

With all this talk about repealing Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, one other little gay equality law has disappeared from the radar. Don’t make me spell it out for you. (OK: It’s the Employment Non-Discrimination Act.) Turns out all those GetEQUAL traffic jams won’t be enough to get Congress to bring ENDA to a vote this year.

On the bright side: It’s great news for employers looking to shed some dead weight without offering severance packages to the queers. No ENDA = Protecting heterosexual jobs!

The Hill quotes Mara Keisling, executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality: “I am not too optimistic. It was never a top priority [for Democratic leaders], and we ran out of time.” Keisling, not to be confused with “quisling,” apparently only knows one word to describe her feelings. Back in March, she said she was — wait for it — “extremely optimistic” about the chances of ENDA passing this year.

But c’mon, we all knew this was going to happen. In June, when Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid met with President Obama to go over his Top 9 projects, ENDA wasn’t on the list; DADT, however, was. And over in the House, California’s Rep. Jackie Speier admitted we’ve got at least a five-year timeline on passing ENDA, and that’s looking at things optimistically.

Which is HI-LAR-I-OUS, because wasn’t it just May that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was telling the homos at Equality California we’d be celebrating by Christmas? EQCA’s chief Geoff Kors told reporters Pelosi “was very clear that ENDA would pass the House with enough time to pass the Senate this year.” Surely he’ll hold her accountable, right?