The Human Rights Campaign today reiterated support for ENDA — including its large religious exemptions — despite seven LGBT and civil rights organizations announcing they are dropping support for the legislation.
HRC is standing defiantly in the face of at least seven LGBT legal and civil rights organizations after today’s shocking announcement that the groups are dropping their support of ENDA. Human Rights Campaign vice president Fred Sainz reiterated his support of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act today, after having issued a statement one month ago.
“Without the important legal protections that would come with legislation like ENDA, millions of LGBT people across America will continue to face the very real threat of workplace discrimination for no other reason than their sexual orientation or gender identity,†Sainz said, according to the Washington Blade in early June. “We will continue to work with our partner organizations to ensure that LGBT Americans are not subject to discrimination.â€
But those partner organizations are not on board the nation’s largest LGBT rights organization’s boat.
Today, after the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders (GLAD), Lambda Legal, the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR), the Transgender Law Center, and the AFL-CIO’s Pride at Work all announced they are dropping support of ENDA after the Supreme Court’s Hobby Lobby ruling, HRC again stood firm.
“HRC supports ENDA because it will provide essential workplace protections to millions of LGBT people,†Sainz said again today.
The loose coalition of LGBT orgs — sans HRC — fear that passage of ENDA now, after the Supreme Court turning the concept of religious liberty on its head, could turn ENDA into a religious license to discriminate. That concern was not mentioned by HRC today, or previously.
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