LavenderMagazine.com – By Libby Post
The recent tumult over whether the federal Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) would pass if it included protections for the transgender community brings to mind Otto von Bismarck’s old political chestnut: “Laws are like sausages. It’s better not to see them being made.”
Just because Democrats hold a healthy majority in the US House of Representatives and a slim majority in the US Senate that doesn’t mean legislation to make the lives of GLBT people better is just going to sail through Congress.
The Matthew Shepard Act, which adds sexual orientation and gender identity to the federal hate-crimes statute, faced stiff opposition from the radical Christian right, which called it the “Thoughts Crimes Bill” and outright lied about its impact on religious freedom.