WASHINGTON (AP) – Rep. Barney Frank, a leading gay rights champion in Congress, on Thursday urged fellow gay rights advocates not to let their dispute over protecting transgender workers doom a job discrimination ban that could mark a major civil rights advance for gays in the workplace. On Friday, congressional leaders told gay and transgender activists that they would procede with a version of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act that lacks trans protections.

The debate over including transgender people has sharply divided gay rights activists, many of whom tried to kill the stripped-down bill without protections for transgender workers.

Frank, D-Mass., who supported the bill without trans protections is one of two openly gay members of Congress. He supports transgender protections, but said they don’t have the votes.

“Politically, the notion that you don’t do anything until you can do everything is self-defeating,” he said.

Frank said the public has more awareness because gay activists began educating people about the unfairness of prejudice based on sexual orientation a long time ago.

“These things take awhile,” Frank said. “The transgender issue is of relatively recent vintage.”

The legislation banning workplace discrimination against gays, lesbians and bisexuals – but not those who have had sex-change surgery or cross-dressers – had stalled after an outcry from the transgender community and its allies, including many gay rights organizations.

The Employment Non-Discrimination Act would make it illegal for employers to make decisions about hiring, firing, promoting or paying an employee based on sexual orientation or gender identity. Churches and the military would be exempt.

But when Democrats took vote counts and realized the measure would fail, they substituted a new scaled-back version dropping transgender people from the bill. A second bill to ban workplace discrimination against transgender people was also drafted.