Was full inclusion the reason why ENDA failed to pass last congress or not?

There seems to be conflicting statements coming from Rep. Barney Frank and his Legislative Assistant Diego Sanchez regarding why the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) didn’t make it out of the House Education and Labor Committee in the 111th Congress.

In a January, 2010 article for The Advocate Rep. Frank stated, “There continues to be concerns on the part of many members about the transgender issue, particularly about the question of places where people are without their clothes – showers, bathrooms, locker rooms, etc. We still have this issue about what happens when people who present themselves as one sex but have the physical characteristics of the other sex, what rules govern what happens in locker rooms, showers, etc.”

In a December, 2010 Metro Weekly article he had this message for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) advocates, “In the interim what the community needs to do is educate on the transgender issue.”

Frank continued, “I would point out to you that they still have not been able to get transgender protections in liberal places. If you can’t do it in Massachusetts, New York and Maryland, it doesn’t get easier when you add in South Dakota, Oklahoma and Utah.”

But the transgender issue wasn’t the issue that Diego Sanchez brought up in an Equality Giving phone discussion on Jan. 30, 2011. When asked, “Even if some claim we do not have the votes, why was ENDA not put up in the last congress? Please tell us the true reason.”

Sanchez responded, “Number one, the thing that breaks my heart the most is that we did have the votes this time. ENDA didn’t come up because of two things, primarily. One is Healthcare, which took so much longer, and number two is the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell – the thinking that it needed to go up on the Defense Bill, and so that when it came up, it went.

“… [B]oth Congressman Barney Frank and Tammy Baldwin do believe – and we know, because we counted – we believe we had the votes this last congress. And, we ran out of time. So the short answer is the calendar.

“But this time we had the votes, even with some Republican surprises to pass a fully inclusive ENDA bill.”

As a member of the transgender community, this is extremely disheartening to hear. Diego Sanchez’s comments don’t seem to align with Rep. Barney Frank’s comments. Rep. Frank seemed to imply that the issue in the House was the transgender inclusion in the ENDA bill. And, the stated problems with transgender inclusion in the bill were stated to be regarding bathrooms and showers. Those transgender community members that I’ve talked to who are aware of the comments by both Rep. Frank and Diego Sanchez feel angry, confused or both.

And of course, another disappointment is that at the 2010 Netroots Nation conference, I listened to then Speaker Nancy Pelosi tell us that a fully inclusive ENDA was her top priority.

Yet, ENDA didn’t pass out of the House last year, let alone pass out of the House Education and Labor Committee.

I was at the signing event in Washington, D.C. when the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (DADT) repeal legislation was signed into law. I described my feeling at the time as feeling like a bridesmaid. I was happy for my LGB community siblings, but my transgender community siblings had little to be happy about as a community.

Of course, I worked for the repeal of DADT. It wasn’t a transgender-specific issue, but it was my issue because I belong to the LGBT community. If an issue is an issue for one sub-community of the LGBT community, it’s my issue.

I lobbied for ENDA too, but I couldn’t help but wonder at the end of last year if I had personally done enough for the passage of ENDA. Obviously, we did enough in the House to assure passage there, yet the LGBT community still didn’t see the bill make it out of committee.

I’ll make the assumption that Diego Sanchez wasn’t lying when he said that a fully inclusive ENDA had the votes in the House. The votes were apparently there, and a fully inclusive ENDA still didn’t end up making it out of the House Education and Labor Committee. That information stings.

If you were transgender, how would you feel about knowing that the version of ENDA that included protections for sexual orientation and gender identity had the votes in the House, but never had a vote in the House?

I can tell you how I feel. I feel deeply disappointed. I keep thinking about what Cesar Chavez said, “The fight is never about grapes or lettuce. It is always about people.”

The issues aren’t about politics, the issues are about the people affected by the politics of the issues.