Surprise, Surprise: Hilary Rosen is in Barney’s Corner

And the Huffington Post allows yet another piece that, at the very least, rationalizes giving gays and lesbians a federal right to discriminate against trans people.

Several years ago it became clear that protections were needed in the workplace not just for gays and lesbians but also for transgendered people, so additional language was added last year to do just that.

Uh huh - after more than several years of your HRC (the organization headed for a good number of those years by your former partner, Elizabeth Birch) subverting the efforts of trans people to make our case to Congress.

By now, most interested people know that the House Leadership anticipated a lack of support for the gender identity provisions and stripped them from the Bill that moved out of the Ed and Labor Committee last week. 

By now, almost all people have asked why, if this was even remotely considered to be a problem, an inclusive bill was introduced in the first instance - and all of those people are still waiting for an answer.

Rep. Tammy Baldwin will offer an amendment to put that provision back in the bill. It’s chances of passage are slim even tough many good people are working to push it through.

Are ya actually counting Barney Frank in that number?  I’m, like, kinda not doing so - and I’m not alone.

When good and fair-minded members of Congress support final passage because they didn’t have a chance to vote on a whole bill, they must be appreciated for their efforts, not made to feel as though they have just sunken LGBT civilization. Why would we want Tammy Baldwin and our countless other friends in Congress to have to vote WITH Rep. John Boehner to kill a gay rights bill?

Ummmmmm…here’s why: Because it is a bill that is NOT neutral to trans rights; it will very likely extinguish the thin patina of protection that some federal circuits have seen on us because of Title VII; and it absolutely will legitimize every future attempt to enact state and local legislation that gives gays and lesbians the right to discriminate against trans people. 

How could we in good conscience ask her to do that?

Why don’t you ask Barney Frank?

Why don’t you ask your ex?

Why don’t you ask all of her former employees at HRC?

They’re the ones who have created this menage a transphobique.

Is the Scam Even Worse Than We’ve Been Willing to Think?

Autumn Sandeen over at Pam’s House Blend is indicating that Barney Frank may have crossed the rubicon - becoming more than simply an obstacle to inclusion:

Behind the public view, several congresspeople, congresspeople’s staffs, and other government sources have reported to ENDA activists that Representative Frank is strongly advocating in private for congresspeople to vote against the Baldwin Amendment because, in his opinion, it would cause the bill itself to fail.

The debate over whether or not ENDA should or shouldn’t be fully inclusive shouldn’t be about individuals or organizations, but on the facts and merits of the issue. However, on the subject of how inclusive ENDA should be, the blatant duplicity found between Representative Frank’s public and private statements is utterly reprehensible…it’s utterly unacceptable.

That’s being too diplomatic.

The Baldwin amendment

Southern Arizona Gender Alliance has posted the text of Rep. Tammy Baldwin’s amendment to ENDA-lite, that attempts to restore gender identity protections.

Dr. Jilly at Pam’s asks us to call Congress supporting the Baldwin amendment.

A few links

Dr. Jillian Todd Weiss has started a Twitter-based campaign for educating Congress:

The plan is this: you join Twitter, a free text messaging service, and then set it to follow our Inclusive_ENDA campaign. You can sign up here, and input “follow inclusive_enda” to follow the progress of our campaign. You will not receive any text messages other than the ones you request, and you can set it to follow only via web if you like.

What you should do:

Step 1 — After you sign up, input “follow inclusive_enda” which will notify us that you’re on board

Step 2 — Call Congress at 202-224-3121, tell them you want to speak to your Congressmember’s office, give them your zip code, and voila! you’re connected.

Step 3 — Tell the receptionist you support the inclusive Employment Non-Discrimination Act, HR 2015, the one that includes gender identity and expression.

Step 4 — Text message Twitter at 40404, and tell us who you called!

Step 5 — Bask in the knowledge that not only you, but thousands of people know that you supported a fairer world for everyone! (And, if we get enough people, we’ll tell Congress, too!)

United ENDA is endorsing The Tammy Baldwin Plan:

Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) announced today that she has secured an agreement from the Democratic leadership to introduce an amendment to H.R. 3685 that would restore gender identity protections to the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA). The amendment would be considered on the House floor next week, after the bill moves through the House Education and Labor Committee this Thursday. After her announcement, the United ENDA coalition released the following statement:

Two weeks ago, our community was told that gender identity would not be included in any version of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. Congressional Leadership expected our community to acquiesce. However, United ENDA effectively communicated the strong opposition of hundreds of organizations and millions of members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community to leadership’s efforts to advance a stripped down version of the bill.

It is because of our unprecedented efforts that new options, such as the proposed amendment by Congresswoman Baldwin, are able to come before Congress. Members of Congress responded to the successful strategy of our coalition and many expressed their strong desire to vote for an inclusive bill that protects all lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.

Clearly, our preferred strategy is to pass the original ENDA (H.R. 2015) out of committee. However, if we are faced with a non-inclusive bill following the committee vote, we will work with Congresswoman Baldwin to repair ENDA to include protections on the basis of gender identity. We appreciate that Congressional leaders like Congresswoman Baldwin continue to share our commitment to pass an inclusive bill, and we expect Speaker Pelosi and the House leadership will actively support the Baldwin amendment.

And it looks like John Aravosis has finally started to listen to his site commenters, and has STFU about ENDA. It was embarrassing earlier this week watching people who agreed with Aravosis (we don’t) asking him to please stop picking fights with the trans-inclusive folks, but then, everything Aravosis has said or done on this issue has been uniformly embarrassing.