The mark of fairness: with ENDA stalled in Congress, a straight couple has stepped up to help stop antigay discrimination in the workplace.

In 1979, when Yale economist and author Ian Ayres was an undergrad, he went home for a visit with his girlfriend. As expected, he was told she would sleep in the guest room. Then, Ayres says, "my dad said, 'Your sister is coming to visit next month--with her girlfriend. And your mom and I are thinking we will let them stay in the same room.'

"I was so surprised," recalls Ayres, with a tinge of lingering adolescent pique. His father explained, "You have the right to marry whenever you want. Society doesn't give your sister that option. And it's not fair to never let her stay in the same room with the person that she loves."

It's a political coming-of-age story that provides a context for the work that Ayres--along with his wife and colleague, Jennifer Gerarda Brown--has been promoting all summer. In addition to plugging their new book, Straightforward: How to Mobilize Heterosexual Support for Gay Rights, the pair are spearheading a campaign to offer a nondiscrimination trademark to every corporation that promises fair treatment to gay and lesbian employees. It's their response to Congress's inability to pass the federal Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which would outlaw antigay discrimination on the job.

To earn the "Fair Employment Mark"--the letters FE within a circle, not unlike a copyright or registered trademark symbol--a corporation would have to sign a legally binding contract promising not to discriminate against gays and lesbians. Citing a 2003 Gallup poll, Ayres says 88% of Americans support such policies. "Sixteen states have prohibited private discrimination in employment," he notes, "but that covers only about 47% of workers. More than half the states are not covered." He and Brown hope more than 100,000 employees will be covered by the FE by the end of 2005.

The FE mark idea is an "early concept," says Greg Nevins, counsel at Lambda Legal. It could catch on, he adds, "if it became a benchmark standard where the community was really assessing how good a company was based on adopting this."

Adds Chai Feldblum, a professor at Georgetown University Law Center who specializes in employment law and GLBT rights: "I wish them well, but I have some skepticism." Feldblum is dismayed that the FE contract--based on an early version of ENDA--does not include a promise to protect expressions of gender identity.

"But even once they do that," she says, "I'm not sure what's in it for a corporation to take on liability."

Feldblum sighs. "What we need is a workplace where someone can be openly gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and not suffer adverse consequences," she says. "The way to get there is a combination of voluntary employer efforts and a mandate from the government. That's ENDA, and there's not much you can do to substitute for that mandate."

Wildman is The Advocate's Washington correspondent.