John Aravosis over at AMERICAblog has penned several posts recently (The Backlash Begins, Part I II & III) regarding the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), groundbreaking legislation that would bring protections to millions of Americans in the LGBT communities.

Briefly- two bills were voted on by the House Leadership; one that included workplace protections only for lesbians, gays and bisexuals. The other covered these groups and the transgendered community also. The trans-inclusive ENDA bill simply would not pass. At issue is, the transgendered community thinks that, if not included in ENDA, then the bill should be scrapped altogether… putting on-hold possible workplace protections for the LGB communities.

Comments to these posts have been running pretty heated. John, along with roughly half of the commenters to his posts, have taken the position that the transgendered-less ENDA bill should be introduced and voted on so as to at least bring about long sought after protections to the gay community. Then later, fight for the transgendered. The other half are saying “all or nothing!”.

On it’s face, I’d have to agree with John. Rights for some have come by very slowly. Should some groups’ rights be put on hold until everyone has their respective protections? I don’t think so. But I can understand the pro-transgendered concerns in this also. Time and time again, people that once shared a position on a lower rung of the American ladder, and were lucky enough to have climbed their way up, oftentimes forgot about those they’ve left below.

But there’s something bigger here that’s being ignored. A larger picture that should be looked at.

We’ve been trumpeting for centuries now that we’re the “land of the free”, “home of the brave” and “all men are created equal”… blah, blah, blah. Yet, people, United States citizens, are having to fight and beg for rights and equal protections daily! What sense does this make? Can anyone answer this? I thought ALL MEN WERE CREATED EQUAL!

In a perfect world, there would be no special protections. If an employer were to fire an employee, their justification for doing so should be for poor work performance only.

People should be considered equal. Their rights the same. It should be up to an employer (or some other entity) to prove that a person or group is not worthy of said rights and protections… and not the other way around! “We the people…” is the cornerstone for which this country was founded. Not “we the corporations”, nor “we the wealthy, or bigoted, or jesus-freaks”!

We shouldn’t have to demand our rights. They’re already ours. They were given to us by our Founding Fathers. Many lives have been sacrificed throughout the history of this country to keep and secure those rights.

Any employer or entity denying you those rights are only denying their own American heritage.