The U.S. House of Representatives today passed H.R. 3685, the Employment Discrimination Act of 2007 (ENDA) by a vote of 235-184. If the bill becomes law, employers would be prohibited from employment discrimination on the basis of actual or perceived sexual orientation. An earlier version of the bill (H.R. 2015) would have also prohibited discrimination on the basis of gender identity.

Two amendments to H.R. 3685 were adopted. One revised the religious organization exemption to mirror the language used in Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The other states that ENDA does not negate any section of the federal Defense of Marriage Act.

A third amendment, which would have re-inserted protections for gender identity, was offered and then withdrawn. That amendment, which came to be known as the “Baldwin Amendment,” was a major focus of the floor debate. More than 300 organizations said ENDA should only pass with gender identity protections.

Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA) is expected to introduce ENDA in the Senate soon. He has not disclosed whether the Senate version of the bill will include gender identity protection.

The Washington Blade, part of the Window Media family that has provided outstanding coverage of ENDA, reports that in 1996, the Senate nearly passed ENDA without gender identity protections. Of the 45 current senators who were in office in 1996, 26 voted for the bill and 19 voted against it.

The White House has indicated that the President’s advisors will urge him to veto ENDA even without gender identity protection.

Today’s House vote was largely along party lines. Thirty-five Republicans voted in favor of the bill. Although twenty-five Democrats voted against it, at least seven of them made it clear that they did so only because it failed to include prohibitions against discrimination based on gender identity.

• WATCH LIST: Employment Non-Discrimination Act of 2007