The Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) is legislation proposed in the U. S. Congress that would prohibit discrimination in hiring and employment on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity by employers with at least 15 employees. ENDA has been introduced in every Congress since 1994 except the 109th. Similar legislation has been introduced without passage since 1974. The cliché is “married on Sunday, fired on Monday and evicted on Tuesday.”

So what good does it do LGBT people if they can be married but still discriminated against in employment and public accommodation? Surely these were some of the most basic rights established in prior civil rights legislation. Will the backlash against same-sex marriage provide a continuing blockade of any federal legislation on these issues? I’m not a political scientist so I can’t speculate on the chances for passage any time soon, but I can state that I always have felt that this was our most basic need and should be a priority for LGBT advocates.

Unfortunately, in the midst of all the celebrations about the recent Supreme Court decision, the attitude appears to be that victory has been won so now we can just go home and enjoy life. The battle ground on same-sex marriage has just moved to the states, which is the reverse of what has occurred on job and housing discrimination. Many employers, cities, and states have non-discrimination rules and laws; it’s at the federal level where we’ve been stymied. Presidential executive orders have established safeguards for federal employees, and recently employees of federal contractors, but there are not even any guidelines much less regulations for most employers. Major corporations have been far ahead of the game for decades in promoting diversity as good business and good for business, but lots of smaller companies still operate at the whim of their owners. There are rules about age, race, gender, and national origin, but discrimination still exists even in these categories.

Although public opinion on discrimination against LGBT people has changed in recent years along with attitudes against same-sex marriage, there does not appear to be the same strong religious bias for job discrimination as there is against same-sex marriage. Many religious organizations still discriminate against LGBTs but don’t promote that policy for all employers. So it appears the politicians who the ones who are still lagging behind public opinion. We would not have same-sex marriage in the United States today except for lawsuits and court decisions. We have not had the same success with anti-discrimination lawsuits, such as the Hobby Lobby decision last yet.

Clearly the Republican Party still sees homosexuality, and particularly same-sex marriage, as a wedge issue that appeals to their base although it is questionable how long that can remain a successful campaign issue. The traditional divide between liberal and conservative voters doesn’t apply to the issue of LGBT discrimination, where many voters see it as a libertarian issue.

So are the major LGBT advocacy groups re-orienting their campaigns? It is too soon to say, or to guess what direction that may take. They have badly miscalculated on ENDA in the past. Internal conflicts among the groups over whether or not to include transgender issues or religious exceptions weakened a unified political front. Court decisions on same-sex marriage drove the change in the laws as well as public opinion, but that does not appear to be a viable option for job discrimination.