From Representative Barney Frank's (D-MA) office comes word that there will be a press conference tomorrow afternoon to celebrate the re-introduction of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA). Frank will be joined at the media event by co-sponsors Deborah Pryce (R-OH), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) and Christopher Shays (R-CT) and various community representatives. From the message:

The proposed legislation will extend important federal employment protections to gay men and lesbians and will prohibit employment discrimination based on gender identity. Every year, qualified hard-working Americans are denied job opportunities because of who they are. Countless others live in fear of losing their jobs. In 33 states, it is legal to fire someone who is otherwise qualified simply because of his or her sexual orientation; the same is true in 42 states based on gender identity. ENDA is aimed at addressing this problem on a national level.

Before I posted about this, I double-checked with a couple sources that this version of ENDA included the transgender since I vaguely remembered something about that segment being left out of a bill last year. Having confirmed that our transgender brothers and sisters are included this go-round, I feel much better about the legislation. With the federal hate crimes bill filed recently and ENDA being filed tomorrow, we can only hope that our federal legislators are more interested in tolerance and equality than Indiana's state-level bill pushers.