2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumHistory is on the side of ENDA: its time has come
It was a development that seemed to come out of nowhere, when a federal ban on discrimination in employment against LGBT folk suddenly gathered momentum on Monday.
The 61-30 vote in the Senate to open debate on ENDA is long overdue but most welcome.
We analyzed the history of the bill today in
The time has come to ban bigotry
The history of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act goes back almost two decades. The latest version, introduced by former Massachusetts Rep. Barney Frank in 2011, has languished in obscurity until this week.
Republican House Speaker John Boehner immediately said he opposes the law, but history is not on his side.
He will face enormous pressure to bring ENDA to a vote, not the least from his own party. More than a few Republicans voted with all the Democrats in 2010 to repeal the militarys Dont ask, dont tell policy. History could repeat itself.
And several Republicans voted for a previous version of the bill in 2007, according to the Center for American Progress which has the most detailed account
in A History of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act reported July 19, 2011, by Jerome Hunt.
Poll after poll has shown increasing majorities in favor of equal rights under the law for all in the LGBT community. Gay marriage is now legal in 14 states, with Hawaii likely to be the 15th.
The House of Representatives may be like a troglodyte, but Boehner is unlikely to be successful forever.
History is on the side of equal protection for all. It may have to wait until 2015, but it will inevitably arrive.

gopiscrap
(24,297 posts)"the arc of the moral universe tends to bend towards justice"
gopiscrap
(24,297 posts)libdem4life
(13,877 posts)warrenswil
(60 posts)I am a wordsmith by trade.
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