ENDA - Work place is the wrong place for sexual politics

Let your members of congress know you oppose ENDA

September 3, 2009

The Employment Non-Discrimination Act of 2009 (ENDA) is a proposed federal law which would have the effect, according to the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), of "making it illegal to fire, refuse to hire or refuse to promote employees simply based on a person's sexual orientation or gender identity."

ENDA (H.R. 2981 - H.R. 3017 - S. 1584) has been changed from the "gay-only" version the House passed in 2007 to include language banning job discrimination based on "gender identity" as well as sexual orientation - complete with special protections for the transgendered. It would mean your child's teacher, if he were a male but "felt" like a female, could go into the women's bathroom.

ENDA is aimed at providing heightened protections for a particular sexual behavior - homosexuality. It would grant special consideration on the basis of "sexual orientation" that would not be extended to other employees in the workplace.

ENDA violates employers' and employees' Constitutional freedoms of religion, speech and association. The proposed legislation would prohibit employers from taking their deeply held beliefs into account when making personnel decisions. This would pose an unprecedented intrusion by the federal government into people's lives.

ENDA would approvingly bring private behavior considered immoral by many into the public square. By declaring that all sexual preferences are equally valid, ENDA would change national policy supporting marriage and family.

HRC claims that ENDA does not apply to religious organizations, but the 2007 version of the law only provided a religious exemption for religious positions that were involved in actual teaching or proclamation of doctrine.

Such a limited exemption, some pro-family legal experts argue, would mean that a Christian school that was hiring a secretary, janitor or football coach would not be allowed to reject a homosexual who applied for the slot.

Christian concerns about ENDA are not paranoia. As with the case of hate crime laws, when ENDA-style measures have been passed in other places around the world, religious institutions quickly come under pressure.

ENDA is just one of many ways that gay activists are manipulating law and policy to force Americans to endorse their lifestyle and to muzzle and punish those who disagree.