September 8th, 8PM EST, ENDA update conference call hosted by NCTE

The National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE) is hosting a general conference call on September 8th, 8PM Eastern Time, to bring listeners up to date on the ENDA legislation and let listeners know how they can help get the U.S. Federal Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) passed.

What is ENDA? As NCTE notes:

• This legislation would address discrimination in the workplace by making it illegal to fire, refuse to hire, or refuse to promote an employee simply based on his or her sexual orientation or gender identity. It would reinforce the principle that employment decisions should be based upon a person’s qualifications and job performance.
• ENDA closely follows the model of existing federal civil rights laws, including Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Americans with Disabilities Act, ensuring that gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people are treated in the same way as other groups protected under law – no better, no worse.

To join the NCTE conference call update on ENDA please click to their site to register ahead of time: NCTE ENDA CON CALL LINK

To learn more about ENDA please link here: GovTrack on ENDA and at Wikipedia’s ENDA article here.

One would think our existing laws are enough. Just enforce what we have to protect all Americans in accordance with the spirit of our Declaration of Independence, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness”. However, existing laws, such as Title VII may not protect trans-persons from discrimination (see why here) and note the Diane Schroer case with the U.S. Library of Congress here.

It stinks that we can’t just take the Declaration of Independence and existing laws as is but, when we don’t, as well as the rest our laws, then we need to strengthen protections (which adds costs and burden to our economy but let’s not go there right now). An interesting historical parallel/aside on the topic of the necessity of new laws that on the surface don’t seem necessary is the issue of slavery in the U.S., as reported in Newsweek in July of 2008. “The 13th amendment passed in 1865 made slavery unconstitutional. There was no federal statute that made it a crime to hold a black person as a slave.” Slavery was unconstitutional and immoral but legal! You can read that full story at Newsweek’s site here.

We covered ENDA here at Beck’s Cafe extensively in 2007 and for some of the back stories please see:

• Enda Fallout Constricts Title VII Claims
• ENDA Baldwin Amendment, will you please call?
• Representative Tammy Baldwin – Keeping Our Eyes on the Prize (ENDA Statement)
• ENDA: Barney Frank backs down, HRC Commits, time bought
• ENDA, Time to make some phone calls
• Continues coverage on ENDA: Sean Hannity, ADA and James Byrd
• Continued Coverage on ENDA: Robyn’s Story
• Petition Drive to support complete ENDA
• Transgender Rights Hail Storm