Congressman Barney Frank (D-MA) says it could happen soon after the Easter congressional recess. Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) believes the votes are there. "As someone who has actually counted the votes, I believe that there are," enough votes Baldwin told Keen News Service. "That's one of the things the LGBT Equality Caucus [in Congress] does is to [focus] attention to making sure we can tell [House] leadership, with accuracy, what the vote would be if they bring the measures up to the floor."

(According to the San Diego Gay & Lesbian News, "The Congressional LGBT Equality Caucus is a group of legislators in the House who are strong supporters of equal rights for LGBT people. The caucus [established in June 2008 and currently includes nearly 90 members of Congress] is organized similarly to the Congressional Black Caucus and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.")

Others say that it may not happen until May or June and maybe not even then.

On March 18, "gay civil rights activists, frustrated that Congress has yet to take a vote on ENDA or repealing DADT, staged peaceful acts of civil disobedience at both the Capitol and the White House," the San Diego Gay & Lesbian News reported. Protesters also staged "sit-ins in both the San Francisco and Washington, D.C., offices of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi."

Pelosi spokesperson Drew Hammill released a statement saying, "The Speaker believes passing ENDA is a top priority and hopes that we can bring ENDA up as soon as possible. That being said, the right time to bring the measure to the floor will be when we have the votes."

What's holding up the passage of ENDA?

Patricia Nell Warren speaks out on ENDA

There are a number of reasons that Pelosi and the White House might be hesitant about bring ENDA to the floor, Patricia Nell Warren told me in an e-mail interview. "They may be nervous about an extremist reaction if the bill moves onto the floor, especially with Republicans and Tea Partiers still acting so crazy over healthcare reform. Unfortunately, the craziness may boil over onto ENDA, and the same obstructionist tactics may be used. So Pelosi may still be weighing whether they can win this or not.  As a possible signal on which way they'll go, Obama has mentioned DADT [Don't Ask, Don't Tell] but he hasn't mentioned ENDA."  

Patricia Nell Warren was born in 1936 and grew up on the prestigious Grant Kohrs cattle ranch near Deer Lodge, Montana. She is the author of a number of books - including The Front Runner, a novel that has become one of the most popular gay love stories of all time, has sold an estimated 10 million copies worldwide and has been translated into 10 languages (English, Spanish, German, French, Dutch, Danish, Swedish, Japanese, Chinese, Latvian). In addition to being a publisher, columnist, and a long-time human rights activist, Warren, from 1996 to 2000, voluntarily taught at a GED program for GLBT youth, and served on the Gay and Lesbian Education Commission of the Los Angeles Unified School District, as well as the district's Human Relations Education Commission.

Bill Berkowitz (BB): How do you think the hyper-charged political climate, Tea Partiers angry over the passage of health care reform and Religious Right leaders making all sorts of negative claims about what ENDA will do, has anything to do with it not having passed yet?

Patricia Nell Warren (PNW): The shrill political climate has everything to do with ENDA not passing yet. One look at a recent poll, with its astonishing figures on the extremist beliefs that so many conservatives harbor about the President himself, makes it easy to see how extremist beliefs about ENDA can prevail as well.  When people's passions get that worked up about religion, the rank and file will believe anything they're told. And, unfortunately, their leaders cynically sit around making up the most extreme and provocative statements possible, because they know their overwrought followers will go along with them.

BB: How do you react to charges from Religious Right leaders that ENDA will sanction cross-dressing in the work place?

PNW: In a sense, the charge is accurate. If ENDA is passed, employees should be allowed to dress in the manner that's appropriate to their chosen gender identity, whatever that is. And they will do that if allowed by law.

But going beyond that -- will rampant casual cross-dressing at the office start happening just for the hell of it?  I doubt it. Nobody who isn't deeply committed to an actual change in gender identity is going to take that risk of changing the way they dress at work. To me, this cross-dressing charge is bogus -- it falls in the same class with the ridiculous charge that allowing gay marriage will open the way to people marrying animals. Nobody is going to marry animals! Among other things, marriage involves consent between two parties and hello -- animals can't consent.

BB: What about their charges that the passage of ENDA will hurt children?

PNW: I don't think that the passage of ENDA will harm children, at least, not in the sense that conservatives fear. My own experiences in Los Angeles Unified School District, both as a volunteer teacher and a commissioner, have shown me that many children are more flexible and understanding about these issues than some people give them credit for.

Children are harmed far more by the bad example of right wingers and Tea Partiers launching death threats against politicians who disagree with them; which may be one reason that we're seeing a spike in violence among young children, especially in middle school. That awful attack in a Broward school the other day, when a 15-year-old boy kicked a girl almost to death with his steel-toed boots, is the latest example of where children are taking all this craziness that they see in the adult political world.

Ironically, one form of cross-dressing has been allowed in the workplace for five decades now -- women wearing men's clothes. I was a junior editor at The Reader's Digest in the 1960s when women on the staff finally dared to (gasp) wear trousers to work. I was one of the first. I doubt it could be proven that millions of American children were harmed by the dropping of this gender bar on workplace dress everywhere in the country.

BB: And when ENDA is passed?

PNW: If and when ENDA passes, having people with changed gender identity in the workplace -- working side by side with them, and even using the same bathroom with them -- is something that some people will just have to get over. And most of them probably will. After all, some Americans had to get over their emotionally violent objections to using the same public swimming pools as black people.