Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa abruptly withdrew from the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) gala dinner that he was scheduled to keynote on Saturday night.

San Francisco city officials from Mayor Gavin Newsome on down boycotted the gala fundraiser because of HRC’s support for the removal of gender identity and expression from the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) in September 2007. When the bill passed the House of Representatives in October 2008, it did so without language that would protect transgendered and gender-variant people from discrimination in employment.

“When Villaraigosa agreed to appear at the dinner at the Westin St. Francis Hotel, he was unaware that the San Francisco Labor Council had urged its members to boycott the event, which would have put the Democratic mayor, who is mentioned as a possible 2010 gubernatorial candidate, in the position of having to cross a union picket line,” according to Matt Szabo, Villaraigosa’s spokesman, the Associated Press reported. “We made a commitment and we understood the controversy, but we are now aware the Labor Council had voted for an official boycott,” Szabo told AP.

HRC spokesman Brad Luna issued a statement on Saturday saying that the protest at the event organized by local activists “has nothing to do with organized labor” and that HRC was committed to the civil rights of transgendered people as well as gay men and lesbians. But it is difficult for me to see how the exclusion of an entire class of people from an employment non-discrimination bill could “have nothing to do with organized labor,” since the purpose of organized labor, like that ostensibly of ENDA, is to protect workers. And the non-inclusive ENDA bill that passed the House and that is now awaiting introduction in the Senate does not adequately protect non-transgendered lesbian, gay, and bisexual people, let alone transgendered people.