ENDA Reintroduced with a Wrinkle

For many years, proponents of civil rights for homosexuals, lesbians, and transgendered individuals have been seeking to amend Title VII to add sexual orientation as a protected classification under the Act.  All previous attempts have failed, but there is new momentum this year with Democratic majorities in both Houses and there is even an outside chance the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) will become law.  Indeed, it would be interesting to see if President Bush would veto such a bill and on what grounds.

What is also interesting about this version of ENDA, and as pointed out in a series of excellent posts by Jillian Weiss at the Transgender Workplace Diveristy Blog, is that this incarnation of the legislation would also provide specific protection from employment discrimination for transgendered indivduals in the form of prohibiting unlawful discrimination on the basis of gender identity.

Thanks to Jillian for providing a text of the ENDA bill.

PS