The national Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) took a major step ahead on Monday, after a decades-long struggle between progressive and conservative politicians.
On Monday, every member of the Democratic caucus and a few Republicans in the Senate voted to move forward with the bill that would make workplace discrimination against LGBT employees illegal on a national scale.
The bill is expected to pass the full Senate. Even hardcore conservative Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah voted in favor of moving the bill forward on Monday, but Tennessee Senators Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker both voted against the bill. The bill may face a tough crowd in the Republican-led House of Representatives.
In 1996, the last time the Senate considered passage of ENDA, the bill failed by one vote.
