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This Speakout has not been edited.

By Tristan Gorman

On April 24th, 2007, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives. The bipartisan bill would make it illegal to fire, refuse to hire, or refuse to promote an employee based on sexual orientation or gender identity. This proposed legislation is necessary to combat discrimination and promote equality in the workplace.

Equality is a basic value in the U.S., and this American value is manifested in the merit system: the belief that all working people have a right to be judged by the quality of their work. Every American citizen should have an equal right to earn a living based on performance, not identity. Historically, Congress has passed laws prohibiting employment discrimination based on race, religion, gender, national origin, and disability. These laws, ensuring that prejudice does not unfairly limit employment opportunity, are essential to realizing the Fourteenth Amendment’s promise of equal protection under the law. ENDA will ensure workplace equality for all Americans by protecting GLBT workers from employment discrimination.

Some opponents say ENDA confers “special rights” on GLBT Americans, but ENDA would give no more rights to GLBT citizens than to straight citizens. A heterosexual who was refused a job or promotion on the basis of sexual orientation could sue for damages just as a homosexual could. Further, ENDA prohibits discrimination based on one’s actual and perceived sexual orientation or gender identity, meaning if a heterosexual employee were discriminated against because he/she was perceived to be homosexual, that heterosexual employee would also be protected by ENDA. The bill also protects all employees, including heterosexuals, from discrimination based on their associations with GLBT employees. If ENDA confers “special rights” on GLBT Americans, then it confers the same “special rights” on straight Americans, as well.

ENDA would not require affirmative action or force employers to hire or promote employees based solely on their sexual orientation or gender identity.

In fact, ENDA explicitly excludes any affirmative action based on sexual orientation or gender identity. ENDA does not require anyone to hire or promote a GLBT employee; it simply makes it illegal not to hire a qualified individual only because of his/her sexual orientation or gender identity. This bill is meant to protect qualified candidates from losing employment opportunities to discrimination, not to force employers to favor an unqualified candidate based on who that person is. ENDA also exempts the U.S. armed services, churches and church-operated schools, and employers with fewer than 15 employees from the sexual orientation and gender identity provisions. ENDA is intended to ensure employment equality in tax-payer funded public institutions and American businesses, many of which are already in support.

Corporate America is already in favor of equality in the workplace. As of January, 2007, 430 of the Fortune 500 Companies have adopted non-discrimination policies which include sexual orientation, and 121 of these have policies that include gender identity. These companies recognize that equality in the workplace is a benefit to all employees, employee relations, and the company as a whole, and that prohibiting discrimination is sound business practice. It’s time for the federal government to pass legislation that reflects what the private sector already knows to be fair and beneficial for American workers.

ENDA is not a leg up; it’s a level playing field. It will not create “special rights” for GLBT workers; it will not require affirmative action or force employers to hire anyone not qualified for the job; it will not apply to religious organizations, the military, or to small businesses with fewer than fifteen employees; and it will not impose unreasonable restrictions or undue burden on American business. ENDA will simply prohibit employment discrimination, allowing qualified, hard-working Americans the opportunity to earn a living based on their abilities and performance. ENDA will ensure the time-honored American values of fairness and equality are a reality for all American workers.

Tristan Gorman is a resident of Denver.

READER COMMENTS

Let us not forget that before ENDA, in Colorado, a person could be fired for being gay or lesbian, even if it had no bearing on their job and never even came up. I'd like to see someone straight get fired for their sexual preference and feel that they were deprived of "special rights." I doubt that it would be perceived as "special" to not get fired for having a traditional marriage in your PRIVATE life.

I don't understand why anyone would have a problem with this bill.
It is easy for a white, straight man to complain that "special people" are getting "special rights" since he is sitting in the seat of entitlement. A white man can go to work and simply work. His job performance will be based on nothing other than his work. For someone else, a gay person for example, has so much more to deal with than a straight white male. If someone suspects a person of being gay (especially a gay MAN) than that person is going to be targeted for all sorts of harassment and ridiculous, ignorant treatment.
If white, straight men could get fired just because of who they were sleeping with (you know, someone in your own private life, not a subordinate or other work taboo), this bill wouldn't even need to be brought up.
A person's sex life has NOTHING to do with their work life. It's no ones business who is sleeping with who.
Religious or not, everyone should respect people's right to privacy and the right to work and provide for oneself.

These laws are all about thought control and what opinions are allowed.

I believe that sex between people of the same gender is bad for those involved and for society. I believe that gender altering surgery is bad for the person and bad for society. Tristan Gorman is a fascist who wants to make my opinions illegal to voice or act on.

This bill may widen the freedom of association rules, but it will make it dangerous for someone to express a religious opinion in the hearing of a coworker. The religious person could be accused of having a bias against the person with non-standard sexual or gender issues. And don't think that there won't be lawsuits. Freedom of religion and freedom of expression will suffer from this bill.

Fire me for being incompetent.
Fire me for lousy attendence.
Fire me for being insubordinate, if you must.

Just don't fire me because you think I might be gay.
That's all there is to this.

Dravur definitely got this one right! The result of creating so many "protected class" employee identity groups is the creation of only one group that must preserve their job through working harder! The bottom line is, that if a job, project, whatever, must absolutely get done responsibiliy and in a timely manner you exclude "protected class" employees from the effort! Heterosexual white males will work 80 hours a week because they have ZERO job security in comparison to all of the other people protected by the plethora of laws that exclude white males. In fact, the real reason upper management continues to include so many non-protected class employees is the obvious fact that they get twice the work experience and exposure to the boss as those working only 35-40 hours a week because they are "protected"!

Brain: Sexual harassment and any other type of sexual abuse indeed does not belong in the workplace. One's sexual orientation has nothing to do with those things. If someone is qualified to handle a particular duty, it should be absolutely illegal to discriminate against them based on their sexual status.

Geoff:
You only need to hit the "enter" key once to get you trashy message across. Maybe your confused "baout" your sexaul idenity. I sure wouldn't hire you to shine"m" shoes.

Sexual orientation does not belong in the workplace; while interviewing a person for employment i would not consider their sex preferance; if they were to bring that up I would think that has the potential to interfere/disrupt doing the job they are hired for.

Wonderful. I am now assured of never being fired. This is the fool proof law... i can claim you thought I was confused about my gay/les or perhaps pre transexual idenity... which iI just might be anyway. How in the word can anyone who is confused baout their sexuality be trusted to do anything right? I wouldn't hire them to shine my shoes.

Wonderful. I am now assured of never being fired. This is the fool proof law... i can claim you thought I was confused about my gay/les or perhaps pre transexual idenity... which iI just might be anyway. How in the word can anyone who is confused baout their sexuality be trusted to do anything right? I wouldn't hire them to shine m shoes.

Great, another class of people I will never hire as it is too much trouble to fire them if they turn out bad.

I will hire anyone who I can fire if they turn out bad. That is a rapidly narrowing field.

Although, If I am threatened with being fired, I now have a card to play, even though, I'm not gay.

Just enforce the existing laws. Special laws for special people only promotes a class of professional victims who work full-time at extortion and corporate shake-downs. Just look at Jessie Jackson and his army of corporate shake-down artists.

This is societal warfare at its very worst. It is not a "leveling of the playing field" (as is always claimed by the professional victims), its only one small step removed from guaranteeing outcomes and results. We have way too much of that already, let's not encourage it.

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