The End of ENDA?

The Employment Nondiscrimination Act (ENDA), one of the most important pieces of LGBT-related legislation this year, won't get a vote before the end of this session of Congress — and that has sparked discussion within the LGBT community about who is to blame.

The Senate will work on up to nine matters before the August recess, but ENDA is not among them, a spokesperson for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid told Keen News Service. (The Defense authorization bill, which includes provisions to repeal Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, is.) When Congress returns from recess on September 13, senators told The Hill, "little legislating will be possible before the election."

Already, LGBT blogs and listservs are beginning to heat up about the matter. The organization GetEqual sent an e-mail to supporters yesterday asking, "Who do you think we should hold accountable?" and offered four choices: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Rep. Barney Frank, Rep. George Miller, or Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

Bil Browning at Bilerico asked of Get Equal's inquiry, "What fresh idiocy is this?" Blaming a key supporter of the bill for its failure is no incentive for the person to work on passing it in the future, he argues.

I agree. We should, of course, hold even our allies accountable if there were specific things they could have done to move a bill and failed to do — but constructive criticism is better than mere finger pointing. I will add that it is a very naive view of the world to reduce ENDA's collapse to the fault of one person or organization. Politics, throughout history, is rarely that simple.

The worst thing we could do is spend time looking for who to blame for the past and not looking ahead to the November elections and beyond. Which ENDA supporters are up for reelection and in jeopardy of their seats? Which new candidates are likely to win and need briefings on the issue? When and how should ENDA best be reintroduced? How can we motivate people to keep up the pressure on their members of Congress?

It is phenomenally disappointing that ENDA will most likely not pass this session, more so because the Democrats could lose control of Congress in November. It will be that much harder to pass ENDA under a Republican majority. The real tragedy, however, would be if we cannot move on and start strategizing for the future.

Photo credit: a2gemma