Without Legislation, Many LGBT Workers Must Go Back Into the Closet

Tom Lotito came out at 15. But it wasn't long before he went back in the closet. After graduating from George Washington University and landing an internship with the federal government he hid his sexuality (he did not want to disclose the exact department where he worked because of worries of potential retaliation). When coworkers asked what he did that weekend, he felt he couldn’t say he went to the movies with his boyfriend. He didn’t know if it would put him at risk of losing his internship.

Now, Lotito’s coworkers know he is gay. (He obtained a full-time gig after his internship.)They know he is engaged and that he and his partner recently moved to Maryland, making the commute to work on the MARC train a reason for him to miss out on happy hours at home. It took Lotito a long time (about a year) to feel certain he would not be at risk of firing. He says it was the longest year of his life.

“It was scary. I read the ‘Know Your Employee Rights’ poster in the break room and saw that sexual orientation was covered, but there was an asterisk next to it,” Lotito says. “It said that I could make a complaint in-house, but it could not go to court.”

Lotito is working to make sure no one else has to fear talking about his or her sexual orientation at work, or, worse, actually get fired. Lotito called a portion of the 1,000 households during a phonebanking session hosted by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force on April 29 to constituents across the nation, asking them to call their representative to vote for the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA).

ENDA was originally introduced in Congress in 1974 as the Equality Act, a federal bill to ban discrimination against lesbians, gay men, unmarried persons, and women in employment, housing, and public accommodations. It was intended to expand Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which made it illegal to discriminate against someone based on race, color, religion, sex or national origin. Congress has passed a great deal of equality-ensuring legislation: The Equal Pay Act of 1963 protects against wage-based discrimination; the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 protects people 40 and over, and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 protects disabled individuals. All have passed, but none had included sexual orientation or gender identity in their bills.

It was not until 1994 when the ENDA was re-introduced, but that was the same year Newt Gingrich made a Contract with America, and Congress shifted attention away from reforms like ENDA.

Though ENDA never passed in Congress, several states have passed their own versions of ENDA, of which Wisconsin was the first. Today, 38 states and the federal government still do not have employment discrimination protections for LGBTQ workers, so it is those states the Task Force phone-bankers target.

“I hadn’t even heard of it [ENDA] before December and I think a lot of that just comes from ignorance,” says Michelle Nickerson, who has been volunteering on the campaign to support ENDA once a week since January. “When I call, people don’t believe me when I say you can be fired if employers suspect you can be fired for being LGBTQ. This is day-to-day discriminating that is happening that people have to face. They can't even talk about what they did over the weekend.”

According to a report from the National Center for Transgender Equality, 97 percent of transgender people surveyed reported experiencing harassment or mistreatment on the job and 47 percent had experienced an adverse job outcome, such as being fired, not hired or denied a promotion.

Nickerson is from Texas, where her father owns a small business. She says her father shares her views on employment. [I tried to just clarify this sentence, but from below it looks like her father does NOT share her views.]

“He said to me, 'I don’t want any of my employees to hit on me,' and says that a person wouldn’t buy cars from him if he has a gay or trans person,” says Nickerson. She also says that though ENDA will not eradicate homophobia, it will create legal consequencesfor unfair employment practices. “Everyone should have the opportunity to work and to provide for yourself and your family.”

Some say ENDA is even more important than marriage equality and repealing "don't ask, don't tell" (DADT) because it will affect far more people.

Aimee King has just started phone banking in support of passing ENDA. She served in the military for six years and now works on the civilian side of the Coast Guard.

“I would rather see equality in the workplace before gay marriage,” King said. “Everyone needs a job. DADT parallels ENDA, one will lead to the other, but DADT only covers a specific group of people.”

Jaan Williams, transgender equality organizer for the National Center for Lesbian Rights says that ENDA is important because oftentimes employers find out or people don’t conform to a gender, and the individual is moved or demoted. Such moves would be protected against under ENDA. Still, Williams recognizes that ENDA has not gotten as much press as DADT.

“DADT is a law that mandates discrimination, while this is fixing a huge problem,” Williams says. “The exclusion of LGBTQ people from work-place protection, however, results in the same thing, people excluding partners, boyfriends and girlfriends from their office talk of everyday life.”

Lawmakers expect the bill to get a vote in the House Education and Labor Committee sometime in the next several weeks, with a floor vote coming shortly thereafter. If the bill is passed, says Aaditi Dubale, field organizer for the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, the bill may have other benefits like decreasing hate crimes.

“Cultures have a feedback loop, and by having my status as a queer person protected by a law, it makes it that much more not OK to discriminate,” Dubale said. “It’s not to say that hate crimes won’t happen, but it will make people think more.”

Some of the people Lotito spoke with during his phone banking initially believed that the proposed legislation will force employers to hire LGBTQ people. Lotito patiently explains that is not the case, and that it just means a person could come out to his or her colleagues without fear of retribution.

“ENDA won't mean talking about our sex lives in the work place or teaching people sex moves,” Lotito said. “It will mean having the ability to talk about our families. Even if someone doesn't like me because I'm gay, I won't have to worry about being fired for it.”

Lisa Gillespie is a former staff writer for Campus Progress as well as the Managing Editor & New Media Director at Street Sense. She graduated from the University of North Carolina–Asheville.

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