Thursday, July 30, 2009

Matthew Shepard Act Passes!

Years ago, Matthew Shepard was robbed, beaten into a coma, and left to die hanging on a fence post outside Laramie, Wyoming. I’ve had the pleasure and honor of meeting Judy Shepard, Matthew’s mom, who tours the country speaking out against hate crimes at colleges, offices, and other locations. Matthew’s attackers were not tried under hate crime laws; for this reason, as well as the fact that both Matthew and Judy are huge icons for the queer community, the new GLBT-inclusive hate crimes law is unofficially referred to in his honor (the bill’s ‘real’ title, “Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009,” is much longer and much less meaningful).

The bill will expand the standing hate crimes law (which hasn’t changed much since 1969 when it was first signed into law) to include gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, and disability. Currently, crimes committed on the basis of these traits—such as the murder of Matthew Shepard, as well as the murders of those individuals honored every Transgender Day of Remembrance—are not considered hate crimes. That means the murderers are not tried under hate crime laws, which call for harsher punishments and the involvement of federal authorities. Without hate crime laws, local authorities can simply choose to ‘look the other way.’ This bill will stop that practice, and will also require the FBI to track information and publish statistics on hate crimes against transgender people, which it currently does not do (although it does for other groups). Lastly, this bill will provide funding for the investigations of hate crimes against GLBT and disabled people.

This bill is different from ENDA, which makes it illegal to discriminate against GLBT and disabled people in the workplace; however, it follows the same basic principles of looking at these groups of people as equals worthy of equal protections, rather than as second-class citizens as many people in these groups currently feel.

The bill was passed just a few days ago, and is on its way to President Obama, who has pledged to sign it into law!

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

What is ENDA Up to Now?

The ENDA (Employment Non-Discrimination Act) bill calls for equal protection for queer and disabled people in the workplace. For the queer community, ENDA would place ‘sexual orientation,’ ‘gender identity,’ and ‘gender expression’ on the list of traits that employers cannot discriminate against. ENDA can help our community in more than just workplace protection; this could help get the ball rolling on hate crime legislation, and would also help enable queer people to share their work benefits with their partners and families.

ENDA has been around for a long time— maybe fifteen years?—but it wasn’t close to passing until 2007, the year that saw the first Democratic majority in Congress in roughly a million years (or eight, who’s counting?). The Human Rights Campaign, who was spearheading the bill at the time, figured that the bill would have a higher chance of being passed without the word ‘transgender’ in the mix, because it was so controversial. For the benefit of the majority, the HRC dropped the minority ‘T’ from ‘GLBT,’ with good intentions that sparked a huge outrage in the trans community. The us-versus-them debate that broke out in the queer community as a result of that single legal move was phenomenal, and many heads are arguably still reeling from the impact.

If ENDA’s been around for virtually forever, what’s the big deal now? For one thing, the topic of protection against sexual orientation discrimination has been appearing in Congress again and again since the seventies, if not earlier, and is finally being debated NOW. For another, President Obama has pledged to sign this bill into law—if it passes both Houses.

A trans-inclusive ENDA is currently being debated in the House. Right now, the topic of queer discrimination is up to state lawmakers. Twelve states have adopted or developed their own version of ENDA that protects GLBT people in the workplace; seven more states have ‘sexual orientation’ protection only. The law, when passed, will make non-discrimination a national policy. ENDA will not apply to religious organizations (duh), small (as in, family-owned) businesses, or (of course) the military. It will, however, make it a whole lot harder to deny employment or the benefits that come with it to queer applicants. This is especially important to the transgender community; many transfolk have been denied jobs on the basis of their gender identity, and even those who are out in their workplaces are often unable to fully enjoy benefits such as healthcare that their coworkers are able to take advantage of.