The case for ENDA

The Smallest Kids in the tent

I once spent time in a summer camp for Catholic kids where your place in the pecking order was set by your capacity to engage in brutality. My place was pretty low.

In a tent full of angry boys I found myself facing a situation that required courage and integrity, and willingness to step forward to help an underdog. I failed. I think of this failure now that Congress is considering the Employment Nondiscrimination Act (ENDA). Here’s why.

My summer camp experience is at the root of my strong desire to honor and respect the underdog. The underdog in our tent was a kid named Joey, who was just a bit more misfit than I. While we each attracted abuse by the bigger kids who felt they owned the place, Joey’s tortures were much more brutal than my own. Not only did I not stand up for Joey, I joined in his mistreatment. Why? The pack had identified its runt, and I was happy it wasn’t me.

I was, however, the second-smallest kid in the tent. When Joey blew, he came after me alone. There were fists. Screams. Smashed noses. We slugged and punched and rolled out of the tent and into the underbrush. This was wonderful blood sport for the other campers, who squealed like peasants at a rooster fight. Joey and I beat each other with every bit of strength we could summon. Then, panting and covered with blood and shredded leaves and tears and spit, we declared it a draw. We both lost.

Forty-four years later, I’m reminded of Joey when I hear that transgendered peoples’ right to a fair workplace might be negotiated away to make ENDA more palatable to the majority. In such a bargain, ENDA would protect gay, lesbian and bisexual people from unfair discrimination on the job. Gay, lesbian and bisexual people, coming out of a history of job discrimination and legalized abuse, are by this deal offered a chance at fairness only if we’re willing tacitly to endorse the mistreatment of our transgender allies. Transgender folks would be treated like the runt of the litter. Once again, the smallest kids in the tent would be pitted against each other.

Just about the same time Joey and I were clobbering each other in the north woods, Martin Luther King was composing his Letter from a Birmingham Jail. "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere", he wrote.

I wish those words had guided me then.

I hope they’ll guide us now.