ChicagoTribune.com – By Gabrielle Russon –
Washington BureauAnti-discrimination protections in bill won’t cover group
Washington – A bill forbidding workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation — which gay activists see as a milestone in three decades of activism — is moving steadily through the House, encouraging advocates who hope to make advances now that Democrats control Congress.
But the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, or ENDA, has been met by impassioned resistance, and it’s not from conservatives opposed to gay rights. Rather, transgender activists, backed by many in the gay community, are angry that the bill’s sponsors, in a bow to political reality, stripped out protections for those who are born as one gender but live as the other.