Following a 61-30 bipartisan procedural vote on Monday, the U.S. Senate is poised to pass the historic Employment Non-Discrimination Act — or ENDA, as it’s commonly called — a bill that would ban workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.
The Senate voted in favor of cloture, a procedural move that ends any further debate on the legislation and is intended to thwart any attempted filibusters. A final Senate vote on the bill will take place later this week and is expected to easily pass.
The measure is 17 years in the making. An earlier version of the bill, which only included sexual orientation protections, was initially introduced in 1996. It failed in the Senate by a single vote and there hasn’t been a vote on the legislation since.
Though it will likely be passed by the Senate this time around, the bill’s fate in the Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives is another story. House Speaker John Boehner reaffirmed his opposition to ENDA and said it’s unlikely to even come up for debate by the House.
“The Speaker believes this legislation will increase frivolous litigation and cost American jobs, especially small business jobs,” Boehner’s spokesman Michael Steel said in a statement.
Hallmark has apologized after backlash over its new Christmas ornament, a miniature version of a tacky holiday sweater featuring the lyrics to “Deck the Halls.” The ornament omits the word “gay” from the lyrics, replacing it with the word “fun.” It reads: “Don we now our FUN apparel!”
The company continues to sell the ornament, but issued the following statement after critics took to social media to express their outrage:
We've been surprised at the wide range of reactions expressed about the change of lyrics on this ornament, and we're sorry to have caused so much concern. We never intend to offend or make political statements with our products and in hindsight, we realize we shouldn't have changed the lyrics on the ornament.
Last week, a Tampa teenager was found guilty of the attempted murder of a transgender woman.
In April, Tavares Spencer, 16, initially believing 23-year-old Coko McDonald had been born a female, turned violent after he learned she had actually been born a male. He lured her to an abandoned house where he shot her. Spencer then bragged about the attack to his friends via text messages.
Spencer, who was tried as an adult, was charged with attempted first-degree felony murder, attempted second-degree murder and robbery, as well as a hate crime.
This article appears in Oct 31 – Nov 6, 2013.