Employment Non-Discrimination Act (U.S.)

Past Legislation
The first legislation to provide protections against sexual orientation-based discrimination was introduced in 1974. The Employment Non-Discrimination Act has since been introduced 22 times, culminating in a 49-50 vote in the Senate in 1996.

Inclusion of transgender identity
On April 24, 2007, Rep. Barney Frank introduced H.R. 2015, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act of 2007. The legislation was comprehensive in that it prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.

According to the bill text, gender identity is "the gender-related identity, appearance, or mannerisms or other gender-related characteristics of an individual, with or without regard to the individual's designated sex at birth." In addition, H.R. 2015 provided explicit language on employer dress codes and shared facilities, and how transgender identity applied in those situations.

Bill summary


Debate and passage
While H.R. 2015 was debated, its sponsor, Rep. Barney Frank, decided to exclude gender identity protection after learning the House would not pass the bill. He introduced H.R. 3685 on September 27, 2007, which stripped the protections for gender identity. The Committee on Education and Labor approved H.R. 3685 by a 27 - 21 vote on October 18, and sent the bill to the full House.

Several members of the Democratic caucus were not satisfied with the exclusion. Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) sought to introduce an amendment bringing gender identity inclusion back into H.R. 3685, but freshman representatives killed the effort.



Uncertainty over the bill led House leaders to postpone floor votes on H.R. 3685 in late October and early November.

Following several hours of debate on the chamber floor, the House of Representatives approved the measure by a 235-184 vote. Baldwin offered an amendment to provide the same protections for gender identity as for sexual orientation, but withdrew the measure before the vote.



FRC Action and Focus on the Family Action, which opposed the bill, selected the vote for their 110th Congress House scorecard, where they gave it the following description: "Sponsored by Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA), the Employment Non-Discrimination Act of 2007 (H.R. 3685) is aimed at providing heightened protections for homosexuality and is a radical transformation of workplace discrimination law. H.R. 3685 would grant special consideration on the basis of “sexual orientation” that would not be extended to other employees in the workplace." Sens. Edward Kennedy and Susan Collins announced they would introduce a similar measure in the Senate, where it came within one vote of adoption in 1996. President Bush had vowed to veto an earlier version of the bill.

External resources

 * The OpenCongress Information page on the H.R.2015 (110th Congress), the Employment Non-Discrimination Act of 2007.
 * OpenCongress search page for "Employment Non-Discrimination Act," which has more blog and news article results.
 * "Gender identity disorder," Wikipedia.

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