Washington, DC - The Employment Non-Discrimination Act (H.R. 2015, known as "ENDA") is expected to go to the House floor for a vote sometime next week. ENDA would prohibit employment discrimination on the basis of "actual or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity," which includes hiring, firing, compensation, terms, conditions, and privileges of employment. ENDA applies to all public and private employers, employment agencies, and labor organizations with at least fifteen employees. ENDA has several provisions that will cause particular difficulties for employers:

ENDA abolishes the concept of gender. ENDA requires an employer to acknowledge that sex can be changed or that it is a fluid concept. ENDA requires forced acceptance of a very radical notion that gender is merely a product of personal expression completely unrelated to a person's biology or physiology.

ENDA requires access to shared restrooms and showers. ENDA mandates that employers give access to shared facilities, such as restrooms and other similar facilities for those who are of the same sex, but have an opposite gender identity (i.e. a male identifying as female), or of those who have notified their employer of an ongoing gender transition (i.e. a male transitioning to a female). Those employees would be allowed to share restrooms and other similar facilities with members of the opposite sex.

ENDA undermines employer dress and grooming standards. ENDA requires that an employer allow an individual who has been through "gender transition" or has notified their employer that they are in "gender transition" to dress as the new gender. ENDA would force employers to hire individuals that may be contrary to a particular image. Individuals who dress provocatively will complain that the employer is discriminating, when the employer is simply upholding a corporate image.

ENDA harms the institution of marriage. Employers must give the benefits of marriage to same-sex couples in states where same-sex marriage is allowed. In states where same-sex couples are not allowed to marry, employers do not have to give benefits conditioned on marriage to same-sex couples, but employers may not discriminate in any other way against same-sex couples because they are unmarried. By raising sexual orientation and gender identity to a protected status, ENDA makes traditional morality a form of discrimination.

In written testimony submitted on September 14th to the House Education and Labor Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor and Pensions, Mathew D. Staver, Founder of Liberty Counsel and Dean of Liberty University School of Law, explained that "ENDA does not in any way exempt any Christian owned and Christian run businesses. Those employers would still be subject to the mandates of ENDA despite their sincerely held religious beliefs to the contrary."