Department Of Labor Announces New Regs Protecting Transgender Employees

Newly issued Department of Labor regulations have added gender identity to the class of employment protections. Via press release:

The U.S. Department of Labor today announced its full commitment to implementing equal employment opportunity policies for all department employees and applicants. The policies ensure equal protections for all employees and applicants regardless of race; color; religion; national origin; sex, including pregnancy and gender identity; age; disability, whether physical or mental; genetic information; status as a parent; sexual orientation; or other non-merit factor. New, robust statements signed by Secretary Solis include updated policies on prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sex, including gender identity and pregnancy. Secretary Solis strongly supports fair equal employment opportunity policies, and creating diversity and fairness in the workplace. “I am expressing my personal commitment to ensure that the U.S. Department of Labor is a model workplace, free from unlawful discrimination and harassment, which fosters a work environment that fully utilizes the capabilities of every employee,” said Secretary Solis. “It is my goal that we achieve and maintain a high-quality, diverse workforce at all organizational levels throughout the department.”

Pregnancy is also new to the above list.

ENDA Reintroduced In U.S. Senate

The Employment Non-Discrimination Act will be reintroduced in the Senate today.

U.S. Senators Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., Mark Kirk, R-Ill., Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, announced that they introduced the fully inclusive Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which would prohibit most employers across the country from discriminating against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender workers. The bill, known as ENDA, would make it illegal under federal law for employers with at least 15 employees to discriminate against, harass, or fire anyone due to their sexual orientation or gender identity. While surveys show that over 60 percent of Americans overwhelmingly support workplace protections for LGBT people, it still remains legal in more than half the country for employees and job applicants to be discriminated against based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

While ENDA has a slim chance of success in the Senate, it is doomed in the House, where it was reintroduced last week.

HAWAII: Trans Rights Bill Passes Senate

By a vote of 22-2, Hawaii's state Senate has approved a bill banning employment discrimination against transgender residents. The bill has already passed in the state House.

Discrimination against transgender individuals is already illegal in Hawaii for housing, public accommodations and employment, but the ban on employment discrimination has only been established by rulings of the Civil Rights Commission and has not been written into the state statute. The legislation moves to gay-friendly Democratic Gov. Neil Abercromie. Upon the governor's signature, Hawaii will join 12 states and the District of Columbia to provide transgender employment, house and public accommodation protections.

Welcome news, of course, but note that such protections only exist in 12 states. And ENDA remains a faint dream...

PhoboQuotable - Richard Land

"So a six-foot guy who shaves every day can come in wearing a dress, high heels, and earrings and tell his employer that he's really a woman and he wants to use the women's bathroom facilities, and there's nothing the employer can do to stop him if he wants to do business in Metro. Clearly the Metro Council members, a majority of them succumbed to the intense lobbying of a minority that wants special rights for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people." - Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention's "ethics commission," responding to Nashville's decision not to do business with companies that discriminate against their LGBT employees.

RELATED: In 2008 Land named the "homosexual agenda" as one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

Target Issues Gay-Positive Message

A little damage control from Target: "Whether we're gay, straight, or identify any other way...we love whoever it is we love."

(Tipped by JMG reader Donald)

RELATED: Target has lost its lawsuit against the gay group it was trying to stop from collecting marriage equality petitions outside its San Diego stores.

Judge Barton said Target and its powerful law firm of Morrison & Foerster, which has offices globally, failed to show sufficient evidence that the big-box retailer’s business was suffering as a result of the petitioners. “This million-dollar law firm overreached in this case,” Watson said. “They got beat by a lawyer fresh out of law school and a volunteer lawyer.” Canvass For A Cause team members were out today at Target stores in Mission Valley in San Diego and in Encinitas. “We are celebrating our freedom of speech rights today,” Watson said.

Target now has a track record of 121-1 against groups canvassing outside its California stores. They are expected to appeal today's ruling, their first such loss.

ENDA Reintroduced In House

The doomed-from-the-start 2011 edition of ENDA was introduced yesterday by Rep. Barney Frank. Chris Geidner reports at Metro Weekly:

At the end of the 111th Congress, 203 members of the 435-member body had joined Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) in co-sponsoring the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. The jobs protection bill, though only 14 members away from having a majority of the House as co-sponsors, never made it out of the House Education and Labor Committee chaired by ENDA co-sponsor Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.). Today, the bill, which would prohibit most employers from discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation of gender identity, was reintroduced by Frank with only a few more than half that number -- 111 co-sponsors.

The HRC's Fred Sainz tells Geidner: "It's a start. The goal will be to work back up to a number that exceeds last session's number with a greater number of Republicans. We know that this is a building session, and frankly, I wouldn't measure success by the number of co-sponsors alone but by the amount of education and outreach we do to members."

HomoQuotable - B. Daniel Blatt

"Americans know that advancing employees by merit is what 'wins' for business. And that is why most employers don’t discriminate against gay people. Once again, government shouldn’t be telling entrepreneurs how to run their enterprises. They don’t need a nanny state to tell them as much. If a company discriminates against quality gay people, it will suffer in the marketplace, with a lower caliber of worker and a reduced efficiency of operation.

"Alas that Log Cabin cannot put forward a conservative position on gay issues and still feels instead it just has to join the gay groups in looking for solutions to the perceived problems in our community. With increasing social acceptance of gay people, with more and more corporations adopting non-discrimination policies and offering domestic partnership benefits, ENDA is a solution in search of a problem. And conservatives would do well to oppose it." - B. Daniel Blatt, Gay Patriot blogger and GOProud member.