ENDA Likely to Face More Troubles Ahead

Following the reintroduction of the Employment Non-discrimination Act (ENDA), which has languished in Congress for long years, the bill is likely to face some more obstacles as Senator Rob Portman has reportedly asserted that he will not support the bill in its current form.

According to several media sources, during a brief interview, Portman claimed that although he totally supports laws that protect lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) from discrimination, there are few things that prevents him from supporting the bill.

Media sources have confirmed that Portman believes that the bill could likely face heavy disputes ahead due to the way that it is currently written. One more thing that bothers Portman is his concerns about religious liberty. In his own words quoted herein, Portman said: “I'm also a strong believer in religious freedom and I think an entity that has certain religious tenets should not be required to change those tenets because of this law or others,"

For those who do not know, the said bill that would protect the LGBT individuals from employment discrimination once it passed and become a law exempts religious organizations.

For the record, the current version of the bill includes the condition as follows:

"This Act shall not apply to a corporation, association, educational institution or institution of learning, or society that is exempt from the religious discrimination provisions of title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 pursuant (42 U.S.C. 2000e et seq.) to section 702(a) or 703(e)(2) of such Act (42 U.S.C. 2000e-1(a), 2000e-2(e)(2))."

Ironically, Portman was the first Senate Republican to support gay marriage but so far, he is backing off the reintroduced bill. Meanwhile, in its stance, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) believes that ENDA’s current religious exemption needs to be narrowed since it is too broad. Consequently, a Los Angeles workplace discrimination lawyer here somehow agrees. He agrees with the ACLU that although religious liberty is indeed very significant, it does not however give anybody the right to discriminate against the others.