September 22, 2009 – On September 23, the House Committee on Education and Labor will hold a hearing on H.R. 3017, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), an LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) bill that will be a nightmare for business owners in general and a denial of First Amendment rights for Christian business owners. 

The hearing begins at 10 a.m. EST and will be webcast. Watch it!

ENDA is designed to get homosexuals, bisexuals, cross-dressers, and transsexuals added to the list of federally-protected minorities. If this is accomplished, the LGBT agenda will be imposed on businesses, local, state and federal governments, including public schools, Christian day care centers and camps, plus many other Christian entities, including religious broadcasters, etc. It will affect any business with more than 15 employees.

TVC staff will be present at the hearing and will provide an eyewitness account of the event. If the hearing is webcast, we will post excerpts from the hearing on the TVC web site.

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ENDA Based On False Premise

The Employment Non-Discrimination Act, ENDA (H.R. 3017) asserts in the “purposes” section of the bill that employment discrimination against gays, bisexuals and transgendered individuals is so serious in America that federal legislation must be passed to protect their right to employment.

ENDA is yet another piece of pro-LGBT legislation that is being rammed down the throats of Americans -- based on a falsehood. The falsehood is that gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgenders are victims of workplace discrimination.

False claims were also made to justify passage of the federal hate crimes bill. 

Statistics used to get companies to market their products to LGBT consumers, show that LGBT individuals are wealthy and travel frequently. Gay and gay-friendly web sites prove that there is no widespread or systematic discrimination against LGBT individuals.

Note these statistics:

• The National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce notes that LGBT individuals were likely to spend $800 more on business and leisure travel during the summer of 2009 than their heterosexual counterparts.

• The National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce claims there are 1.2 million LGBT business owners in the U.S.

• An estimated 85% of Fortune 500 companies already have sexual orientation policies in place. (Human Rights Campaign web site)

• Market researchers state that the LGBT consumers have “deep pockets” and their buying power “is growing.”

  • In 2006, lesbian and gay travelers took a projected total of 53.2 million leisure trips, spending an estimated $40 billion.   Another GLBT travel study says that the GLBT population is 5% and its estimated travel market is $65 billion annually. 

  • In short, gays & lesbians are spending between $40-$65 billion year on travel. (harrisinteractive.com, 2007 & ASTAnetwork, Summer 2007)

  • Gay Wired Media claims that gay adults are 6-7% of the population with total buying power of $723 billion.

• 14% of gay and lesbian adults are planning overseas travel compared to only 7% of heterosexual adults (harrisinteractive.com, 2007)

• Annual household income for gays and lesbians for 2007-2008 is $80,000. (communitymarketinginc.com)

Gay Incomes Don’t Justify ENDA

Compare the household income of gays and lesbians of $80,000 a year to the median income of blacks, Asians and Hispanics. U.S. Census statistics for 2008 (published on September 11, 2009) show that the median income for blacks was $34,218; for Hispanics it was $37,913; for Asians it was $65,637. Median income for non-Hispanic white households was $55,530.

Based on these figures from gay and pro-gay sources, it doesn’t appear that LGBT individuals are suffering any widespread or systematic discriminatory treatment as employees. They appear to be doing far better than their heterosexual counterparts as far as income and leisure travel.

Clearly, the stated purpose of ENDA is based on a falsehood about widespread discrimination against LGBT individuals.

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ENDA Is A Liability For Every Employer

The Employment Non-Discrimination Act is designed to make homosexuals, bisexuals, drag queens, cross-dressers and transsexuals into federally-protected minority groups.

• ENDA will force businesses, as well as local, state, and federal governments, including public schools to hire gays, lesbians and transgenders. 

• Christian-owned businesses will have to accommodate gay, lesbian, bisexual and even transgendered individuals (individuals with a Gender Identity Disorder) who believe they are the opposite sex. 

• ENDA forbids any employer from refusing to hire or promote a person because of his “sexual orientation” or his “gender identity” (cross-dressers, transsexuals, drag queens). A transgender who is turned down for a job or promotion can claim discrimination as a member of a federally-protected minority – and the employer can be prosecuted by the federal government. Every business owner will be liable for criminal prosecution if he or she fails to hire or promote a transgender person.  Under ENDA, a business will face an army of federal lawyers to fight claims of discrimination from gays, lesbians, bisexuals or transgenders. This will be a litigation nightmare for businesses, schools, and religious entities. 

• By making “gender identity” a federally-protected class under the law, this normalizes what are mental illnesses, known as a Gender Identity Disorder and/or Transvestic Fetishism. It elevates what a person “thinks” he is over what he actually is.

• ENDA defines “sexual orientation” as heterosexuality, bisexuality and homosexuality. Sexual orientation (desires), however, will be easily expanded to include other bizarre sexual behaviors, including the more than 30 + sexual orientations (paraphilias) listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.

• ENDA includes a weak religious exemption in Section 6. It does not protect Christian businesses or Christian camps, religious broadcasters and other religious entities! An independent Christian camp with 15 or more employees would be covered by ENDA. This camp would be in violation of the law for not hiring homosexuals, bisexuals and transsexuals or cross-dressers.

• ENDA enforcement will be handled by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. President Obama has nominated lesbian activist lawyer Chai Feldblum to serve a 5-year term on the EEOC. She wrote ENDA! If confirmed, she will be ruthless in her enforcement and will expand ENDA to make it mean whatever she wants it to mean.

Incrementalism  -- The Strategy To Silence Christians

Feldblum and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, are both advocates of incrementalism in pushing the LGBT agenda. They’re willing to get part of what they want, so they can go back later and change the law to complete their objective.

Feldblum is a longtime advocate of this tactic. Rep. Pelosi also recommends incrementalism. During the 2007 debates over ENDA, she wrote: “While many supporters are disappointed the bill is not fully-inclusive [does not include transgenders], they recognize it is a significant achievement.  Many supporters are disappointed that the bill is not broader – by not also prohibiting employment discrimination on the basis of gender identity.  However, they recognize that progress in civil rights has always been incremental and that this legislation is a critical step forward.”  

Incrementalism is the strategy that will be used to impose the LGBT agenda not only on secular businesses, but Christian and other religious business owners who object to homosexuality and transgenderism.

LGBT activists are admitting that they are willing to violate First Amendment freedoms to impose their agenda on Americans. They have claimed on several LGBT web sites that “Deeply held beliefs are no excuse for discrimination of any stripe.” In other words, it doesn’t matter what the First Amendment says about religious freedom – the LGBT political agenda trumps the U.S. Constitution.

What is it that the LGBT community wants?  Just take a look at the previous versions of ENDA. That will explain their end goal. The LGBT community wants to use ENDA to force churches, Boy Scouts, Christian schools, Armed Services, religious broadcasters, and all aspects of American culture to comply with their demands for affirmation and forced acceptance.

They will want quotas, training programs, shared shower and dressing facilities, gay marriage, married couple benefits, data collection to ensure compliance with their demands, jail time for non-compliance, and attorney fees for lawsuits.

What LGBT activists don’t get with this version of ENDA, they’ll get next year in a new law or a revision of ENDA. It’s all part of their incrementalism strategy to impose their agenda on all Americans.

TAKE ACTION: Watch the webcast of the ENDA hearing tomorrow beginning at 10 a.m. EST. TVC will have a complete analysis of this legislation soon. Write a letter to your Representative about ENDA.

Additional Resources: Click Here for Additional Information on ENDA