Jennifer Levi [Senior Staff Attorney, Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders (GLAD)]: "When Representative Sanchez voted against advancing out of committee the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) she made the understatement, "We could have done better." If passed, the bill advanced by the committee would create law that prohibits discrimination in employment on the basis of sexual orientation. However, it is notably a bill without the support of any of the visible and vocal national, state or local lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) organizations. The community unified behind a comprehensive bill that would have prohibited not just sexual orientation discrimination but gender identity discrimination as well. The gender identity provision would ensure that transgender people would be protected as well as lesbians, gay men, and bisexuals who face discrimination not based on their relationships but based on stereotypes about how gay people look and act.

While Congressional leadership abandoned the gender identity provision shortly after a hearing on the bill, the LGBT community was not satisfied with that decision. Within days of HR3685 being introduced, hundreds of organizations representing thousands of members mobilized in opposition to leadership's decision. The outpouring of community support for the inclusive approach reflected a grassroots mobilization, the likes of which have rarely been seen in recent times. Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders (GLAD), a New England-wide legal organization that focuses in impact litigation to establish rights, played a central part in that mobilization effort.

GLAD believes that the reason the community so swiftly and decisively responded to the stripping of the gender identity provision from the original bill (HR 2015) was a wide-scale appreciation for the fact that the terms sexual orientation and gender identity are overlapping concepts that cannot be neatly divided. Moreover, any effort to do so would result in an unprincipled and legally unsound division of the community. Obviously, the Committee on Labor and Education disagreed and advanced the bill over the dissent of four Democrats who opposed it because of the omission of gender identity.

In a somewhat late-breaking development but just shortly before the committee vote, Representative Tammy Baldwin announced that with the support of leadership she would advance on the floor a gender identity amendment that seeks to repair the damage done by the Committee. That vote is scheduled for next week."