In late breaking news on ENDA, Beck’s Cafe has just learned, via an email from MTPC cancelling a planned vigil at Barney Frank’s office regarding ENDA, that Barney Frank will not split ENDA and it is going to include both sexual orientation and gender identity as the original bill was designed. As many of our coffee swilling readers will remember from our post, “Transgender Rights Hailstorm“, Barney Frank had stated he was going to remove support for transgender rights from ENDA (see his news release on that topic by visiting his site HERE). But now, Barney Frank is going to support the full bill and is not going split ENDA and is going to be including both sexual orientation and gender identity.

Barney Frank’s change of heart is a great thing to see and Beck’s Cafe is brewing a fresh pot up for him!

Also, The Human Rights Campaign, which had issued this public response regarding the removal of the transgender piece of ENDA, has now signed onto a petition publicly stating that:

Our organizations support the Employment Non-Discrimination Act as introduced (H.R. 2015). Although we believe that the bill’s sponsor, Congressman Barney Frank (D-MA), and the House Democratic Leadership have a sincere desire to protect the LGBT community from discrimination, we believe the process and strategy that has been adopted is a mistake. That mistake is compounded by moving forward with a markup tomorrow.

You can read the HRC statement by visiting their site at this link HERE.

Finally, according to a National Center for Transgender Eqality (NCTE) ENDA email update statement, on 10/1/08 around 8PM EST by Mara Keisling and a phone update from NJ Congressman Russ Holt (as posted at Pam’s House Blend), it appears time has been bought on the side of proponents of ENDA to get congress and other allies on board. The meeting on the bill for Tuesday October 2nd, 2007, has been postponed until the end of October.

Talk about a fast changing bill! But everyone reading Beck’s Cafe’s coverage and who had a chance to call or write your congressmen and women all were a part of this small victory. So THANK YOU!! There is a much work to be done in the next few weeks!

(For past coverage of ENDA at Beck’s Cafe, please visit these stories, “Enda – Time to make some phone calls“, “Continued Coverage on ENDA – Sean Hannity, ADA and James Byrd“, “Continued Coverage on ENDA – Robyn’s Story“, “Petition Drive to Support a Complete ENDA“, “Transgender Rights Hail Storm“ )

Last night a friend and I were talking on the phone about ENDA. Realizing we might be among those at risk we wondered if GLAD was going to weigh in on this issue? It was encouraging to see that they too felt that removal of support for the transgender in ENDA was wrong…..It was nice getting this in my email late today….

	Dear Rebecca, GLAD is concerned about a recent step taken by Congressional leaders that threatens to undermine passage of a full and trans-inclusive Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA). The LGBT movement has been unified in its commitment to an inclusive ENDA that outlaws workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. This recent effort to put forth a version of the bill excluding gender identity is out of touch with what the community has clearly stated it supports. We need your help today to ensure that no member of our community is left behind. Contact your Representative, and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi at 202-224-3121 and let them know that you oppose legislation that is not fully inclusive. Our Massachusetts supporters have a unique opportunity to impact the course of this legislation by contacting the bill’s sponsor, Representative Barney Frank. Urge Representative Frank and Speaker Pelosi to let Congress vote on the original version of ENDA, HR 2015, the version that was asked for, worked on, and supported by the community. We at GLAD know that a strong and successful movement depends on unity and mutual support. We don’t compromise on essential civil rights. Thank you for doing your part to ensure equal protections for all Americans, Lee Swislow Executive Director gladlaw@glad.org Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders (GLAD) is New England’s leading legal rights organization dedicated to ending discrimination based on sexual orientation, HIV status and gender identity and expression. Since 1978, through impact litigation and public education, GLAD has worked to create a better world for lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, transgender individuals and people living with HIV. To learn more about GLAD and be added to our e-mail list, please visit our website. To help GLAD fund the fight for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equality, please make a donation today – visit our Donation Page at www.glad.org/Donate_to_GLAD. If you would like to be removed from our email list please send a message from the address where you received this message to unsubscribe@glad.org. Thank you for getting involved and for supporting GLAD.

We downed an espresso shot then called Pelosi’s office and got a recording so we could register what we at Beck’s Cafe felt about the removal of transgender protections from ENDA. It was surprising they had space to record what we wanted to say. We then rang up our congressman, Ed Markey, and found out he was indeed supporting ENDA!! How nice We asked would he pretty please call up Mr. Frank and ask that he, perhaps, change his mind? You have to wonder how fruitful any of this effort is, but, who knows. Still the whole course of events is disappointing in the extreme.

Ms. Pelosi’s part in all this is especially troubling since we had written how helpful she had been to the transgender community. Please see our previous article on her at Beck’s Cafe, entitled, “Nancy Pelosi, what to expect for the transgender“.

(For past coverage of ENDA at Beck’s Cafe, please visit these stories, “Continued Coverage on ENDA – Sean Hannity, ADA and James Byrd“, “Continued Coverage on ENDA – Robyn’s Story“, “Petition Drive to Support a Complete ENDA“, “Transgender Rights Hail Storm“ )

It’s been a whirlwind this weekend on ENDA…but here’s some additional coverage on ENDA from this weekend. While certainly we barista’s at Beck’s Cafe don’t claim to have complete coverage, we do share what we found interesting.

• Sean Hannity, in the midst of ENDA, debates that anti-discrimination laws like ENDA are ultimately powerless. He brings up the recent 10th US Circuit Courts decision that the 1964 Civil Rights Act does not apply to trans people. As Sean starts off the post, “I read this case and could not stop laughing. What extremes people will go through to deny jobs to the transgendered. They could not fire her because she was transgendered, so they fired her because she might get beaten up while using a ladies room while at work. And the conservative 10th circuit bought it. They had to be on crack!”

• Kate, over at Forked Tongue and a Dirty House, also has coverage of the 10th US Circuit Courts decision that the 1964 Civil Rights Act does not apply to trans people, as well

• Lane Hudson writes at the Huffington Post that he doesn’t want a sex change; but that transgender protections being kept in ENDA are still the right thing to do.

• Jenn Burlenton over at Trans Group Blog notes that “Trangender people have no choice but to move forward. They move forward politically, socially and educationally in securing full equality and safety for transgender adults and MOST importantly, children and youth. Transgender citizens move forward by not being held back by those whose loyalty to the lesbian, gay and bisexual community prevents them from either fully understanding the needs of transgender individuals, or from being willing to risk a setback for some in order to assure equal protections for all.

• Dr. Jillian Todd Weiss writes at Transgender Worksplace Diversity that “Pushing transgender people out of the way undermines the fairness message of ENDA, and will be a terrible misstep. ENDA is about not allowing prejudice to have its way, and I commend that message to the sponsors of ENDA”. She’s got alot more to say as well and she’s worth spending some time with at Transgender Worksplace Diversity.

• Nadine Smith writes over at the Billerico Project that this exact same scenario as we have with ENDA cutting out the transgender support happened with the American With Disabilities act AND in Texas with legislation that was enacted after the James Byrd racial murder in Texas where the Byrd family refused to support legislation that protected their son James Byrd, but was not going to protect those like Matthew Shepherd. As she puts it, “To cut out, to throw out protection regardless of gender identity/expression is to cede that moral authority. It is to confirm for our political enemies that a dividing line within the human family is acceptable–the haggling about who is worthy and who is not is all that remains”.

• The Advocate reports that Barney Frank is going to introduce separate legislation for ENDA and GENDA. GENDA being a separate bill for transgender protections. At the Cafe, we fell a bit like this is a “hey we cut you out of the real support but here’s something to keep you busy so you don’t notice”. The Advocate quotes Mr. Frank’s spokesperson, Steven Adamske , “The other one, GENDA if you will, will move on a separate track and will give the ability for the committee and other lawmakers to hold hearings on it and better educate other lawmakers,” So lawmakers had no clue about transgender issues before this? We almost sputtered our coffee onto the counter reading that.

• Becky Juro, a talk show hostess for The Becky Juro Show, and writer gives an excellent historical perspective to how the GLB part of the community has booted the Trans part out on more than one occasion. She also gives a call to action, “It’s time to get pissed off again and start calling out people and organizations out when they deserve it. It’s time finish the job that we started in 2004 and knock HRC from its undeserved perch as the leading LGBT civil rights organization and replace them with an organization which understands that civil rights are for everyone, even when they interfere with the interests of rich white gay guys. NGLTF isn’t perfect, but they’re far closer to that ideal than HRC has ever come or ever will”.

• Pam’s House Blend has a nice roundup from the huge amount of reporting perking in her pots at her place, including the very important point that gender identity in ENDA protects intersexed people; so Barney Frank and friends want to jettison them too??

For past coverage of ENDA at Beck’s Cafe, please visit these stories, “Continued Coverage on ENDA – Robyn’s Story“, “Petition Drive to Support a Complete ENDA“, “Transgender Rights Hail Storm“