I wanted to clarify some statements that appeared in the Daily Feb. 5, in the article about the firing of Pastor Steve Sabin. First of all, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) was introduced in Congress for the first time in 1994, not 1955 as I was quoted as saying. ENDA would prohibit differential treatment against employees based solely on their sexual orientation. It basically extends federal employment discrimination protections currently provided based on race, religion, gender, national origin, age and disability to sexual orientation. Thus, ENDA extends fair employment practices — not special rights — to lesbians, gay men, bisexuals and heterosexuals.

Secondly, ENDA has a specific exemption for religious organizations; what this unfortunately means is that even if ENDA had already become law, Sabin’s church would still have been legally able to discriminate against him by firing him. The exemption for religious organizations seems to many of us in the LGBT community to smell suspiciously of pandering to the heterosexism and homophobia of religious right-wing political extremists.

ENDA has other exemptions, such as not prohibiting discrimination against lesbians and gays who are employed in small businesses (15 employees or less) or those who are in the armed services. These exemptions have raised the ire of many queer activists who would otherwise support the provisions of ENDA.

For more information about ENDA, readers may visit this Web site:http://www.hrc.org/issues/leg/enda/index.html

Thanks for the coverage of the firing of Pastor Sabin. The Daily is responsible for helping to increase the visibility of LGBT people at ISU and beyond, and this visibility is having very positive effects on our community.

Sine Anahita

Coordinator of LGBTSS