Massachusetts Congressman Barney Frank
is holding out little hope of passage for stalled gay rights bills in
next year's Congress.
While the 70-year-old, openly gay
representative told gay
weekly the Washington Blade that he remains
hopeful that the Senate will act to repeal the law that bans gay and
bisexual service members from serving openly, known as “Don't Ask,
Don't Tell,” during the upcoming lame-duck session, he gave no
such encouragement for other gay rights bills already on the back
burner.
“Next year there's no chance of
anything happening,” he said. “There's zero chance.”
Frank added that Republicans, who'll
takeover the House, and grow their numbers in the Senate, next year,
have become increasingly hostile to gay rights.
“The Republicans have become much
more anti-gay in their voting pattens,” he said. “There is zero
chance of anything good happening with Republicans in control of the
House.”
An
upcoming report by the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the nation's
largest gay advocate, finds that the number of anti-gay senators
doubled since the last Congress. HRC's Congressional Scorecard
for the 111th Congress ranks 32 senators with zero percent
support of gay rights, up from 16 in the last survey. House members
ranked at zero percent support increased from 143 to 144.
Legislation that would ban workplace
discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, the
Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), and repeal of a federal gay
marriage ban, the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), are among the gay
rights bills likely to be shelved in the coming year.