merkleyenda.jpg

Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., speaks at a press conference Thursday shortly before passage of a bill barring workplace discrimination against gays and trans-gendered individuals. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., look on.

(AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley on Thursday guided U.S. Senate passage of a landmark bill that would prohibit workplace discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.

The bipartisan 64-32 vote in favor of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act marked the first time the Senate voted to include gays and transgendered people under the protection of the nation's civil rights laws.

Merkley and other supporters say they will now turn to pressuring Republicans in the House, where the bill faces major hurdles. House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, says he opposes the bill and that it could spark unnecessary litigation against employers.

Oregon already has a much broader law that prohibits discrimination against gays and transgender people not only in employment but in public accommodations and housing as well.

ENDA timeline

1974:

Reps. Bella Abzug and Ed Koch, both D-NY, introduce first legislation prohibiting discrimination against gays.

1994:

Senate holds first hearing on ENDA bill, then under sponsorship of Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass.

1996:

Senate votes on ENDA bill, fails on 49-50 vote.

2007:

U.S. House passes ENDA legislation.

2007:

Oregon Legislature enacts legislation prohibiting discrimination against gays and transgendered people in employment, housing and public accommodations.

2008:

Then-Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore., works with Kennedy as chief co-sponsor of ENDA bill.

2009:

Kennedy, dying of brain cancer, asks Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., fresh from defeating Smith, to take over leadership of ENDA fight.

2013:

Senate passes ENDA on 64-32 vote.

Merkley, a Democrat, played a major role in passing Oregon's law when he was speaker of the Oregon House in 2007. Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., who had championed the gay-rights legislation for years, passed on leadership of the issue to Merkley shortly before dying in 2009.

Merkley said in an interview with The Oregonian that Thursday's vote was part of a "national debate on ending this type of discrimination" that has included growing support for same-sex marriage, the lifting of prohibitions against gays in the military and the passage of a hate-crimes law.

The Oregon lawmaker managed to bring 10 Republican votes to his side, in part by accepting several changes to the bill. They include strengthening exemptions for religious organizations, exempting firms with fewer than 15 employees and not spelling out specific accommodations for transgendered workers.



Merkley gained two key Republican votes this week -- which ensured he had at least the 60 votes needed to prevent a filibuster -- by supporting an amendment saying that organizations that take advantage of a religious exemption won't face government retaliation.

In the end, during four days of debate, only one senator -- Republican Dan Coats of Indiana -- spoke on the floor against the bill. He said the religious exemptions in the bill are "vaguely defined and do not extend to all organizations that wish to adhere to their moral or religious beliefs in their hiring practices."

Merkley, who faces re-election next year, also didn't face criticism on the issue from his would-be Republican challengers back in Oregon. His two major GOP rivals in the race, state Rep. Jason Conger of Bend and Portland neurosurgeon Monica Wehby, both said they were not familiar enough with the bill to say whether they would support it.

Merkley said he was struck by how much less public controversy there was than when he led the Oregon House during the battle over the 2007 gay rights legislation.

"People were lining up and yelling at us through our car windows" while driving into the Capitol, said Merkley, adding that he didn't see a single demonstrator on the issue outside the U.S. Capitol this week.

Oregon Equality Act of 2007

Recent cases under the law:

Sweet Cakes bakery:

A lesbian couple file a complaint with the state after the Gresham bakery refuses to make them a wedding cake.

Broadway Cab:

The state agrees to investigate a same-sex couple’s complaint that they were forced out of a cab along Interstate 84 because of their sexual orientation.

P Club:

The state orders the North Portland club, renamed the Twilight Room Annex, to pay $400,000 to a group of cross-dressers it banned.

Oregon is one of 21 states that have gay anti-discrimination laws and 17 that provide protections on the basis of gender identity.

Figures from the state Bureau of Labor and Industries show that less than 3 percent of the discrimination cases filed with the state involve gay or transgendered people – and the majority of those were dismissed or settled between the parties.

The controversial cases have revolved around sections barring discrimination against serving customers and other public accommodations. The bureau is still investigating Sweet Cakes, a Gresham bakery that now operates only online, for refusing to bake a cake for a lesbian couple's wedding.

Jeana Frazzini, executive director of Basic Rights Oregon, said "business owners can't pick and choose whom they're going to serve" based on such things as their race or their sexual orientation.

Tim Nashif, a founder and board member of Oregon Family Council, a group that has opposed same-sex marriage, said the bakery owners were happy to serve them -- they just didn't want to bake a cake for a wedding they didn't believe in.

In the same fashion, he said, "I don't expect a print shop owned by an African-American to have to print pamphlets for the Ku Klux Klan."

Nashif said he didn't have any particular objections to the workplace provisions of Oregon's gay rights law, although he said he didn't think they were necessary.

Below is a video of Merkley's remarks about the bill and Kennedy's leadership

:

--Jeff Mapes