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ENDA: One Of The Greatest Jobs Bills Never Passed

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ENDA, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which has lived in Congress in one form or another since 1974, was again supposed to be reintroduced in Congress today by Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA), but Franks’ spokesperson, Harry Gural, reported moments ago that Frank is awaiting more cosponsors before he officially reintroduces it. In the last Congress, ENDA had 203 cosponsors in the House, and 45 in the Senate.

Critics and proponents believe it has little chance of passing, given the current composition of Congress. ENDA itself has been introduced into every Congress but one since 1994.

Michael K. Lavers at Edge reports, “Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen [R-Fla.], gay Congressmen David Cicilline [D-R.I.] and Jared Polis [D-Colo.] and lesbian Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin [D-Wis.] are among the federal Employment Non-Discrimination Act’s more than two dozen co-sponsors. Frank conceded it is highly unlikely that the GOP-controlled House will pass ENDA during this Congress, but he stressed to activists who attended the Capitol Hill announcement that they need to begin to lay the groundwork for ENDA’s eventual passage–which he predicted would happen sometime over the next four to six years–now.

“The essential part of it is that people do the lobbying now,” said Frank.”

The Need For ENDA

It’s impossible to gather statistics for something as intangible as the number of people fired for being gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender, in part because most people who are fired for being LGBTQ aren’t told that’s the reason, and in part because it’s easy to couch something like that in other reasons. But studies show that anti-LGBTQ discrimination in the workplace is extreme.

Here are just a few statistics:

  • 47% of people who are transgender report workplace harassment.
  • Only 12 states and Washington, D.C. prohibit employment discrimination based on both gender identity and sexual orientation. So, in 38 states you can be fired for gender identity or gender expression, including for being transgender.
  • In 29 states you can be fired for being gay, lesbian or bisexual.
  • Gay men earn 10% to 32% less than similarly qualified heterosexual men. (Williams Institute)
  • Transgender people report high rates of unemployment and very low earnings. (Williams Institute)

HRC, the Human Rights Campaign, in its 2009 “Degrees of Equality” study reports, “significant numbers of LGBT employees continue to experience a negative workplace climate that appears to be unaffected by organizational policies and which varies by location, manager and work team. The majority of LGBT workers (51 percent) hide their LGBT identity to most at work, the simplest indication that more work needs to be done to translate inclusive policies into an inclusive climate. Hiding one’s LGBT identity is even more pronounced among younger workers. Only 5 percent of LGBT employees ages 18 to 24 say they are totally open at work, compared to more than 20 percent in older age cohorts.

“Employees who are not open at work experience more negative outcomes from their workplace environment that affect productivity, retention and professional relationships. For example, 54 percent of LGBT employees who are not open to anyone at work report lying about their personal lives, compared to 21 percent of employees open about their LGBT identity. LGBT workers’ inability to participate honestly in everyday conversations hinders trust and cohesion with their co-workers and superiors.

“An employee’s sexual orientation or gender identity are often unavoidable in casual, non-work-related conversations among co-workers. A total of 89 percent of LGBT employees say conversations about social lives come up at least once a week; 80 percent confront conversations involving spouses, relationships and dating at least once per week; and, 50 percent say the topic of sex arises at least once a week. These frequent conversations are the most likely to make LGBT employees feel uncomfortable: Fewer than half feel very comfortable talking about any of these topics.

“Derogatory comments and jokes still happen at work and are a major indicator that it is unsafe to be open about their sexual orientation or gender identity at work. A total of 58 percent of LGBT workers say someone at work makes a joke or derogatory comment about LGBT people at least once in a while. Similarly, jokes and derogatory comments about other minority groups are equally indicative of a negative climate. About two-thirds (62 percent) of LGBT employees say negative comments about minority groups are made at least once in a while at work.”

Then there’s this startling news from The Williams Institute’s 2007 “Bias In The Workplace” study:

“Studies conducted from the mid-1980s to mid-1990s revealed that 16% to 68% of LGB respondents reported experiencing employment discrimination at some point in their lives. Since the mid-1990s, an additional fifteen studies found that 15% to 43% of LGB respondents experienced discrimination in the workplace.

“When asked more specific questions about the type of discrimination experienced, LGB respondents reported the following experiences that were related to their sexual orientation: 8%- 17% were fired or denied employment, 10%-28% were denied a promotion or given negative 10 performance evaluations, 7%-41% were 5 verbally/physically abused or had their workplace 0 vandalized, and 10%-19% reported receiving unequal pay or benefits.

“When transgender individuals were surveyed separately, they reported similar or higher levels of employment discrimination. In six studies conducted between 1996 and 2006, 20% to 57% of transgender respondents reported having experienced employment discrimination at some point in their life. More specifically, 13%- 56% were fired, 13%-47% were denied employment, 22%-31% were harassed, and 19% were denied a promotion based on their gender identity.

“When surveyed, many heterosexual co-workers report witnessing sexual orientation discrimination in the workplace.

“A small number of researchers have also asked heterosexuals whether they have witnessed discrimination against their LGB peers. These studies revealed that 12% to 30% of respondents in certain occupations, such as the legal profession, have witnessed antigay discrimination in employment.

“In states that currently prohibit sexual orientation discrimination, LGB people file complaints of employment discrimination at similar rates to women and racial minorities.”

So why has this bill, introduced now nine times, not to mention in another form, to be added into the civil rights act of 1964, never passed?

Here’s the ENDA introduced in 2009. The one Frank was to introduce today is the exact same one, transgender-inclusive.

 

(map and key image: HRC. graph: Williams Institute)


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‘Cartoon Villains’: Ag Secretary Under Fire for Medicaid-to-Farm-Work Plan

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July 8, 2025

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U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins has declared that the Trump administration’s massive deportation plans will continue without any amnesty for migrant farm workers, and insisted that “able-bodied” American adults who access Medicaid for health care insurance should be the ones to replace deported migrant farm workers. Critics have pushed back.

“I can’t underscore enough,” Secretary Rollins said at a press conference at the USDA on Tuesday, ahead of a White House Cabinet meeting. “There will be no amnesty, the mass deportations continue, but in a strategic way, and we move the workforce towards automation and 100% American participation.

She added that, “with 34 million people, able-bodied adults on Medicaid, we should be able to do that fairly quickly.”

READ MORE: ‘Stupid Liberals With Stupid Policies’: Trump Transportation Secretary Slams NYC

Secretary Rollins’ remarks do not take into account that nearly two-thirds (64%) of adults under 65 accessing Medicaid are already working, according to KFF. Another 28% are exempt due to illness, school, or care-giving responsibilities.

Her statistic of 34 million able-bodied adults on Medicaid is promoted by a right-wing think tank, the Foundation for Government Accountability, which advocates for reducing work restrictions on teenagers, and opposes expanding Medicaid.

Also, there is not large-scale farm work available in every state, nor, does it appear, that would many Americans want to perform that work, especially for low wages. Farm work rarely offers employer-paid health care. And farm work is often seasonal.

Critics blasted Secretary Rollins.

READ MORE: ‘Authoritarian’: Trump Treasury Chief Ripped for Call to Punish Private Citizen’s Speech

“They’re like cartoon villains,” wrote Bloomberg Opinion columnist Patricia Lopez. “So send Medicaid recipients in as field hands? Also, what is meant by strategic mass deportations? Just Blue states?”

“Lol,” exclaimed Yahoo News reporter Jordan Werissmann, “we’ve gone from ‘the USAID program analysts will make shoes’ to ‘people will pick strawberries to keep their health care’.”

“I have talked to literally thousands of MAGAs and have not found a single one who will work on a farm. Not one,” wrote New York Times bestselling author Ramit Sethi. “This is simply anti-immigrant bigotry from Republicans.”

“Ah, yes,” remarked journalist Lydia Polgreen, “those high paying farm labor jobs that include health insurance!”

“Did not think the script for 2025 would feature villains co-written by Charles Dickens and Pol Pot,” added historian Mike Cosgrave.

Watch the video below or at this link.

READ MORE: Democratic Strategist Warns Trump Could Try to Impose Martial Law Before 2026 Midterms

 

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‘Stupid Liberals With Stupid Policies’: Trump Transportation Secretary Slams NYC

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July 8, 2025

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U.S. Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy escalated his attacks on New York City Tuesday morning, slamming the subway system as unsafe—despite double-digit declines in several major crime categories and an overall drop in transit crime. Duffy also lashed out at the city’s highly popular and successful six-month-old congestion pricing program, denounced its bike lanes, and took aim at liberal policies more broadly.

“I’m laughing, but it’s not funny,” Secretary Duffy told Fox News on Tuesday morning, when presented with some NYC crime statistics (video below). “So if you include the pickpocketers in those stats, yes, pickpocketers might have gone down, but assaults have gone up,” he said, “by 66% since 2019.”

“It’s dangerous to ride the subway in New York,” Duffy alleged. “And again, if you’re Kathy Hochul, the governor, or if you’re MTA, you don’t ride the subway. This is a war on Middle Americans, working Americans who have to ride the subway, and these people don’t seem to want to make it safe.”

Duffy declared reducing crime on the subways is “very simple,” and charged that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), which oversees the subway system, is “not willing to fight crime like they should.”

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“By the way,” he continued, “when they talk about congestion pricing, yeah, it’s when they say it’s working, it’s working because they’re raising money. That’s why they say it’s working, but congestion is horrible still in the city. That’s because they’re taking roads for buses and for cars, and they’re making them bike lanes.”

He then blasted “liberals.”

“So when you take away lanes, you get more congestion, and then they complain about congestion,” Duffy charged. “It’s just stupid liberals with stupid policies.”

Duffy’s remarks come just days after President Donald Trump’s attack on New York City mayoral Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani. The President vowed, “I’ll save New York City, and make it “Hot” and “Great” again, just like I did with the Good Ol’ USA!”

Secretary Duffy has targeted New York City’s subway system almost from the start of his tenure. In March, from New Jersey, he blasted New York’s Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul and threatened to pull federal funding from the MTA, which oversees the NYC subway.

“If you want people to take the train, to take transit, then make it safe, make it clean, make it beautiful, make it wonderful, don’t make it a s— h—, which is what she (Hochul) has done,” Duffy said in March, as NJ.com reported. “She could fix it in hours, not days, not weeks, and she chooses not to.”

He also insisted eliminating crime in the NYC subways, which stretch for 665 miles, is “simple.”

“This could be a non-issue, send law enforcement in, kick out the homeless, get rid of the drugs, put cops on the beat, making sure there is no violence, make sure people aren’t afraid of being punched or stabbed or pushed in front of a train,” Duffy said. “This isn’t hard — law enforcement is simple.”

READ MORE: ‘Authoritarian’: Trump Treasury Chief Ripped for Call to Punish Private Citizen’s Speech

According to the MTA, 5.5 million people ride the subways each weekday—nearly 1.7 billion riders annually. There are 472 stations, with the busiest, Times Square, seeing over 65 million riders each year.

In April, Duffy toured the NYC subway with Mayor Eric Adams, denounced the subways as homeless shelters, and again insisted they are unsafe, despite statistics that show crime has dropped by double digits.

The MTA has pushed back strongly.

“Subway crime is down, ridership is up, and congestion pricing is working,” said MTA chief of policy and external relations, John McCarthy, as the New York Post reported. “We look forward to Secretary Duffy wrapping his head around the facts.”

The Post also reported that “NYPD data shows that overall transit crime is down 3% through June 29, compared to the same period last year — 1,051 incidents to 1,083.”

Critics blasted Secretary Duffy.

“Millions of people ride the subway every day, and every one of them is braver than Sean Duffy, apparently,” wrote attorney Aaron Reichlin-Melnick.

“Millions of people safely ride the subways every day. Just saying,” declared Ken Lovett, a senior advisor to Governor Hochul and a former MTA senior advisor. “And the subways have always, and continue to be, a great equalizer, allowing those who can’t afford cars in NYC to get to their jobs, schools, or groceries.”

Another social media user asked, “Serious question- what role does the federal Secretary of Transportation have regarding local crime?”

Adrian Benepe, a senior executive with a career in government and non-profits, asked, “You scared to ride the subways, son? 5 million people—unarmed men, women and children—ride @NYCTSubway every day. Come to NYC and we will ride together so we can make sure scary bad guys don’t get you.”

David Neary, a filmmaker and archivist added, “There are very few things I do on a daily basis that feel more safe than riding the subway.”

Amateur historian and native New Yorker Russell Drew wrote, “The fact that Sean Duffy is a Cabinet member shows how far we’ve fallen. It used to be that Cabinet members showed professionalism and restraint. Now they go on Fox News to call Americans ‘stupid.’ Unprecedented partisanship. Unprecedented nastiness.”

Watch the video below or at this link.

READ MORE: Democratic Strategist Warns Trump Could Try to Impose Martial Law Before 2026 Midterms

 

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‘Depraved Lie’: White House Claims Democrats Are Blaming Trump for Texas Floods

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July 7, 2025

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An increasingly “anxious” White House is lashing out at Democrats and the media, accusing them—without providing evidence—of blaming President Donald Trump for the catastrophic Texas floods that have killed over 90 people, including many children.

Critics are questioning whether cuts to the National Weather Service (NWS) by the Trump administration hampered accurate forecasting and slowed emergency warnings. Others point to failures by local officials to communicate timely alerts to the flood-stricken area along the Guadalupe River.

“Former federal officials and outside experts have warned for months that President Donald Trump’s deep staffing cuts to the National Weather Service could endanger lives,” the Associated Press reported Monday afternoon. “The Trump administration has cut hundreds of jobs at NWS, with staffing down by at least 20% at nearly half of the 122 NWS field offices nationally and at least a half dozen no longer staffed 24 hours a day. Hundreds more experienced forecasters and senior managers were encouraged to retire early.”

READ MORE: ‘Authoritarian’: Trump Treasury Chief Ripped for Call to Punish Private Citizen’s Speech

“The website for the NWS office for Austin/San Antonio, which covers the region that includes hard-hit Kerr County, shows six of 27 positions are listed as vacant,” the AP also reported, noting, however, that there were the usual number of staff members on hand the night of the flood.

Now, veteran foreign policy journalist Laura Rozen writes that the White House is “very anxious that administration/DOGE massive staffing cuts to national weather service and related agencies not be seen as connected to flooding deaths in Texas, inadequate warning.”

Senate Democratic Minority Leader Chuck Schumer on Monday, in a letter to Roderick Anderson, the Commerce Department’s acting inspector general, urged him to immediately “open an investigation into the scope, breadth, and ramifications of whether staffing shortages at key local National Weather Service (NWS) stations contributed to the catastrophic loss of life and property during the deadly flooding,” The Hill reported.

“He noted that The New York Times reported that key forecasting and coordination positions at the San Antonio and San Angelo offices of the NWS were vacant at the time of the Friday storm,” The Hill also reported. “Those local offices were missing a warning coordination meteorologist, a science officer and a senior hydrologist, among other ‘vital forecasting, meteorology and coordination roles.'”

Only once in Schumer’s letter does he mention Trump, and it is not to blame him for the flooding.

But White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt on Monday strongly suggested Senator Schumer was indeed directly blaming Trump for the flooding.

READ MORE: ‘What First Amendment?’: 140 EPA Workers Suspended After Opposing Trump Agenda

“Unfortunately, in the wake of this once in a generation natural disaster, we have seen many falsehoods pushed by Democrats such as Senator Chuck Schumer and some members of the media. Blaming President Trump for these floods is a depraved lie, and it serves no purpose during this time of national mourning,” Leavitt told reporters (video below).

U.S. Senator Ted Cruz on Monday also falsely claimed that President Trump is being blamed for natural disasters, telling reporters, “you see that with a hurricane, with a tornado, with a wildfire, with this flooding, where people immediately say, ‘Well, the hurricane is Donald Trump’s fault.'”

Critics pushed back at the White House.

“Nobody is blaming Trump for the floods,” wrote journalist and environmentalist Michael Dominowski. “But he did decimate National Weather Service forecast offices, despite being told doing so would hamper the agency’s ability to accurately predict storms. He did it anyway. Look at what happened. Cause/effect is a thing.”

Watch the video below or at this link.

READ MORE: Democratic Strategist Warns Trump Could Try to Impose Martial Law Before 2026 Midterms

 

 

 

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