Originally published at TransAdvocate. You can comment here or there.

Recently Mara Keisling said:

“during her Oct. 4 speech that Congress is very close to passing a version of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act that would include both sexual orientation and gender identity.

‘It’s going to pass with either McCain or Obama in the White House,’ she predicted.’

‘We are so close to winning,’ Keisling said. ‘We’re already at the point where they want to know us. We’re going to pass ENDA and it will protect all of us. When the new administration comes in, I believe we have 218 votes [in the House] and close to 60 votes [in the Senate] locked down — it will be a no-brainer.’”

But that doesn’t really jive with what U.S. Rep. Barney Frank has recently said:

“If we pick up 15 or 20 Democrats, most of them will be supportive. But I am disappointed in the transgender community. They seem to think that if Nancy Pelosi and myself, George Miller and a few others waved a magic wand we could deliver it. Look, this past year in the legislatures of Maryland, Massachusetts, and New York, efforts to add transgender protections…were defeated. And I testified for it in Massachusetts and lobbied for it. And as a political problem out there, I wish there weren’t, but pretending that something doesn’t exist is never a good way to deal with it. I am afraid that too many people in the transgender community think that talking to me and Nancy Pelosi is the way to do it. I don’t yet see enough grassroots lobbying on their part.

I do think that the hearing that we had — and by the way, we had a hearing in the House over the objections of many of the transgender leadership. But I really doubt their political wisdom...Because they said it was part of our deal to separate it from ENDA and they wanted to not have anything separate. We did a good job in that hearing and we helped persuade some people. So we’re making progress. We’d make even more progress if the transgender community was willing to do the hard political work. And not, frankly, think they can just talk a few leaders into handing this to them.“

If an inclusive ENDA is a “no brainer”, why is the National Center for Lesbian Rights hiring a senior-level organizer:

“to work with individuals and coalition groups to ensure that Members of Congress and their staffs are educated by community members about the intersecting problems of gender identity and sexual orientation discrimination. Organize professional staff, community leaders, and volunteers to hold events and meetings, all with diversity emphasis to work with individuals and coalition groups to ensure that Members of Congress and their staffs are educated by community members about the intersecting problems of gender identity and sexual orientation discrimination. Organize professional staff, community leaders, and volunteers to hold events and meetings, all with diversity emphasis to work with individuals and coalition groups to ensure that Members of Congress and their staffs are educated by community members about the intersecting problems of gender identity and sexual orientation discrimination. Organize professional staff, community leaders, and volunteers to hold events and meetings, all with diversity emphasis.”

It sounds like the National Center for Lesbian Rights is taking the battle seriously… but does Keisling? If she is taking the battle seriously, why would she go down to Atlanta and spout these words to some of the most wealthy transgender people in the country? Why is a gay and lesbian organization doing the work (and paying for it), that should be done by our own community? Like Keisling, I think the answer is a no brainer.