The U. S. Senate is expected to bring the Employment Nondiscrimination Act to the floor for a vote before Thanksgiving, setting up what could be the most progress the legislation has seen in six years. And one of Pennsylvania’s Senators could be pivotal in ensuring success.
The legislation would add sexual orientation and gender identity to the classes protected from workplace discrimination at both public and private institutions across the nation. The legislation has been languishing in Congress for nearly two decades. Its most recent large-scale progress was in 2007, when it passed the full House, although in a stripped-down version without gender identity. Earlier this year, ENDA saw its first successful Senate committee vote, and Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid announced this week he will bring the legislation up for a vote in the coming weeks.
While the bill will have an uphill battle in the Republican-controlled House, it does seem to have a shot in the Democrat-controlled Senate — as long as at least one Republican crosses the aisle to get the legislation the filibuster-proof 60 votes it needs. Right now, the bill has 59 pledged supporters, and advocates have put Sen. Patrick Toomey (R-Pa.) on the short list of possible backers. Toomey’s camp has yet to announce his position or plans.
Toomey, who is in his first term in the Senate, has a mixed, yet mostly negative, record on LGBT issues; while a member of the U.S. House, Toomey supported a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage and also voted to ban adoptions by same-sex couples in Washington, D.C. But he did support repealing the military’s ban on openly LGBT servicemembers.
ENDA should be as much of a no-brainer as the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” Some LGBT opponents have argued that the legislation would be conferring “special rights” on LGBT people, but that idea holds little weight, as the same “special rights” are currently being extended to people based on race, religion, gender, national origin, age and disability. Studies have estimated workplace discrimination against LGBT people to be just as, and in some cases more, prevalent than discrimination against the currently protected classes of workers.
While some politicians may still consider marriage equality to be a divisive issue that could lose them favor among conservative constituents, the issues of workplace nondiscrimination is, and should not, be. According to recent studies commissioned by Equality Pennsylvania, the majority of Pennsylvanians support having a state law that would prevent discrimination against LGBT people — and most think the Keystone State already has such a measure on the books.
The state’s lack of such a measure is even more cause for Toomey to get on board with ENDA. While some of his constituents may feasibly be resistant to any measure that has a “pro-LGBT” bent, he doubtlessly also has constituents who have lost jobs, faced harassment and experienced countless other reverberations from anti-LGBT workplace discrimination. Toomey has a duty to represent all Pennsylvanians — including our LGBT citizens.