The LGBT community has another victory to celebrate this week, as the federal Employment Nondiscrimination Act was voted out of a Senate committee, the first time it’s seen movement in several years. On July 10, the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pension voted 15-7 in favor of ENDA, which would protect members of the LGBT community from workplace discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation. The bill will now be brought to the Senate floor in the fall. Committee member Sen. Bob Casey of Pennsylvania voted in favor of ENDA, along with all of his Democratic colleagues and three Republicans: Sens. Orrin Hatch, Lisa Murkowski and Mark Kirk. ENDA hasn’t seen a vote since it made it through a successful full House vote in 2007 but was not introduced in the Senate. The HELP committee is chaired by Sen. Tom Harkin, a longtime ENDA supporter. “This bill renews our historical commitment to the advancement of civil rights, and to the American ideal of a meritocracy in which people are judged on their talent, ability, and qualifications — not by the color of their skin, their religion, their gender, their national origin, their age, whether they have a disability, their sexual orientation or their gender identity,” Harkin said in a statement Wednesday. The bill was introduced in April by Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) and in the House by Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colo.).
— Angela Thomas