LGBT groups ditch support for weakened Employment Non-Discrimination Act

Source: Bay Area Reporter

A growing number of national and statewide LGBT organizations are coming out against the proposed Employment Non-Discrimination Act, saying that while it bans workplace discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity, the federal law also would allow religious organizations to discriminate against LGBTs even in non-ministerial or non-pastoral capacities.

Advocates for LGBT equality maintain the proposed religious exemption, unprecedented in civil rights legislation, would in effect gut the non-discrimination protections.

Last week, Shannon Minter, legal director for the San Francisco-based National Center for Lesbian Rights, said in an email that NCLR now "strongly oppose(s) any religious exemption in ENDA or any other federal, state, or local non-discrimination law that is broader than the religious exemption that already exists in federal civil rights laws."

... In addition to NCLR and the Transgender Law Center's opposition to ENDA, GetEqual and Queer Nation no longer support its current version.

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