What happened with ENDA in the fall of 2007? The changes, the accomplishments, the lessons learned, and the future...
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By Matt Foreman, Esq.
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Matt Foreman was the Executive Director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force from May 2003 until April 2008.
During his tenure, the Task Force's budget and staff have doubled, to over $9 million and over 50, respectively; more than $2 million has been awarded to state and local LGBT organizations; the organization's public profile has increased significantly; and two new departments, including one focused on federal affairs, have been launched.
He has worked for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights for 25 years, including as Executive Director of the Empire State Pride Agenda for six years, and Executive Director of the New New York City Gay and Lesbian Anti-Violence Project for another six.
He is a 1982 graduate of New York University School of Law.
Foreman lives with his partner of 16 years, Francisco De Leon, in Manhattan.
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The struggle in the fall of 2007 over keeping the Employment Non Discrimination Act (ENDA) inclusive of our entire community was been one of our movement's most wrenching and divisive. Yet, it needed to happen. As a result, the tectonic plates that previously have dictated how and who drives our agenda have shifted profoundly and, I think, positively.
When Rep. Barney Frank summarily announced in October 2007 that gender identity would be stripped out of ENDA and the sexual orientation-only bill would be advanced to the house floor for a vote, something unprecedented happened. The grassroots backbone of our movement rose up and said, "No."
While I am incredibly proud of the Task Force's leadership in all of this, it did not take any cajoling, any "education," or much soul-searching by hundreds of organizations coast-to-coast. Instead, the reaction was visceral: the move to abandon gender identity protection was politically inexplicable and morally unconscionable.
The reaction came from our large national organizations, from the statewide LGBT political advocacy groups in states lacking any kind of nondiscrimination protections, from PFLAG chapters, from college groups, from state and local elected officials. A true United ENDA.
House leadership and members were caught unawares. Angry calls, letters and emails poured in. We were told repeatedly that House members had never, ever heard from our community in such numbers and with such passion. And this wasn't for one day or for one week, but it kept up for weeks.
In the end, House leadership had to defer taking action on the stripped-down ENDA not once but on four separate occasions. That is beyond remarkable - and beyond sad that so much energy needed to be devoted to this struggle.
It wasn't pretty. On the House floor, Rep. Frank mocked the legal opinion of Lambda Legal on the potential impact on gay people by stripping out gender identity protections. Ugly emails and posts flooded the blogosphere. We were all branded as misty-eyed ideologues with no understanding of the political process. Even now, we're told we were "standing in the way" of getting much needed protections to gay people in the 30 states that now lack them.
Along the way, there were a host of big and small betrayals. That's politics. Along the way, we lost control of the message because we refused to hit back hard against false premises or engage in internecine warfare. We knew we couldn't burn bridges to the future.
There's no point in recriminations or finger-pointing. Instead, we're focusing on the positives, and there are many.
ACCOMPLISHMENTS
First off, it's unlikely that Congressional leaders will ever again unilaterally decide the course of LGBT rights legislation and expect we'll all just fall in line like grateful subjects. In this awful instance, none of us were consulted. Not those of us who have sat through years of tedious negotiating meetings over the language of gender identity language in ENDA. Not the Human Rights Campaign, which has invested tens of millions of dollars in ENDA over the last 13 years. Not even Rep. Tammy Baldwin, who brilliantly steered an inclusive hate crimes bill through two votes in Congress - one under Republican leadership and one under Democrats. After this storm, I can't imagine we'll be treated so dismissively in the future.
Second, our grassroots movement flexed its muscle and the Hill took note. The people and organizations that have been fighting and winning at the state and local level (while we've endured three decades of stasis in Washington) brought their political savvy to bear federally as never before. Just a few years ago, this could never have occurred. But - thanks to the growing investments in our statewide advocacy organization, so ably led by the Equality Federation - we now have powerful leaders and networks that can be tapped. Going forward, this is a force that can press our federal agenda forward, unfiltered.
Third, United ENDA brought out just how far our movement has progressed in its understanding and embrace of gender identity issues and transgender people. The folks that are actually making legislative progress at the state and local level now "get" that gender identity has to be included so that new laws protect gay and lesbian people who are most vulnerable to discrimination, namely "sissy" men and "butch" women. Perhaps more important, because so many gay, lesbian and bisexual local and state leaders have worked alongside transgender leaders for so long, jettisoning anyone was unthinkable. I recognize this commitment is not shared or understood by broad swaths of the gay and lesbian population. It is, however, and fortunately, a common value and principle of our activist core - the people who get things done for all of us. We can all celebrate this reality.
WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?
While it's expecting a lot from many who feel utterly betrayed, we need to move forward without bitterness or rancor. That means accepting at face value the statements of Speaker Pelosi, Rep. Frank and the Human Rights Campaign that they are deeply committed to an inclusive ENDA. We're simply not going to get what everyone says they want if we remain divided. It doesn't matter now if we had the votes to pass an inclusive ENDA in September 2007, which we in United ENDA and Rep. Baldwin believe to be the case. That's behind us.
Rather, we - together - need to devote tremendous energy over the next year to getting us back to where we were in September and then some, so that come 2009 no one will be able to dispute the fact that we have the votes to pass an inclusive ENDA. This will require targeted and intensive work during this election cycle in 40-50 congressional districts. We need to press the importance of an inclusive ENDA at campaign appearances and forums; we need to get solid commitments of support from candidates; we need to volunteer and be visible in campaigns; we need the pressure to come from the grass-roots and grass-tops.
In the highly-unlikely event a U.S. Representative is attacked by anti-gay forces for his or her vote in support of the stripped-down ENDA, we need to strike back quickly. And post-election, we need to be ready with the facts to prove that not a single candidate suffered at the polls for his or her ENDA vote.
I am confident that a re-invigorated United ENDA can orchestrate this campaign and make it a success. The only question is will everyone else come on board and join us.
