Raymond Smith, Chairman of the Board
Bell Atlantic Corporation of Virginia

The American Civil Liberties Union joined Thursday with representatives of major businesses and religious organizations to urge the United States Senate to adopt legislation that would outlaw discrimination in the workplace based on sexual orientation.

The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force added its applause for testimonies being heard through the Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee, under its Chairman, Jim Jeffords (R-VT), and ranking Democratic member Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA) on the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA).

No witnesses testified against the bill. Noting this, Jeffords said he was surprised, given the amount of controversy the bill has generated in the past. "My staff scoured the country for witnesses with differing opinions, to no avail," he said. "Even those who had expressed a desire to testify [against it] changed their minds. I know that we have made a number of improvements to address the criticism of the 104th Congress; I guess I just didn't realize how thoroughly successful we were."

"We look forward to the day when gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people no longer have to fear the loss of their jobs on the basis of their sexual orientation," stated NGLTF executive director Kerry Lobel. "When that day comes, our society will have taken another step forward in assuring justice and equality for all of its citizens."

The Committee held a hearing Thursday on the proposed employment non-discrimination act, which fell one vote shy of winning passage in the Senate in 1996. This year, the proposed legislation was reintroduced with a record number of co-sponsors in both the House and the Senate.

Witnesses at the Thursday morning hearing included individuals who had lost their jobs because of their sexual orientation. They testified that discrimination is not only wrong but it is also painful and it poses a great hardship - emotionally and economically--for them and for others in their situation.

The witnesses included David Horowitz, an attorney from Phoenix, who, when he told the Mesa, Ariz., city prosecutor, a prospective employer, that he was gay, the prosecutor said, "Well, we may have a problem with that," and the job offer evaporated.

Doug Retterer, an assembly line worker at a Whirlpool plant in Marion, Ohio, endured more than a decade of severe anti-gay job discrimination, including being called a "fag" and a "queer" to his face and having his supervisors speculate about his sex life in front of him and other workers. Retterer began to have panic attacks and bouts of uncontrollable weeping, eventually becoming so depressed that he has been certified totally disabled by doctors and the Social Security Administration.

Sue Kirchofer of Seattle was fired from her job after she used her vacation to attend the Gay Games as a soccer player. At a staff meeting after Kirchofer was terminated, the company owner told employees "if she can afford to go to the Gay Games, she can afford to find another job."

The business community was also represented at the hearing. Raymond Smith, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Bell Atlantic Corporation of Virginia, and Thomas Grote, Chief Operating Officer of Donatos Pizza in Blacklick, Ohio both stated that adopting and implementing strong anti-discrimination policies for all of their employees is morally right. They also said non-discrimination makes economic sense from a business point of view, noting that 320 of the top 500 businesses in this country have adopted anti-discrimination policies which include sexual orientation.

Support for employment non-discrimination crosses party lines. According to a bipartisan poll conducted for the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) in April 1997, 75 percent of Republicans believe that gay people should have equal rights in terms of job opportunities--up from 64 percent of Republicans who felt that way during the 1994 elections. And support for ENDA itself is at record levels--bridging partisan and regional differences. According to the April poll, 68 percent of voters support passage of ENDA--including 59 percent of Republicans, 69 percent of independents and 79 percent of Democrats.

In corroborating testimony submitted to the Labor Committee Thursday, Christopher E. Anders, a Legislative Counsel with the ACLU's Washington National Office, urged the Senate to adopt the landmark legislation.

"ENDA will help ensure that the ability to get and keep a job will depend only on ability and willingness to work," Anders said. "It affirms the basic principle that people ought to be employed based on merit."

In its testimony, the ACLU called workplace discrimination "especially egregious" and said employment discrimination against gay men and lesbians is particularly pervasive.

"In most circumstances in America today, employment is essential to any kind of a decent life, and can be essential to survival," Anders wrote. "To deprive anyone of employment is to deprive them of sustenance."

Just this week, the ACLU of Utah filed a lawsuit for a tenured teacher who lost her job as an award-winning volleyball coach after school officials learned she was a lesbian. The lawsuit charged that school officials have illegally barred her from discussing her sexual orientation and threatened her with dismissal.

Although historic, the ACLU said ENDA is quite modest. It applies only to discrimination in employment, not to housing and public accommodations, and only to employers with 15 or more employees. ENDA explicitly does not require that fringe benefits be provided to the partners of lesbian and gay workers. ENDA also expressly forbids the uses of quotas or preferential treatment.

In addition, ENDA does not apply to the armed forces and will have no effect on veterans' preference programs. ENDA also does not apply to religious organizations except to the extent that they engage in commercial businesses so divorced from their religious functions that they are subject to federal income tax. The exemption explicitly includes religious schools.

In its basic structure, the ACLU said, ENDA parallels Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the law that prohibits employment discrimination based on race, religion, gender, and national origin. It provides the same procedures and remedies that Title VII provides.

"In summary, ENDA forbids employment discrimination based on sexual orientation, nothing more and nothing less," Anders wrote. "Congress should pass ENDA without delay."

"The message of ENDA is clear and straightforward," agrees NGLTF's Kerry Lobel. "Discrimination is wrong." As Lobel pointed out, "state and local legislators, as well as the business community, are forging a trail on bills banning employment and broader discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. To date, eleven states (CA, CT, HI, ME, MA, MN, NH, NJ, RI, VT and WI) and the District of Columbia have adopted such laws."

"Today, it is still perfectly legal under federal law to fire a person simply because he or she is gay, lesbian or bisexual," said Elizabeth Birch, executive director of the Human Rights Campaign, "This kind of discrimination happens in every region of the country. It is un-American. It is unbusinesslike. And it is wrong. But it remains sanctioned by federal law, or rather, by the absence of any law prohibiting it."

Birch cited national polls showing that more and more Americans believe anti-gay job discrimination is wrong. "In May 1996, a Newsweek poll found that 84 percent of Americans support equal rights in employment for gay and lesbian people," she said. "A month later, in June 1996, an Associated Press poll found 85 percent of those surveyed favor equal rights on the job for gay people."

The Human Rights Campaign HRC, is urging that every person contact U.S. senators and representatives to assure that the nation provides protection from job discrimination by supporting and cosponsoring the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA). It is important, says HRC, to refer to the bill by its full name and number---S. 869 in the Senate, and H.R. 1858 in the House.

"Call your senators and representative through the Capitol switchboard at (202) 224-3121. If you aren't sure who your members of Congress are, just ask the switchboard operator and you will be informed and then connected."

One can also send electronic messages to Congress through the Human Rights Campaign's online action center at http://www.hrc.org. Write to Congress through the mails as well. Include your name and address, and send your politely worded letter to:

The Honorable _______
U.S. Senate
Washington, DC 20510

and

The Honorable _______
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515

Corporate America has recognized this fact and has adopted non-discrimination policies that cover sexual orientation, Birch said. She cited an HRC report that found slightly more than half of the Fortune 500 companies have such policies.