Politico
Gay rights bill poised for final Senate vote
By Burgess Everett

If everything goes as planned, gay rights history will be made on Thursday in the Senate.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Wednesday set up the the final series of votes for the Employment Non-Discrimination Act — which prohibits employment discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity — culminating in a vote final passage on Thursday afternoon if the bill passes a key, 60-vote threshold procedural test in the morning.

Senate passage of ENDA seemed more and more likely Wednesday after the Senate unanimously accepted an amendment by Sens. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) and Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) protecting religious groups exempted under the legislation from government retaliation. That amendment likely secured the vote of several other Republicans pushing for that language, including Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.).

“People should be judged by their experience, their qualifications, and their job performance, and not by their sexual orientation. Someone should not be able to be fired just because he or she is gay,” Portman said on the floor Wednesday. “We must make certain that in pursuit of enforcing non-discrimination, those religious employers are not subject to a different form of discrimination—government retaliation.”

No Republican came to the Senate floor on Wednesday to speak against ENDA, though 30 GOP lawmakers voted against the bill during the first procedural vote Monday.

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