The Senate Health and Labor Committee holds a hearing on the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, a bill that would create a federal ban on discrimination against gays, lesbians, bisexual, and transgender people in the workplace. The measure has been introduced in every congressional session since 1994. The witness panel included one openly transgender person as well as an official from the National Religious Broadcasters Association.
Recently, the White House angered LGBT advocates when it decided against issuing an executive order blocking same-sex discrimination by federal contractors. The Obama administration then came out in favor of ENDA, though there seems unlikely that the employment discrimination bill will pass in this session of Congress.
Witnesses included: M. V. Lee Badgett, Research Director, Williams Institute for Sexual Orientation Law and Public Policy, University of California at Los Angeles; Samuel Bagenstos, Professor of Law, University of Michigan Law School, Ann Arbor, Michigan; Ken Charles, vice president of Diversity and Inclusion, General Mills Inc., Minneapolis, Minnesota; and Craig Parshal, Senior Vice President and General Counsel, National Religious Broadcasters Association, Manassas, Virginia.