UPDATE: ENDA passed the Senate today (11-06-13). The bill is not likely to be brought up in the House. Cloture Vote. Final passage Vote.

UPDATE:  Yesterday, by a vote of 61-30, the Senate passed a motion to invoke cloture on the Motion to Proceed to ENDA. This is the first of two cloture votes (the next vote will be the one that counts). Please continue to call your Senators as they will likely be on ENDA all week.

This week, the U.S. Senate is set to begin debate on the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) (S. 815) that will create special privileges for individuals based on sexual orientation and gender identity. For organizations or businesses with 15 or more employees, ENDA will make it illegal to “fail or refuse to hire or to discharge any individual, or otherwise discriminate against any individual ... because of such individual’s actual or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity.”

Under the guise of equality, ENDA creates special rights for homosexual and transgendered individuals and will forbid employers from considering the consequences of this behavior in the workplace. Employers are already being trampled and crushed by a wide variety of federal, state, and local laws and regulations which constrain the way they run their businesses or organizations.

ENDA is particularly concerning because of the ambiguous and broad implications of the bill. It opens employers up to numerous claims of discrimination based on identities that are subjective, self-disclosed, and self-defined unlike race or gender. Employers should not be subject to lawsuits because they are taking into account the behavior of their employees. 

Furthermore, ENDA violates the right of employers, who object to homosexual or transgender behavior for religious reasons, to operate their businesses or organizations according to the dictates of their faith.

This is yet another example of the federal government imposing on employers what the free market can work out itself. For example, The Heritage Foundation reports that 88 percent of Fortune 500 companies prohibit employment decisions based on sexual orientation. Unlike race or gender, sexual orientation and gender identity are subjective, self-disclosed, and self-defined, and employers should not be subject to lawsuits because they are taking into account the behavior of their employees.

TAKE ACTION!

Call and email your Senators and tell them to vote NO on every vote related to ENDA. Eagle Forum will score all votes (Motion to Proceed, Cloture, and Final Passage).