Photo: Jared Polis. Credit: U.S. House of Representatives.
Rep. Jared Polis sought to narrow the Employment Non-Discrimination Act’s religious exemption with a resolution quietly introduced Tuesday and referred to the House Committee on Rules.
Polis, the lead sponsor of ENDA in the House of Representatives, is attempting to rewrite the religious exemption to mirror that of Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
“Such organizations are not exempt from the requirements of this Act to refrain from discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity, in the same manner as is required with respect to discrimination based on race, color, sex and national origin under such title,” the resolution states, which would apply to religious corporations, associations and educational institutions.
The move by the out Colorado Democrat comes as several LGBT-rights groups have pulled their support for ENDA over the bill’s religious exemption. Last month, Polis also introduced House Resolution 639 that would set the stage for a discharge petition and force the House to vote on ENDA if supporters of the petition garnered 218 signatures.
Both attempts are not expected to secure the votes necessary to move forward in this Congress, but illustrate the rapid rate at which ENDA supporters have turned on the bill’s religious exemption. It is unclear how narrowing ENDA’s religious exemption could impact Republican support for the bill. Currently, eight House Republicans are cosponsors of the version of ENDA approved by the Senate last November. The Senate approved that bill with the support of 10 Republicans — the most Senate Republicans to ever vote for a piece of LGBT-rights legislation — in part due to the religious exemption. When the religious exemption was adopted with a 402-25 vote in 2007 as an amendment in the House proposed by Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.), it received the backing of not only Democrats like Nancy Pelosi, Barney Frank and Tammy Baldwin, but Republicans like John Boehner, Eric Cantor and Paul Ryan. Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) specifically cited the religious exemption when he became one of three Republicans on the Senate Health, Education, Labor & Pensions Committee to vote in favor of ENDA last July.
Earlier this week, President Barack Obama signed an executive order prohibiting federal contractors from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity and declined to broaden religious exemptions that existed in previous executive orders — a move pushed for by some faith leaders.
In a statement following the signing of that executive order, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi hinted attempts would be made to narrow ENDA’s religious exemption.
“We must work to pass a strengthened Employment Non-Discrimination Act in the House of Representatives, where Republicans have been blocking bipartisan legislation passed in the Senate from debate and amendment in the House,” Pelosi said. “Discrimination has no place in our nation – not in our workplaces, not in our schools, not in our society and not in our government.”
Federal lawmakers have passed the annual National Defense Authorization Act, a sweeping defense policy bill that includes a new federal ban on transgender women competing on female-designated sports teams at U.S. military service academies.
The ban on transgender athletes was folded into the 3,086-page bill, which authorizes approximately $900 billion in military and national security spending for 2026, according to Mother Jones. The House of Representatives passed the measure by a 312-112 vote, with 94 Democrats and 18 Republicans opposed. The Senate followed with a 75-22 vote, and the bill now heads to President Donald Trump for his signature.
Terry Sweeney, the first openly gay cast member of Saturday Night Live, had some harsh words for actor Chevy Chase, a member of the show’s original cast who has returned to host multiple times.
"Chevy is one of those turds you flush down the toilet but it comes back up again and again," the 75-year-old Sweeney, best remembered for his exaggerated impression of First Lady Nancy Reagan, told the New York Post.
Sweeney’s comments come as a new CNN documentary, I'm Chevy Chase, and You're Not, directed by Marina Zenovich, is set to premiere on January 1 at 8 p.m.
In late November, the University of Oklahoma placed Mel Curth on administrative leave after the transgender graduate teaching assistant gave a student a zero on an essay about gender roles.
The essay cited the Bible to defend traditional gender roles and described transgender people as "demonic." Curth and the course's instructor, Megan Waldron, said the paper failed to meet basic academic standards due to a lack of empirical evidence. Both noted that the paper cited no scholarly sources and failed to offer an evidence-based critique of the assigned article, which argued that children who do not conform to rigid gender stereotypes are more likely to face bullying and negative mental health outcomes.
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