Senator Majority Leader Harry Reid: 'My Niece is a Lesbian'

Senator Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) spoke about ENDA with reporters today, backing up his support for the legislation by revealing he has a niece who is gay, the HuffPost reports:

My niece is a lesbian," Reid said during a sit-down with reporters. "She's a school teacher. Her employment shouldn't be affected with that. We should have a law that says that, not just the good graces of wherever you work."

Reid's niece declined to be interviewed or to give her name. But per Reid's spokesman, she was fine with Reid making her sexual orientation public.

What are the bill's chances this year?

Reid said there's "a chance" he'll bring up ENDA for a vote this year, noting that he had a meeting about it just last week. He wondered aloud why it doesn't have broad support to pass.

"It's hard to comprehend that we haven't done a better job," he said.

Senator Rob Portman Talks ENDA, Immigration, and Marriage Equality: VIDEO

Buzzfeed sat down with Senator Rob Portman (R-OH) at one of its Buzzfeed Brews events during which beer is guzzled. About half of the discussion was devoted to LGBT issues including immigration, ENDA, and his shift on marriage equality.

Chris Geidner encapsulates the discussion:

Noting that many areas of federal law address marriage-based benefits, Portman counseled against the creation of a specific category for same-sex couples in immigration law — although he stopped short of saying he would oppose such a measure....

...Portman also expressed general support for LGBT employment protections, saying, "I totally support the concept" of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which would bar most employers from discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.

"There oughta be a law in place," he said, expressing two potential concerns with ENDA: "litigation that could result" and "religious freedom."

...Asked about criticism he received when announcing his changed view on marriage equality by those who said it shouldn't have taken learning about his son for him to change on the issue, he initially replied, "Whatever."

Portman then said he hadn't thought about the issue in depth prior to learning about his son, although he said that perhaps he should have done so.

Pick up the conversation as it turns to LGBT issues, AFTER THE JUMP...

Paul Ryan Supports Gay Adoption But Doesn't Want the Kids to Have Married Parents: VIDEO

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) spoke to a town hall in Wisconsin on Monday and was asked about his positions on ENDA, gay adoption, and same-sex marrage, Think Progress reports.

Ryan told the audience that he supports ENDA, and voted for it, but would have to take another look at it when you add transgender protections. He also said that he supports gay adoption, something he voted against in his first term.

He does not, however, support those adopted kids having married parents.

Said Ryan: "I do believe that if there are children who are orphans who do not have a loving person or couple I think if a person wants to love and raise a child they ought to be able to do that. Period. I would vote that way. I do believe marriage is between a man and a woman, we just respectfully disagree on that issue."

Watch, AFTER THE JUMP...

Jeff Merkley In Talks With Key Republicans to Support ENDA

Michelangelo Signorile writes in the Huffington Post:

Pointing to the dramatically-changed political climate on marriage equality and LGBT issues, Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley (Ore.) said yesterday that he’s been having talks with key Republicans in the Senate about supporting the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), which would ban discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity and which he reintroduced in the Senate on Thursday.

Said Merkley about his talks with those GOP senators:

"I can tell you I’ve sat down with a number of Republicans who have not come out publicly yet. They’re still mulling over what they’re going to do, but I think there’s a very good chance they’re going to be supporting this bill. Whether that comes in a co-sponsorship or an affirmative vote when we are on the floor is yet to be seen. But I think that our numbers will be increasing both in sponsorship and in a floor vote than where we would have been had we had a floor vote even two years ago or four years ago."

Sounds promising.

Watch a HuffPo video interview with Signorile on the topic and also listen to his radio interview with Merkley, AFTER THE JUMP.

Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) Introduced in Congress

The Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) was reintroduced today in the House and Senate.

Unfortunately, its reintroduction was marred by objections over religous exemption language in the bill. The ACLU, Lambda Legal, National Center for Lesbian Rights, and Transgender Law Center released a joint statement Thursday morning applauding the reintroduction but expressing "very grave concerns" about the exemption language:

Despite the remarkable progress - cultural, political, and legal - that LGBT people have made in recent years, there are currently 34 states that lack workplace non-discrimination laws that are fully inclusive of LGBT people. This patchwork of protection continues to leave LGBT people vulnerable to workplace discrimination. We hear the stories every day from our clients and the tens of thousands of LGBT people who contact LGBT legal organizations like ours every year. In a country that values fairness and equal treatment under the law, we believe the current situation is unacceptable.

We greatly appreciate the efforts of Sens. Merkley (pictured, D-Ore.) and Kirk (R-Ill.) and Reps. Polis (D-Colo.) and Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) in making a number of significant improvements to ENDA. These include removing language that would have reaffirmed the discriminatory and unconstitutional Defense of Marriage Act.

While we applaud the progress that has been made, we stand united in expressing very grave concerns with the religious exemption in ENDA. It could provide religiously affiliated organizations – far beyond houses of worship – with a blank check to engage in employment discrimination against LGBT people. Some courts have said that even hospitals and universities may be able to claim the exemption; thus, it is possible that a religiously affiliated hospital could fire a transgender doctor or a religiously affiliated university could terminate a gay groundskeeper. It gives a stamp of legitimacy to LGBT discrimination that our civil rights laws have never given to discrimination based on an individual’s race, sex, national origin, age, or disability. This sweeping, unprecedented exemption undermines the core goal of ENDA by leaving too many jobs, and LGBT workers, outside the scope of its protections.

National Center for Transgender Equality's Mara Keisling wrote an F.A.Q. this morning on the bill and what it includes and does not include.

Buzzfeed has more on the religious exemption:

Lambda Legal attorney Greg Nevins, who has litigated some of the group's employment discrimination cases in the past, talked with BuzzFeed about the religious exemption.

"In Title VII, there's an exemption for certain religious-affiliated entities that says that they can basically engage in religious discrimination but they cannot engage in race, color, sex, or national origin discrimination. The words [religious-affiliated entities] have been sometimes interpreted very broadly," Nevins explained, noting, "For instance, a Presbyterian hospital might in some jurisdictions be considered to qualify, which is decidedly different than saying a church or a convent can do these things."

The religious exemption in ENDA "would say that sexual orientation and gender identity discrimination are not actionable against those entities as defined in Title VII," he added.

"It would be setting up a two-tiered system saying that race, color, sex, and national origin discrimination cannot be engaged in by one of these entities, but sexual orientation and gender identity discrimination can," Nevins said.

W.H. Press Secretary Can't Think of an Action Obama Has Taken in the Past Year to Support ENDA: VIDEO

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney was asked yesterday by the Washington Blade's Chris Johnson about the President's commitment to the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which is being introduced in Congress this week.

Said Carney:

"The administration will continue to work to build support for this important legislation because we believe that this is the right way, the right approach to take, because it is inclusive and that’s why we supported it then, that’s why we’re glad to see it being reintroduced."

When asked for "one thing" the President has done in the past year to build support for ENDA, Carney couldn't really say:

“His support for this specific legislation, I think, is reflected in the fact that it’s being introduced, as you said, in the House and the Senate. And he will work with like-minded lawmakers who support movement on this legislation to see it pass and ultimately signed into law. That’s how this process works. This is the approach the president thought was the right one to take and he’s encouraged by the progress being made.”

Watch, AFTER THE JUMP...

In a piece by Reuters last week which noted the White House's sluggishness on the issue, Lambda Legal's Jon Davidson said "there's more that he can do" and in March, 110 House lawmakers signed a letter calling for Obama to bypass the languishing legislation and issue and executive order protecting LGBT workers from discrimination.