biting dust

Did Pushing Ahead on DADT Sink Chances of ENDA Passing? No. It Was Destined to Fail Anyhow

Didn’t Gay Inc. already admit defeat in securing passage of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act? Yup! But that was sooo 2009. We’re in a new year! Things are looking up, right? Heh. C’mon. Is it really news that these same organizations and political operators have all but given up on passing ENDA this year?

Without the 60 votes to block a filibuster, a “small corps of LGBT political insiders, speaking on condition that they not be identified, believe the Employment Non-Discrimination Act is headed for almost certain defeat this year,” reports D.C. Agenda. You knew that was coming.

But according to these sources — who won’t speak on the record, despite D.C. Agenda claiming they are “breaking what some have called an informal code of silence adopted by mainline LGBT political organizations” — the battle was lost even before Scott Brown snatched the Senate seat in Massachusetts. Which an observation about as astute as saying Apple’s new iPad didn’t meet expectations. It’s like, YEAH PEOPLE, the majority of Democrats lawmakers haven’t had our backs on this for years, and what’s changed?

Certainly not installing Barack Obama as president. Certainly not commandeering control of both congressional houses. And certainly not with Obama announcing he’s going to expend whatever political capital he has left on repealing Don’t Ask Don’t tell, effectively shifting ENDA further down the line. (Which is funny, because wasn’t the Human Rights Campaign accused of advising the White House to move on ENDA before DADT? Yup!)

So here we are, in 2010, with the midterm elections soon upon us, and with no more movement on ENDA that we had last year. And with lawmakers scared of what a vote on DADT will do to their re-election chances, you can be sure few of them will be willing to publicly back a bill that’s so obviously needed, but oh-so-risky to political careers.

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