ACLU, NCLR, and More Groups Drop Support of ENDA

The ACLU is one of a handful of organizations that say they will also drop support for the current version of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act.

BY MICHELLE GARCIA

Following the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force's announcement this morning that it would no longer support the current version of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, the American Civil Liberties Union announced this afternoon that it would also drop its support for the bill.

The announcement was also cosigned by Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders, Lambda Legal, the National Center for Lesbian Rights, and Transgender Law Center. A joint statement from the groups says that the current version of the bill, allowing religiously affiliated employers the ability to discriminate based on sexual orientation and gender identity, has "long been a source of significant concern to us," but the Supreme Court's decision on Burwell v. Hobby Lobby has made it clear that religious exemption provisions are "no longer tenable."

The organizations say that after decades of introducing multiple versions of a bill to ban discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity, the country is due for a suitable one. They say that if this bill were to be passed and signed into law in its current state, it would still leave many LGBT workers without workplace protections.

"Moreover, it actually might lessen non-discrimination protections now provided for LGBT people by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and very likely would generate confusion rather than clarity in federal law," they wrote Tuesday. "Finally, such a discrimination provision in federal law likely would invite states and municipalities to follow the unequal federal lead."

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http://www.advocate.com/enda/2014/07/08/breaking-aclu-nclr-and-more-groups-drop-support-enda