The Human Rights Campaign’s Michael Cole today noted the “unhappy anniversary” taking place today: President Clinton’s signing of the Defense of Marriage Act into law 13 years ago today. True, it is. I was a sophomore at American University that day, one of the many “Students for Clinton-Gore ‘96″ on the liberal campus who were “down” on that day despite our otherwise strong support for the President.
Forget the repeal debate, though. For me, what’s much more sad is the fact that 13 years ago, the Senate was one vote away from passing the Employment Non-Discrimination Act — and today it is still not the law of the land.
Why not?
To put this in perspective, Senator Max Baucus voted for ENDA back in 1996. This is not a controversial measure among Democrats — and Republican Senators Collins and Snowe already are on board as co-sponsors, so I really hope that we see it passed into law by the year’s end.
Of note, only 14 of the 1996 “No” votes remain in the Senate. They are Senators Bennett (R-UT), Bond (R-MO), Byrd (D-WV), Cochran (R-MS), Grassley (R-IA), Gregg (R-NH), Hatch (R-UT), Hutchison (R-TX), Inhofe (R-OK), Kyl (R-AZ), Lugar (R-IN), McCain (R-AZ), McConnell (R-KY) and Shelby (R-AL).
None of the 14 are co-sponsors of the bill introduced in the Senate earlier this year, which I discussed here.
[Edited, per correction in comments, to remove then-Sen. David Pryor, whose son Mark now holds his seat.]
For the full 1996 roll call, see below the jump.
* * * * *
104th Congress, Roll Call Vote No. 281: Employment Non-Discrimination Act
YEAs —49
Akaka (D-HI)
Baucus (D-MT)
Biden (D-DE)
Bingaman (D-NM)
Boxer (D-CA)
Bradley (D-NJ)
Breaux (D-LA)
Bryan (D-NV)
Bumpers (D-AR)
Chafee (R-RI)
Cohen (R-ME)
Conrad (D-ND)
D’Amato (R-NY)
Daschle (D-SD)
Dodd (D-CT)
Dorgan (D-ND)
Feingold (D-WI)
Feinstein (D-CA)
Glenn (D-OH)
Graham (D-FL)
Harkin (D-IA)
Hatfield (R-OR)
Hollings (D-SC)
Inouye (D-HI)
Jeffords (R-VT)
Johnston (D-LA)
Kennedy (D-MA)
Kerrey (D-NE)
Kerry (D-MA)
Kohl (D-WI)
Lautenberg (D-NJ)
Leahy (D-VT)
Levin (D-MI)
Lieberman (D-CT)
Mikulski (D-MD)
Moseley-Braun (D-IL)
Moynihan (D-NY)
Murray (D-WA)
Pell (D-RI)
Reid (D-NV)
Robb (D-VA)
Rockefeller (D-WV)
Sarbanes (D-MD)
Simon (D-IL)
Simpson (R-WY)
Snowe (R-ME)
Specter (R-PA)
Wellstone (D-MN)
Wyden (D-OR)
NAYs —50
Abraham (R-MI)
Ashcroft (R-MO)
Bennett (R-UT)
Bond (R-MO)
Brown (R-CO)
Burns (R-MT)
Byrd (D-WV)
Campbell (R-CO)
Coats (R-IN)
Cochran (R-MS)
Coverdell (R-GA)
Craig (R-ID)
DeWine (R-OH)
Domenici (R-NM)
Exon (D-NE)
Faircloth (R-NC)
Ford (D-KY)
Frahm (R-KS)
Frist (R-TN)
Gorton (R-WA)
Gramm (R-TX)
Grams (R-MN)
Grassley (R-IA)
Gregg (R-NH)
Hatch (R-UT)
Heflin (D-AL)
Helms (R-NC)
Hutchison (R-TX)
Inhofe (R-OK)
Kassebaum (R-KS)
Kempthorne (R-ID)
Kyl (R-AZ)
Lott (R-MS)
Lugar (R-IN)
Mack (R-FL)
McCain (R-AZ)
McConnell (R-KY)
Murkowski (R-AK)
Nickles (R-OK)
Nunn (D-GA)
Pressler (R-SD)
Roth (R-DE)
Santorum (R-PA)
Shelby (R-AL)
Smith (R-NH)
Stevens (R-AK)
Thomas (R-WY)
Thompson (R-TN)
Thurmond (R-SC)
Warner (R-VA)
Not Voting – 1
Pryor (D-AR)
Popularity: 100% [?]
Chris Geidner is the award-winning senior political & legal reporter at BuzzFeed and has written for Metro Weekly, The Atlantic Online, The American Prospect, Advocate.com, Salon and other publications, as well as at his blog, Law Dork. He has appeared regularly on television commenting on current affairs, including MSNBC, PBS, HLN & Current. Prior to moving to D.C. in 2009, he served as an attorney on the senior staff at the Ohio Attorney General's Office and had earlier worked for a leading Columbus law firm. An extended biography can be found
Do you think the inclusion of trans/cis status has made the bill more difficult to pass, or do you think there isn’t really a category of Congressmen who think sexual orientation, but not gender identity, should be protected from discrimination?
I think it would have made it much more difficult to pass in 1998, but I think that the education done in the past decade has brought it to the point where the difference in support is approaching nil. I’m sure there’s a member here or there for whom education could increase comfort, but even my experience here in Ohio with the EHEA – which includes gender identity – is that no votes changed either way because of the inclusion of it.
OK, that’s good… among the people I know, there seems to be more understanding of sexual orientation than of gender identity, so I worry that there’s a similar “uh that’s just a man in a dress” type ignorance among the moderate folks in Congress.
The Pryor in the Senate was David; his son Mark is the one there now.
Doh. Thanks.
If not for Mark Pryor, ENDA might be the law of the land for the last 13 years.
The non-vote of his father, former Senator David Pryor, made all the difference. David stated intent to vote for ENDA; however, his son Mark required emergency surgery on the day of the vote, so David was away and missed it. David’s vote would have caused a tie, and VP Gore would have broken the tie in favor of ENDA.
Mark went on to take David’s seat, but hasn’t committed to supporting ENDA.
One might say he owes it.