Blind Prophecy

Equality Matters is a virtual march for LGBT equality timed to coincide with Inauguration Week. The theme of the event is “1138 Reasons Equality Matters.” The number is a reference to the 1138 rights, privileges and responsibilities of marriage outlined in a review of 1997 and 2004 government reports. These are benefits and rights denied gay and lesbian couples. If you begin to add in other great reasons for equality that include intentionally unmarried LGBT folks, the concerns of the bisexual and transgender communities, and related issues like sex ed and queer-identified allies, the number would skyrocket well beyond 1138.

But let’s start somewhere a little more inclusive and expansive, shall we. I have been talking for a long, long time about nondiscrimination laws. In 1974, 35 years ago, U.S. Representatives Bella Abzug (D-NY) and Edward I. Koch (D-NY)–aided by the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force–introduced the Equality Act of 1974 in Congress. This was a comprehensive piece of federal legislation that would have banned discrimination against lesbians, gay men, unmarried persons and women in employment, housing and public accommodations. It was the first federal “gay rights” bill in the United States. Although it failed to take into account the concerns of transgender people, it was nevertheless more expansive than even the most recent version of the Employment NonDiscimination Act (which deals only with workplace protections).

35 years have passed and we still haven’t had a single significant win on LGBT issues at the federal level. Yes, many states and local communities have passed local nondiscrimination acts that include employment, housing, public accommodation, education, credit, adoption services, medical services and more. Still, I can travel across state lines in less than an hour, but my rights and protections do not.

In 1996 shortly after Republicans took control of Congress, panicked that gay marriage may become a reality in Hawaii (it didn’t), the US Congress rushed through the so-called Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). Gay lobbyists, like the Human Rights Campaign, worked to get the Employment Nondiscrimination Act (ENDA) passed as an amendment to the seemingly unstoppable DOMA. It didn’t work. Pressure was put on Democrats (like President Clinton) to reject DOMA unless ENDA was also passed. In the end, DOMA was passed by Congress and Clinton signed it into law. The vote on the Employment Nondiscrimination Act failed 49-50 in the US Senate.

In 2007, with Democrats back in the driver’s seat of the legislative branch, ENDA was introduced once again. The bill finally included protections for transgender people, including “gender identity” as a protection from workplace discrimination. After months of not much happening, news broke in late September that the bill’s primary sponsor, Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) had asked that the bill be split, with the gender identity/transgender protections left in a seperate bill. This sparked fierce debate and outrage in the LGBT community as lines were drawn between those who supported the trans-inclusive version of the legislation, and those who were eager for any progress on federal nondiscrimination. The House of Representatives passed the non-inclusive version of the bill, but the Senate never voted on the legislation (the primary sponsor in the Senate, Sen. Ted Kennedy, was hospitalized mid-term before all attention turned to the election) and once again, the bill died without becoming law.

We now stand at the cusp of a new administration and a new, stronger Congress. The LGBT community has received many explicit promises from the Democrats this time. President Obama and numerous congressional leaders have expressed specific support for an inclusive version of ENDA.

35 years is too long to wait for nondiscrimination law. For 35 years, we have asked for less and less in our federal nondiscrimination legislation (when did we stop asking for protections in housing, public accommodation?). Public opinion polls have shown the majority of American support nondiscrimination laws and have for over a decade.

Arguments against nondiscrimination laws rarely hold up, either legally or in practice. The bottom line remains that until this country can legally enforce the notion that discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity is not allowed, we have yet to achieve anything beyond second-class citizenship.

It’s time. Congress must pass, and Obama must sign into law, protections that allow LGBT people to seek and obtain work without fear of discrimination. Further, Congress should look back to 35 years ago and recognize that nondiscrimination law must go further than workplace protections. I should not be denied an apartment rental contract because I’m gay. My best friend should not be denied credit or bank loans because she is bisexual. My former coworker should not be denied access to a public bathroom because she was born with male genitalia. Children should not be denied access to institutions of education because they express a queer identity.

I second the recommendation of Mary Frances Berry, the chairwoman of the Commission on Civil Rights from 1993 to 2004, in her New York Times Op-Ed calling for and end to the Commission on Civil Rights and the creation of a new federal watchdog group ready to tackle a wider array of issues:

The Commission on Civil Rights has been crippled since the Reagan years by the appointments of commissioners who see themselves as agents of the presidential administration rather than as independent watchdogs. The creation of a new, independent human and civil rights commission could help us determine our next steps in the pursuit of freedom and justice in our society. A number of explosive issues like immigration reform await such a commission, but recommendations for resolving the controversies over the rights of gays, lesbians and transgendered people should be its first order of business.

Equality Matters, and it’s time for the United States to move forward in passing legislation that protects LGBT citizens from full participation in the workplace, community and opportunities of this nation.

Filed under: politics, queer rights by Jere Keys