(AP)
¡ENDA historic vote!
The House then voted 222 to 198 to defeat Souder’s motion to recommit, with just eight Republicans joining 214 Democrats in voting against it. Fourteen conservative Democrats joined 184 Republicans in voting for the motion. Thirteen members didn’t vote on the motion. The seven gay-supportive Democrats who voted against ENDA itself in protest over its lack of transgender protections all voted against Souder’s motion to recommit the bill. Support among liberal Democrats for a gay-only version of ENDA was bolstered on Tuesday when the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, the nation's most prominent mainline civil rights organization, endorsed the more limited version of the bill, calling it a first step in continuing efforts to push for a trans inclusive measure.
Joining the LCCR in endorsing the gay-only version, in a joint letter to all House members, were the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People; Human Rights Campaign; the American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees; the National Education Association; National Employment Lawyers Association; Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism; and Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith. “Today, we witnessed the making of civil rights history in the U.S. House of Representatives by the passing of ENDA,” said Joe Solmonese, president of Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest gay political group. “This vote by Congress is an important step at ensuring that millions of gay and lesbian Americans will never again have to go to work in fear of losing their jobs because of who they are.”
Solmonese joined Frank, Baldwin and House Democratic leaders in a news conference after the vote Wednesday in pledging to continue the fight for transgender protections as the “next step” in the nation’s civil rights struggles. Officials with other gay and transgender groups were less enthusiastic over the House approval of a gay-only version of ENDA.
“We are deeply disappointed that House leadership decided to ignore the position of a vast majority of LGBT organizations,” said Matt Foreman, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, which helped organize the United ENDA Coalition opposing a gay-only version of ENDA.
“We are also disappointed that House leadership forced many members of its own caucus to choose between voting for a bill not supported by most in the LGBT community, or voting against a civil rights bill,” Foreman said.
Other activists have disputed claims by the United ENDA Coalition that a majority of gays opposed the gay-only version of ENDA. Frank, who has been criticized by United ENDA leaders for moving ahead with a gay-only version of the bill, said he believes the coalition’s groups are out of step with their rank and file members, who Frank said support a limited version of the bill as long as efforts continue to push for a transgender rights bill in the near future.
In an effort to broaden support for ENDA among Republicans, Democratic leaders Wednesday surprised some gay activists by agreeing to an amendment proposed by Souder, the GOP House member from Indiana, that removed from the bill a provision that made it illegal for employers to condition employment on a person being married or eligible to be married.
Frank argued that the provision wasn’t essential to the bill. He said gays could still invoke ENDA to challenge an employer for using marital status as a reason for not hiring them on grounds that it was a pretext to discriminate based on their sexual orientation.
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