Today Congress will hold its first-ever hearing dedicated to the plight of transgender employees.
This morning on Capitol Hill, the House Health, Employment, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Subcommittee will be holding a hearing titled "An Examination of Discrimination Against Transgender Americans in the Workplace." The National Center for Transgender Equality credits subcommittee chairman Rob Andrews of New Jersey and openly homosexual Massachusetts Congressman Barney Frank, both Democrats, with making the hearing possible. Although the House passed the pro-homosexuality Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) last November, the measure did not include special protections based on gender identity and expression. Democrats were deeply divided over whether to attach the transgender protections. Peter LaBarbera is president of the conservative group Americans for Truth About Homosexuality. "This appears to me as if the homosexual lobby is throwing a bone to the transgender activists," he argues. "They dropped the transgender movement as part of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, and yet they still have to show their support for this radical movement, which we believe is all about mainstreaming gender confusion," LaBarbera contends. According to LaBarbera, the transgender movement poses a problem for the "gay" movement because when most people see "big bulky men in dresses" they immediately "recoil." He says he never thought he would see the day when there would be so many powerful forces on Capitol Hill pushing for the "stepchild of gay rights" – civil rights based on gender confusion. "What Americans have to realize is that, if you get the federal government behind this perversion of civil rights, it will have a cascading effect throughout the whole American society," LaBarbera explains. "Small businesses could be forced to hire people embracing gender confusion. You have people in jobs that face the public such as a maitre d' in a restaurant – a man decides that he is really a woman and he is going to start dressing as a woman." Essential, says the family advocate, it could "circumscribe the ability of an employer to not have a gender-confused person in the face of the public." Sexual deviancy advocacy groups such as the Human Rights Campaign, the National Center for Transgender Equality, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force -- as well as the American Civil Liberties Union -- have reportedly been meeting regularly to coordinate a strategy for today's hearing.
If you believe OneNewsNow.com is an important source for Christian news, please consider a small tax-deductible gift for this service.
