Over the last week, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act has increasingly become both a hot topic and a point of contention in the GLBT community and amongst Congressional Democrats. At issue is whether or not ENDA should include protections for transgender individuals - not as a matter of principal, but as a matter of guaranteeing the bills passage.

What the dilemma boils down to is that Republicans are finally willing to pass a bill that prohibits gays and lesbians from being fired because of their sexual orientation. Republicans and some conservative Democrats are not, however, comfortable with including transgender individuals in the bill. Without the inclusion of transgender protections, the bill will pass. With the protections, it will fail.

So the question arises: Should the GLBT community fight to ensure that the “T” part of the community is included in ENDA, or should we take what we can get now and work to get protections for the transgender community at a later date?

I agree with Representative Barney Frank that we should pass ENDA now with protections for the gay and lesbian community and work on transgender protections next. Many people who have taken this position, including Barney Frank, have been vilified and been accused of being bigots. This couldn’t be further from the truth - it’s called being practical.

While the GLBT community includes all of us in its name, we all face difference issues. The transgender community for example can for the most part legally marry, since according to their birth certificates they are members of the opposite sex. Has the transgender community as a whole refused to utilize this right out of principal because gays and lesbians can’t get married? No, of course not, and they shouldn’t have to. Any time any part of our community can make a step forward, that should be embraced by the entire community, not looked upon with contempt.

The fact remains that ENDA has been introduced in Congress for many years and this year is the first time transgender protections were included in the bill. There was no huge outcry about the exclusion when the bill was doomed to fail, so why start an outcry now and guarantee the failure of a bill that otherwise would pass?

My advice is that we should pass ENDA immediately in order to provide employment protection to millions of gay and lesbian Americans. The GLBT community as a whole should then begin a nationwide education and visibility campaign designed to educate the general population about the transgender community. Most Americas know a gay man, but very few people know someone who’s transgender. This lack of visibility make the issue “scary” to some Americans and is one of the main reasons there is opposition in Congress to including transgender protections in ENDA. Once the education plan has run its course, Congress should then introduce a new bill, tentatively called GENDA by some, that provides the same protections to transgender Americans.

This is one of the most serious discussion the GLBT community has had regarding our differences in many years and while emotions are running high, I think it’s nonetheless a very healthy discussion to be having.

I’d love to hear other people’s thoughts on this topic as well. Please feel free to share them in the comments section or send me an e-mail.