Responding to
criticism over the House Democratic leadership's potential
decision to move forward with a federal Employment
Non-Discrimination Act that would cover sexual
orientation but not gender identity, Rep. Barney Frank
said Thursday that opponents of the bill "can't
handle the truth, unfortunately." In remarks at a
press conference on Capitol Hill Thursday morning,
Frank said that a sexual orientation-only ENDA could
pass in the House with a margin of 15 or 20 votes but that a
transgender-inclusive bill wouldn't even garner an
up-or-down vote on the floor of the chamber due to the
lack of political support.
Since Frank and
his colleagues, including Speaker of the House Nancy
Pelosi, decided a few weeks ago to champion a sexual
orientation-only bill instead of the original
trans-inclusive measure, the LGBT movement has been
roiled by debate, with many advocacy groups calling for an
ENDA that would include both sexual orientation and
gender identity -- or nothing at all. Frank, one of
the bill's cosponsors, forcefully disagreed.
"Should we kill
the whole bill?" he asked rhetorically. "I have a very
profound difference with people who say we should.... I
do not think you deny people protection if you can. A
sexual orientation-only bill would be very
helpful."
Frank asserted
that pulling the sexual orientation-only bill would
send a bad message to the country and would only hurt
the LGBT rights movement. "The headline will be,
'Pelosi pulls gay rights bill from agenda,' that they
didn't have enough votes to pass it. I don't understand how
that helps us."
And echoing
remarks he made on the House floor days earlier, Frank
decried the personal nature of some of the criticism he's
faced in recent weeks. His support for the sexual
orientation-only bill, he said, has been
"treated as a betrayal, as a failure of moral will."
"The anger is
counterproductive," he added.
He applauded,
however, the recent lobbying efforts on behalf of the
trans-inclusive bill. But he couldn't help but rue what he
called their late arrival to the game. "Where were
they when we needed them?" he asked, citing several
times in the last year when it was announced that ENDA
would be a legislative priority in 2007. "I'm glad to see
the activity now -- I just wish it was not so late."
Frank said he
believes the sexual orientation-only ENDA will pass
in the House before the end of the year, and then it
will head to the Senate, where support for the measure
is more uncertain. He said he supports going back and
adding gender identity to the bill in the future when
there's more support for it politically. (The
Advocate)
