ENDA—the Employment Non-Discrimination Act—is finally likely to pass this year, but one of the country’s most explicit forms of employment discrimination—the military’s “don’t ask don’t tell” (DADT) ban on out gay service members—probably won’t be considered because military leaders appear to be more likely to recommend that Congress delay consideration of a DADT repeal measure, according to an exclusive report by Associated Press national security writer Anne Gearan.

The current session of Congress appears to offer the best opportunity to pass ENDA, which has been introduced in various forms for 15 years, Rea Carey, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, told Gannett News Service reporter Erin Kelly. Lead sponsors of the bill say they expect a vote in the House in the first quarter of this year, Kelly reports.

“I think it’s particularly poignant that this comes at a time when the nation is facing such a crisis in unemployment,” Carey told Gannett. “Each day that a job is lost because of prejudice compounds the problem.”

Opponents of the measure quoted by Kelly in her report cite the usual grab-bag of anti-gay arguments.

Peter Sprigg, senior fellow for policy studies at the conservative Family Research Council, claimed to Kelly that there is “lot of controversy” about an explicit religious exemption in the bill.

Reports—ENDA passage likely this year; DADT repeal not so much [contd.]

The bill would make it illegal to fire, refuse to hire, or refuse to promote an employee based on a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity. But the bill explicitly exempts small businesses with fewer than 15 employees from its requirements and also states that it would not apply to the military or to religious organizations, including churches and parochial schools.

Despite the exemption, Sprigg said. “It’s pretty clear it would not require churches to hire a gay pastor if they don’t want to. But it could force a Christian book store owner or the owner of a Christian publishing company to hire gays even if they have moral objections to that.”

Carey, understandably, rejected such claims. “This is about employment discrimination and nothing more,” Carey said. “People see this as an issue of fairness and, in this economic climate, an issue of survival.”

She said opponents make wild claims about the measure to confuse people about what’s really in the bill.

But if chances for passage of ENDA are looking bright, prospects for a repeal this year may have dimmed according to Gearan’s AP report.

The press service has obtained a memo written to Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, by his in-house counsel. “Now is not the time,” the lawyer is quoted by AP as telling Mullen. He cites the “importance of winning the wars we are in”, “stress on the force”, and other factors, including “the number of unknowns” as reasons to act with what he calls “deliberation”.

A spokesman for Mullen would not discuss the memo, but said the Joint Chiefs have not made a decision about what they will recommend to President Obama or to Congress, Gearan reports. “They continue to have a dialogue about the policy and the law,” the spokesman told Gearan, noting that the military leader are keeping in mind Obama's “strategic intent” to lift the ban.

Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, has said he wants to begin work this year on repealing the ban with a hearing that could come as early as later this month, AP reports. But unnamed “officials” would not predict for Gearan wheter Levin would push for a vote on the measure this year.

She notes that Democratic Party leaders in Congress have not “pressed” on the DADT repeal issue.