Employment Rights Bill Heads to Congress

LGBT people face real discrimination in the workplace, yet there is still no federal law that expressly forbids this kind of discrimination. The federal Employment Nondiscrimination Act (ENDA)* seeks to put an end to this. Executive Director Kevin M. Cathcart submitted an open letter to congress urging for the passage of this bill.

Discrimination in the workplace is the number one issue for callers to Lambda Legal's Help Desk, with more than 1,000 people calling us about workplace rights in 2006. In Lambda Legal's 2005 Workplace Fairness Survey, 39 percent of respondents reported experiencing some form of discrimination or harassment in the workplace during the past five years because of their sexual orientation. "ENDA would ensure that in most workplaces a person's qualifications and job performance, rather than sexual orientation or gender identity, will be the factors that determine success on the job," Cathcart writes. "Fairness and equal opportunity in employment are fundamental American principles and they should apply to all people in this country."

Read the full text of his letter.

*ENDA is a proposed federal law that would prohibit private employers from discriminating in employment or employment opportunities on the basis of actual or perceived sexual orientation and gender identity.