ENDA, a bill that would bar employer discrimination against gays and transsexuals, got 61 votes in the Senate this afternoon. That’s enough to overcome a filibuster, so presumably it will pass sometime in the next few days. This is great news, but it’s not clear to me why it matters in any substantive kind of way:
Because of opposition in the Republican-controlled House, passage there seems unlikely. Speaker John A. Boehner reiterated his objections to the bill on Monday, releasing a statement that said he believed it would invite too many lawsuits.
Elsewhere in the House on Monday, however, there was an encouraging development for supporters of gay rights. Representative Michael H. Michaud, Democrat of Maine, said that he is gay, becoming the seventh member of Congress to be openly gay, lesbian or bisexual.
As encouraging developments go, that’s unfortunately kind of lame. It’s certainly not going to do anything to change the minds of the tea partiers who are dead set against this legislation.
So….am I missing something? Or is this pretty much just a symbolic victory?