Hey, I hope we don’t see HRC making any bold statements about ENDA until they speak to California U.S. Rep. Jackie Speier. She believes that employment discrimination protection is “realistically” not in the cards for five years.

Addressing the crowd of gay and straight political and community leaders at Sunday’s Alice B. Toklas LGBT Democratic Club Pride breakfast, Speier said, “Speaker [Nancy] Pelosi is doing all she can to ensure a majority for next year so we can pass ENDA.”

Asked later in a brief interview if that meant the House would not vote on ENDA this year, Speier told the B.A.R. , “The rest of the year is in question.”

“There’s no question ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ will be history this year,” she said. “ENDA, we will have that law for sure within the next five years.”

Speier, a Democrat whose district includes parts of San Mateo and San Francisco counties, said she was acknowledging reality.

“I’m being realistic,” she said.

The folks in the room weren’t happy (as you would be seething if you were there). Masen Davis, executive director of the Transgender Law Center and Equality California Executive Director Geoff:

“That means we’ll have five years of people being fired,” he said. “Putting a five-year time limit on the bill feels out of touch.”

…”In a difficult economic climate, it is abhorrent not to pass protections for some of the most vulnerable members of our community, especially when public support for ENDA is higher than for other priorities Congress has pushed through,” Kors said.

I would think that “fierce advocacy” and bully pulpit elbow-twisting to move ENDA might reduce that timeline, don’t you? Out of the major legislation that were on our priority list – DADT, ENDA, DOMA, we’re still limping along after two years with only a hate crimes law (that would have passed anyway) and a crippled DADT repeal that we still don’t even know will pass.

The level of mixed messaging out there regarding legislative process should disturb everyone.