Task Force Urges Senate to Pass ENDA Now

The Task Force is urging senators to pass the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) as soon as possible. The bill was marked up today by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee. It moved out of committee by a bipartisan vote of 15-7. Click here to thank the senators who voted “yes.”

“Most Americans believe that everyone should have access to the American Dream, free from discrimination because of who they are or who they love. We thank the senators who voted to pass ENDA out of committee today — their actions have put us that much closer to having a vote on the full Senate floor,” said Rea Carey, Task Force Executive Director.

Workplace discrimination negatively impacts all LGBT people. According to the 2008 General Social Survey, 42 percent of LGBT people overall have experienced at least one form of employment discrimination during their lives.

The trans community is disproportionately impacted as was noted in Injustice at Every Turn: A Report of the National Transgender Discrimination Survey, a joint study by the Task Force and the National Center for Transgender Equality. The study found 26 percent of transgender people lost a job and 50 percent were harassed for being transgender. And people of color generally reported higher levels of abuse than survey respondents as a whole.

“The cruel irony of the Supreme Court’s recent marriage decisions is that an LGBT couple could get married one day, and on the very next day, because we still don’t have federal laws to ban employment discrimination, those same individuals could be fired from their jobs. Discrimination is wrong and it must end,” said Carey. “The good news is that we can do something immediately about ending discrimination in the work place but only if the Senate acts now to pass ENDA.”