According to a Federal law, lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and transgenders (LGBTs) are not protected against workplace discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation in the private sector. The proposed bill of Employment Non-Discrimination Act or ENDA, would put an end to this and provide everyone in the country with equal employment rights, regardless of sexual orientation.

This law has been pushed in every single session in Congress since 1994. After 19 long years of fighting, it has been repeatedly denied due to certain hate-groups and religious groups that think making employment equal will lead to a slew of gay marriage in their neighborhood, leading (inevitably) to certain apocalypse.

ENDA would be a start, but it does not apply to small businesses, religious organizations or the military (more on this later), and does not require that domestic partner benefits be provided to the same-sex partners of employees. However, there’s still hope in the following states which currently prohibit sexual orientation discrimination in BOTH public and private sectors, but federally it will be an uphill struggle.

They are: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Colombia, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin.

The LGBT fight for justice is seeing a dim light at the end of the of the tunnel, as more than half of the U.S. currently battles to see LGBTs as human beings who also have rights.

LGBTs continue to put extra effort into bringing this issue to justice. They’ve found that if LGBTs currently reside in states that do not protect them from workplace discrimination, they can still be protected by city and county ordinances, but the biggest step forward would still be ENDA.