Rep. Baldwin gives me some hope on the idea of a fully inclusive ENDA. In an interview in the Huffington Post, she answered the question Do you think it will be possible to pass The Employment Non-Discrimination Act nationally? 

I think the results of the November 4th election will inform the answer to that question also. We had, by my count, a very, very close to a majority who were willing to vote on an inclusive measure. We were very concerned in a lot of the sort of internal discussion, when we were advancing the Bill to the floor which revolved around what sort of response there would be to any type of mischief-making on the floor by the opponents of this legislation and, whether we could if there was an attempt to separate out gender identity and expression withstand an attempt to do that and keep the Bill intact. And, while I was not in the prevailing side of the internal debate on this, the decision was made to introduce separate bills, one protecting people from employment discrimination based on sexual orientation and the other based on gender identity and expression and to move those Bills separately.

Again, I was advocating a different course of action, but in terms of can we do it next session, I think the question will be how many more individuals will be elected to the Congress in this election who are willing to cast that vote. And, if we have a stronger majority, I think we will be able to move forward with an inclusive Bill.

One other thing, it reminds the whole question, reminds me of the Patricia Ireland quote. First, when we're dealing with a sitting Congress, you're trying to build majorities by changing people's minds, but she use to say "If you can't change their minds, change their faces." And that's what we do in elections. We're hopefully going to seat a new Congress in January of next year that has greater numbers of pro-equality members.