Why ENDA is quickly losing LGBT support

Several LGBT support groups including the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, Lambda Legal, and the ACLU have pulled their support from the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) after the recent Hobby Lobby decision and the loose definition of “religious exemption.”

The LGBT organizations feel that because the definition of religious exemption is so broad, protections of LGBT people in the work force would be minimal. ENDA has been passed by the Senate, but the scope of religious exemption was extremely wide, making many Democrats holdout while many (moderate) Republicans begin to support the bill.

ENDA has taken language previously used for anti-discrimination on religion and applies it to gender identity and sexual orientation, which prompted the open verbal battle on Tuesday and the pulled support from LGBT groups.

One of the co-sponsors of the bill, Rep. Jerry Nadler told The Washington Blade that his concerns have been mounting ever since the Hobby Lobby decision. “I am very concerned about the religious exemption in the ENDA bill that passed the Senate,” said Nadler. “I think it is overbroad and I will of course work hard with my colleagues to narrow it appropriately.” 

The Human Rights Campaign remains supportive of ENDA and released a statement to Buzzfeed saying, “HRC supports ENDA because it will provide essential workplace protections to millions of LGBT people.”

With the battle over religious exemption escalating, it’s important to remember that this is common in politics and is known as “posturing.” While the statements from LGBT groups and the Hobby Lobby decision (which does not tie into LGBT discrimination, though it can be misconstrued that way) are being discussed right now, many of these things will be irrelevant by the time the decision on ENDA would be made, which likely won’t be until a new draft is submitted next year. This posturing may be made even more irrelevant due to the executive order being drafted in the White House that would enforce LGBT non-discrimination to all federally contracted jobs.

Posturing or not, many people are unhappy with the state of ENDA. Mara Keisling, executive director of The National Center for Transgender Equality said, “The National Center for Transgender Equality has been a leader for years in advocating that the over-broad religious exemptions in the Employment Non-Discrimination Act was unacceptable and needs to be narrowed. Discrimination of any sort cannot and should not be used to hide discrimination against LGBT people — that is contrary to every American’s fundamental First Amendment rights.”