"New Management" Team on Capitol Hill Needs to Protect Gay Workers

Congress returns from its August recess soon. And many gay Americans are starting to wonder whether Democrats intend to live up to the "Under New Management" sign they hung up at the U.S. Capitol after last November's elections.

With few legislative workdays left before lawmakers become obsessed with the 2008 campaigns, now is the time for Democrats to produce results. Outlawing job discrimination against those of us who're gay should be a top priority.

Fortunately, U.S. Rep. Rob Andrews says he's eager to get moving. Andrews isn't just any Democrat. The New Jersey lawmaker chairs the House subcommittee with jurisdiction over workplace laws.

Andrews told me "it's very likely" he will hold hearings on the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) soon, so that it can get its first-ever vote on the U.S. House floor "this fall."

ENDA would ban discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity, but would exempt religious institutions, the military and small businesses.

"I'm in this to win," Andrews says of pushing ENDA. "I don't want to prove a point by having a hearing or raising an issue for the first time," he said. "I want to change the law because I think the law as it exists does not adequately protect people."

Hearings will "show that bigotry is bad for business," says Andrews, who, like full committee Chairman George Miller, is among ENDA's 159 co-sponsors.

Andrews' enthusiasm for protecting the rights of gay and transgender workers is a welcome contrast to some of the lows during the first eight months of Capitol Hill's new management: The Senate Judiciary Committee allowed appeals court nominee Leslie Southwick, who signed an outrageously anti-gay parenting decision, to advance to the Senate floor.

And in June, the House voted to keep telling the District of Columbia that it can't use federal money for its domestic partnership registry.

Despite such lows, Matt Foreman, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, remains "very optimistic" ENDA will pass the House and Senate this year. And lesbian Rep. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., says she is "absolutely confident" Democratic leaders will schedule a House vote on ENDA.

Brought up for a vote, the bill is all but certain to pass. National surveys continually show that the vast majority of Americans want to protect workers from being fired simply for being gay. Forty-five percent of House members and 40 percent of senators are from the 20 states that already outlaw such discrimination.

And, as Andrews points out, most lawmakers — Democrats and Republicans alike — know and care about gay friends, staffers and relatives. "Fifteen years ago, the issue was, 'Should some gay person be able to get a job as a checkout person in a supermarket?' Now it is about whether your cousin should be able to, or your next-door neighbor," said Andrews, who fondly recalls his lesbian aunt.

"It's hard to find anyone with a straight face in my state — no pun intended — who would say someone who runs a supermarket should be able to refuse to hire a gay man or lesbian woman," Andrews said.

It's up to the new management team on Capitol Hill to translate the nation's change of heart into gay-friendly laws. Protecting gay workers would be an excellent start.

Deb Price of The Detroit News writes the first nationally syndicated column on gay issues. To find out more about Deb Price and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate web page at www.creators.com.

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