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Following confusion in the transgender community over its previous silence, the nation’s largest LGBT group has publicly announced its support for nominees pending before the U.S. Senate for a federal agency charged with enforcing civil rights law.

Fred Sainz, the Human Rights Campaign’s vice president of communications, told the Washington Blade late Sunday his organization supports the nominees for the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, but cautioned more than words are necessary to ensure their confirmation.

“HRC believes these these two outstanding nominees should be confirmed and we’ve communicated that to key senators,” Sainz said. “There are important differences between issuing press releases and engaging in proactive and effective advocacy efforts. Press releases aren’t going to get these superbly well qualified nominees confirmed. What will get them confirmed is working with our coalition partners to ensure the votes are there. This is exactly the kind of advocacy that HRC engages in each and every day.”

A vote in the Senate is expected this week for P. David Lopez, whom President Obama named in July to serve for another term as the agency’s general counsel, and Charlotte Burrows, a former staffer for the late Sen. Edward Kennedy named in September to serve as EEOC commissioner.

If confirmed, the nominees would be charged with enforcing Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which two years ago was interpreted by EEOC as a result of Macy v. Holder to provide non-discrimination protections to transgender workers based on prohibition of gender discrimination in existing law. As the current top lawyer for the agency, Lopez had a hand in filing two pending lawsuits that allege transgender discrimination in the workforce.

Additionally, the agency would be charged with enforcing the Employment Non-Discrimination Act or a comprehensive non-discrimination bill as it pertains to employment in the event Congress were to pass some version of those measures.

Time is running short, in all likelihood, to confirm the nominees because those efforts will be more difficult when Republicans take control of the Senate on Jan. 6 following GOP wins on Election Day.

Asked by the Blade whether HRC would score the confirmation votes on its congressional scorecard, Sainz said the scorecard for the 113th Congress has already gone out, but HRC would inform members it considers these two nominations “key votes.”

In a Washington Blade article posted last week, a number of LGBT groups — Freedom to Work, the National Center for Transgender Equality and the National LGBTQ Task Force — announced support for the nominees amid Republican opposition and discontent with the EEOC from the anti-gay Family Research Council. However, HRC at that time said nothing about the nominees despite repeated requests over the span of more than a week from the Blade to comment.

Jillian Weiss, a transgender activist and law professor at Ramapo College, posted the Blade article on her Facebook page and was among those expressing confusion over why HRC had said nothing.

“It’s been a busy week, and it’s my hope that they will come forward with their support, which is particularly due given the stellar work Mr. Lopez has done as EEOC general counsel to ensure equality for our community,” Weiss told the Blade. “It is also particularly important given the political stalemate in Congress around ENDA, which makes our progress in the EEOC and the courts crucial.”

HRC issued its response on the EEOC nominees after the Blade provided the organization with statements from transgender victims of workplace discrimination expressing concern over the LGBT group’s silence.

Vandy Beth Glenn, a Georgia-based transgender activist who testified in 2009 before the U.S. House in favor of ENDA, told the Blade she would have thought a public endorsement from HRC would be consistent with its views.

“I had hoped that HRC would be an enthusiastic advocate for these two nominees like the rest of the LGBT community,” Glenn said. “Given that their mission is advocating for our rights and equality, I don’t know why they wouldn’t be enthusiastically on board with their endorsements of these nominees, and I don’t have a guess as to why they’re not.”

Mia Macy, a transgender advocate responsible for filing the Macy v. Holder lawsuit, told the Blade HRC’s silence on the nominees was consistent with what she said was a lack of interest among LGBT groups in promoting the protections afforded under the decision.

“It’s not so much a criticism as it just seems to be the status quo,” Macy said. “I think a lot of groups don’t want to believe there’s an EEOC — let alone there’s a group of people out there within the federal government and this administration that have been making monumental legal strides and don’t have anything to do with these non-profit groups.”

For their part, Glenn and Macy pledged their support for the EEOC nominees, saying they would call their U.S. senators to urge a vote for confirmation and called on other supporters of the nominees to do the same.

Glenn, who filed her own lawsuit, Glenn v. Brumby, establishing transgender non-discrimination protections in the conservative Eleventh Circuit, said she “definitely” supports the nominees.

“I support them because they are strong allies of the LGBT community and they have a history of trans-inclusion and fighting for more specifically transgender workplace protections, and I think that’s important,” Glenn said. “I think there shouldn’t be any commissioners who aren’t in favor of that.”

Macy took a similar approach in explaining why she supports the confirmation of the nominees to the EEOC.

“I wouldn’t be talking to you right now if it weren’t for the actions of David Lopez,” Macy said. “He was instrumental in helping write and also defend transgender rights since writing the Macy v. Holder decision, so we as a community — for not just transgender but LGBT groups — everyone should be thrilled having an ally like David.”

One organization, Freedom to Work, is making confirmation of the EEOC nominees during the lame duck session of Congress a priority. This week, the organization intends to launch a project called “National LGBT Call-In Week for President Obama’s EEOC Nominees” to encourage LGBT people to call their U.S. senators and ask them to vote for confirmation.

Set to run paid phone-banking and call centers on behalf of Freedom to Work is Chuck Rocha, founder and president of the progressive group known as Solidarity Strategies. Freedom to Work hired Rocha last year to help registered Latino voters patch through to the Capitol Hill offices of Republican senators to encourage support for ENDA.

Tico Almeida, president of Freedom to Work, said he welcomes the public support from HRC for the nominees, but thought some aspects of the organization’s response were off base.

“Freedom to Work first began coordinating with the excellent staff of the Leadership Conference on Civil & Human Rights on these two EEOC nominations several months ago, and we have also been in key discussions with national Latino leaders who are very committed to ensuring that David Lopez succeeds in his confirmation vote, so I’m not sure what Fred is suggesting with his condescending and angry quotes to the Washington Blade,” Almeida said. “I’m just glad that HRC has finally answered the simple question that the Blade asked them weeks ago, because it was getting really awkward that HRC was repeatedly ducking these simple questions for so long.”

HRC has had a troubled relationship with the transgender community but HRC President President Chad Griffin this year apologized to the transgender community for having done wrong in the past.

Almeida rejected any notion that HRC had previously remained silent on the nominees out of any anti-trans motivation.

“HRC’s repeated refusal to answer these simple questions caused some transgender Americans to assume that this was yet another example of HRC being anti-transgender, and I want to be clear that I do not believe in that theory at all,” Almeida said. “HRC does arguably have the ugliest anti-transgender record in the history of our civil rights movement, but I believe Chad Griffin was sincere with his apology for the bad faith acts of his predecessors at HRC.”

UPDATE: This article has been updated with an additional comment from Fred Sainz on whether HRC would score the confirmation votes for the nominees on its congressional scorecard.