Subject: Our September Editorial
From: [email-masked]
Date: Tue, 24 Aug 1999 20:16:08 EDT

The Letter (Kentucky's gay, lesbian, bisexual & transgender newspaper)
September 1999

The Lettertorial

ENDA Without Transgenders?  Never!

By David Williams, Editor

The federal Employment Non-Discrimination Act of 1999 (ENDA) is a no-brainer. 
 That proposal would add the category of "sexual orientation" to current 
civil rights laws governing employment discrimination.  That's great news for 
most of us, but not for some.  Where do transgenders fit into all that?

For now, the Human Rights Campaign, this nation's leading gay and lesbian 
lobbying group and chief backer of that bill, feels that adding a second 
category of "gender identity" would doom the measure.  We've got news for 
them: it's doomed already.  As long as conservative Republicans control 
Congress, it's got about as much chance of passing as statehood for DC.

Sometimes it seems that being inside the Beltway is much like being back in 
the closet.  Hasn't HRC noticed Kentucky these days?  If we can pass laws 
covering transgenders, anybody can!  Why not do the right thing and add our 
transgendered brothers and sisters to the mix?

Without provisions on gender identity, ENDA means nothing:  its passage would 
be a hollow victory.  This newspaper cannot defend it, it will not support 
it, and it will do nothing to help it until everyone at risk of 
discrimination is covered.

That's another no-brainer.

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