No doubt Democrat Hillary Clinton's a happy camper today. The Senator just got another homo-politico vote from Barney Frank, who proudly threw his political weight behind her candidacy yesterday.

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The New York Times spilled some ink today to discuss the recently passed Employment Non-Discrimination Act. Not surprisingly, the left-leaning paper urges the Senate and President Bush to move forward with the law and protect America's gay people. The paper also takes some time to celebrate Barney Frank and Tammy Baldwin, the homo-politicos who helped push ENDA's painful passage. Here's what the gray lady says about the controversial trans-exclusion:

Transgender people should be protected from discrimination, and we hope they soon will be. It would have been regrettable, however, had the sponsors refused to compromise, and as a result, lost the chance to extend basic civil rights to the millions of Americans who would be covered by the current bill.

Throughout American history, civil rights have been achieved in incremental steps. The landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964, for example, barred race discrimination in public accommodations, an enormous step forward at the time. It wasn’t until the next year that Congress protected voting rights in a separate bill.

We bet the NY Times five dollars trans-rights aren't passed next year. Or the year after. Regardless, they've got a point, even if they're taking a bit of an overly optimistic view.

We never thought we'd see the day! Gay City News reports that the non-inclusive Employment Non-Discrimination Act will go to House vote this week:

Gay City News has confirmed that the federal Employment Non-Discrimination Act, delayed for the past month due to debate over whether or not the gay rights measure should include protections against bias motivated by an individual's gender identity or expression, will go before the House Rules Committee at 5 p.m. on Monday, November 5.

According to Steve Adamske, a spokesman for out gay Massachusetts Democrat Barney Frank, ENDA's lead sponsor, the Committee will take up the measure in the form it was scaled back to in late September, at Frank's recommendation, to include only sexual orientation - and not gender identity and expression - as a protected class.

Consideration of the bill by Rules signals leadership's conclusion that it has the votes to win passage on the floor, in spite of the potential for defection by an unknown number of Democrats insisting that only an ENDA that includes protections for gender identity and expression be moved.

Floor action on ENDA could come as early as Tuesday, but is clearly expected some day this week.

It's unclear whether the House will consider Tammy Baldwin's trans-inclusive amendment, which Frank once supported. Of course, no one - gays and anti-gays alike - supports the non-inclusive bill, so who knows what will happen if the House actually sends it on through…

A little over a week after endorsing an orientation-only ENDA, homo-politico Barney Frank's changing his stance. The Representative from Massachusetts released a statement supporting colleague Tammy Baldwin's trans-inclusive amendment.

The decision to offer such an amendment came out of a Caucus which Chairman George Miller held of the Democratic Members of the Education and Labor Committee. After some discussion, it became clear that offering such an amendment would offer us the best chance to achieve Speaker Pelosi's goal of adopting in the House the most inclusive ENDA bill for which majority support existed.
…
we will now be able to [discuss the matter] in a procedural setting that allows us to maximize support for an inclusive bill without endangering our chances of getting any bill at all."

So, he wouldn't step up and fight for trans rights last week, but now that someone else did the dirty work, he's all about it? Forgive us for not applauding.

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As an openly gay United States Representative, one would expect Barney Frank to come out in support of a fully inclusive Employment Non-Discrimination Act.

Unfortunately, he has not.

In fact, it's been quite the opposite: Frank said he'll support an act excluding our trans allies. While people may have been surprised, the politico issued a press release yesterday reminding people that he's played this game before…

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Representative Barney Frank can rest easy tonight. Conservative homo-journo Andrew Sullivan also thinks a neutered ENDA deserves a go. Well, sort of:

The transgendered movement is so important that it's worth subjecting gay people to many more years of employment insecurity. Not so urgent, after all, is it? Gay people in red states without employment protection have to wait while pomo lefty activists in cushy gay lobby jobs preen about p.c. purity.

I'm no big supporter of ENDA and don't truly believe it will make much of a difference. Nonetheless, holding it up for transgendered inclusion after two decades of waiting seems bizarre even for the p.c. hell that is the gay rights establishment. I can't believe I'm with Barney Frank on this one. But I am.

Why are we not surprised? Sullivan's not exactly the post child for equality, compassion or humanity.

• Openly gay Representative Tammy Baldwin on ENDA:

I have always been a strong supporter of guaranteeing full civil rights for all in the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. My work on this issue will continue until these protections become law.
…
I am under no illusions about the challenges of achieving our goal. But, the quest for advancement of civil rights in our nation has
never been easy. It is precisely because of the discrimination these groups experience that this legislation is needed.

Baldwin's far ballsier than fellow homo-politico Barney Frank.

• Researcher wins prize for robot marriage thesis: "Intimate Relationships with Artificial Partners".

• Janet Jackson puts out weave fire at In Touch party. Jackson's brother, of course, made headlines when his hair caught on fire while filming a 1983 Pepsi commercial. Weird.

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I have a very profound difference with people who say we should…I do not think you deny people protection if you can. A sexual orientation-only bill would be very helpful.

Here's the video in all its impassioned unequal glory.

Keep tomorrow at 11:30am open, 'cause openly gay Representative Barney Frank's holding a press conference tomorrow to yell at "single-issue factions". We wonder what that means. Here's the curt, fatherly press release:

Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) will hold a press conference tomorrow, Thursday, October 11, at 11:30 a.m. The subject will be the obligation of the Democratic Party to govern responsibly when confronted by a demand to react emotionally by a deeply committed, single-issue faction insisting on putting ideological purity over achievable advancement of our values.

The specific example discussed will be the current demand that the Democratic leadership kill the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), which has been the prime legislative goal for gay and lesbian people for over 30 years, because we do not have the votes to include people who are transgender.

Does this mean we're grounded, or something?

Everyone and their fairy godmother's got an opinion on the ENDA/GENDA political showdown, not least of all our trans allies.

Los Angeles Times' Christine Daniels, the all-star sportswriter once called Mike Prenner, spilled some ink against Nancy Pelosi and Barney Frank's political foul. Using a sports analogy, Daniels writes:

The basketball expression for it is "low-bridge." It is the dirtiest foul in the sport, the act of suddenly taking out a player's legs as he or she leaps for a rebound, pass or jump shot. It's a cheap and devious move, in that it may look spontaneous but is almost always premeditated — and almost always a prelude to a fight.

That's what happened to the transgender community on Sept. 26. We were low-bridged. By — of all people — Massachusetts Rep. Barney Frank and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Did Daniels get claws implanted, as well?

The gay litigators over at Lambda Legal are contesting representative Barney Frank's short-sighted interpretation of the new and unimproved ENDA:

On October 1, 2007, Lambda Legal issued a preliminary analysis of the differences between H.R. 2015 (the version of ENDA that was introduced into Congress in April of this year) and the new, less protective version of ENDA recently introduced to replace it.

In your press release issued late Wednesday in response to our comments, you asserted that our analysis was flawed and that the new version of ENDA only omits reference to people
who are transgender but "makes no other change in the wording on this point."

Unfortunately, that is not true, because the definition of "gender identity" that was removed from the originally proposed bill included "…gender-related identity, appearance, or mannerisms or other gender-related characteristics of an individual."

Needless to say, Lambda's sticking to their original assertion.

Read the entire letter, after the jump.

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Openly gay Representative Barney Frank contests Lambda Legal's assertion that the new and incapacitated ENDA doesn't fully protect the gays:

The sexual orientation language in H.R. 3685 is the same language that has been in every version of ENDA since its first introduction in 1994. There is nothing in case law or in ENDA’s history to indicate that absent gender identity coverage, the bill would inadequately protect gay, lesbian and bisexual people from discrimination.
…
No words have been added or subtracted that make it easier to fire a gay man because of some effort to transform homophobia into dislike of effeminacy and I believe the law continues to be a strong bulwark against that.

As for religious exemptions, Frank insists he and his political peers always intended on expanding their breadth.

The Human Rights Campaign released a statement against Barney Frank's revamped Employment Non-Discrimination Act. Says President Joe Solmonese:

Since 2004, HRC has had in place a policy that supports only a fully inclusive version of ENDA and the Board of Directors voted to reaffirm that position. Therefore, we are not able to support, nor will we encourage Members of Congress to vote against, the newly introduced sexual orientation only bill. And will continue working with our allies in Congress to support a comprehensive, legislative strategy to achieve passage of a fully inclusive ENDA as quickly as possible.

So, they won't support the bill, but they won't press politicos to fight for equal rights. Way to ride that fence, guys.