Reply #32: Your reading should include Barney Frank's own statement of his position [View All]

[Jim Lane]

Frank wrote a of his legislative strategy. In sum, he introduced a version of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act that included transgender protection. He encountered unexpected resistance, however. He concluded that, not only would the bill in that form be defeated, but that bringing it to a vote would make it harder to get transgender protection in future years.

Here's an excerpt from his piece:

Even from the standpoint of ultimately including transgender people, it makes far more sense to go forward in a partial way if that is all we can do. Part of the objection to any antidiscrimination legislation is fear of consequences, which fears are always proven to be incorrect. There is a good deal of opposition now to passing even sexual orientation legislation. Enacting legislation to ban discrimination based on sexual orientation and getting a year or two’s experience with it, will be very helpful in our ultimately adding to it protection for people who are transgender. That is, if you always insist on doing all the difficult things in one bite, you will probably never be successful. Dismantling the opposition piecemeal has always worked better.

Whether you agree with him or not, if you read the whole essay you'll see that he's sincerely trying to do what's right in a difficult situation.