights
since repealing the military’s ban on gay men and
lesbians in uniform in late 2010. Approval of
the measure came two days after
Illinois became the 15th state to legalize same-sex
marriage and four months after the U.S. Supreme
Court sanctioned federal recognition of legally
married gay couples.
“This is a really tremendous milestone, a day I will never
forget,” said Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), the first openly lesbian
senator.
President Obama praised supportive senators and called on House
Republicans to quickly permit a vote.
“One party in one house of Congress should not stand in the way
of millions of Americans who want to go to work each day and simply
be judged by the job they do,” Obama said in a statement. “Now is
the time to end this kind of discrimination in the workplace, not
enable it.”
But ENDA faces a steep uphill climb in a GOP-controlled House
still dominated by social conservatives. House Speaker John A.
Boehner (R-Ohio) and his lieutenants think the measure is too broad
and is unnecessary; they think that the people ENDA is intended to
protect are already covered under existing federal, state and
private workplace protection laws.
Twenty-one states and the District of Columbia have laws
prohibiting workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation,
while 17 states and the District also bar discrimination based on
gender identity. Hundreds of the nation’s largest companies also
have similar bans.
The campaign to enact federal workplace protections for gay men
and lesbians began 17 years ago, and supporters have struggled ever
since to earn a vote. But in the latest sign of shifting public
opinion, every member of the Senate Democratic caucus present
Thursday was joined by 10 Republican senators to approve the
measure. In 1996 — the first time the Senate voted on a bill similar
to ENDA — Sens. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) and John McCain (R-Ariz.)
voted no. On Thursday, they voted yes.
“This is the right thing to do,” McCain told reporters before he
cast his vote.
Opponents stayed largely silent until Thursday, when Sen. Daniel
Coats (R-Ind.) said on the Senate floor that ENDA “diminishes” the
religious freedom of organizations and employers who may feel
compelled to hire people who hold religious views contrary to the
organization.
“I oppose discrimination of any kind, and that includes
discrimination, however, also, of individuals or institutions for
their faith and values, which often gets lost and has been lost in
this discussion,” Coats said.
The conservative Family Research Council also warned that ENDA
“would transform the workplace into an environment in which certain
self-identifications and conduct must be given special privileges by
employers” that might require people to suppress religious or moral
views.
Those concerns are shared by Boehner, who reiterated his
years-long opposition to the proposal in a statement this week. But
supporters said Thursday that the House version of ENDA has at least
193 GOP co-sponsors and that they are pursuing dozens more.
Congressional Democrats also suggested that socially conservative
Republicans are increasingly out of step with most Americans.
“Our history books are littered with those public figures who
said, we just can’t end that discrimination based on race; we can’t
end that discrimination based on age, based on disability, based on
gender. Think about their place in history today,” said Sen. Richard
J. Durbin (D-Ill.).
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/senate-set-to-approve-gay-rights-bill/2013/11/07/05717e4a-47c1-11e3-a196-3544a03c2351_story.html