"Doesn't Congress have anything better to do?"

Conservatives are asked this when they pursue legislation to curb abortion or pornography. So what have liberals in Congress put on the agenda instead?

Cross-dressing.

They're fighting about this in Congress, although few media are reporting it.

Self-selected "gender identity" would become the law of the land, supplanting what activists deride as "gender assigned at birth." Employers would be punished if they didn't accept cross-dressing. Even to the point that guys dressed as gals could use the ladies' room. And gals dressed as guys could use the men's room.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was planning a vote for the week of Halloween. How fitting. But now she and other supporters have gotten spooked.

Cross-dressing was funny in movies like "Some Like It Hot," but now it's serious and it's on the agenda in Washington, across the country and even in public schools.

Under its liberal leadership, both houses of Congress have already passed bills to give cross-dressers special protection, and they plan to give them more.

The ultimate goal is not just public acceptance on the streets and on the job, but also in public schools. As the Transgender Law Center describes it, the goal is "the right to use a restroom that corresponds to the student's gender identity, regardless of the student's sex assigned at birth."

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Naturally, they apply milder labels to obscure what's happening. They employ the terms "transgender" or "gender identity" instead of calling it cross-dressing. (And, yes, this differs from transsexuals who have had sex-change surgery.)

Washington is not the first place to pursue this:

• California has a brand new law to protect school children who want to cross-dress, and even to visit rest rooms and locker rooms according to what they're wearing, regardless of their actual gender. That new law also would require schools to promote acceptance of cross-dressing and other sexual lifestyles. Worried parents are trying to get a repeal referendum on the ballot.

• Approval of cross-dressing is already the policy in Los Angeles public schools. Parents are not to be told if their child cross-dresses at school, and teachers must let each student decide whether they want to be called a "him" or a "her."

• New York City last fall gave cross-dressers the right to use the public restroom of their choice in its transit system, after one of many lawsuits filed since the city added "gender identity" to its human rights law in 2002. One department store has been forced to let men who dress as women use its restrooms and its fitting rooms.

In 1993, Daniel Patrick Moynihan declared that America keeps defining deviancy downward. The liberals running Congress keep proving him right.

Their first step was the definitions in the "hate crimes" bills passed this year by each house of Congress (hopefully to be vetoed by President Bush). It provides extra punishment for crimes committed "because of the actual or perceived religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability of any person."

The House version said the same, plus a catchall ban on anything covered by "State, local or Tribal hate crime laws." Ten states protect transgender individuals in their hate crime laws, and six states and 71 local jurisdictions do so in their anti-discrimination laws, according to a House report.

Now comes Congress' next step: The Halloween season vote on ENDA. A requirement that employers accept cross-dressing on the job was originally included in ENDA, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, introduced by openly-gay Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., to give job protection to homosexuals.

Recently, Rep. Frank removed the "gender identity" provision from his bill strictly from fear that it would make passing that bill more difficult. Outraged, Rep. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., who is openly lesbian, plans to offer an amendment to restore "gender identity." The national GLBT, or Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, community wants the language restored and is undergoing a furious internal debate over whether they've been sold out. (Any Internet search on "ENDA" and "transgender" will show just how hot and active this debate is.)

Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., wants to include the language; her sole concern is whether the time is right. Only a small group of Democrats have asked her to delay the vote, so she's honoring their request for the moment. Even if it's not adopted this time, she and Rep. Frank both have pledged to make "gender identity" protection happen eventually.

Fortunately, President Bush has promised to veto ENDA, with or without that provision. But when he's gone from the White House, will the next president stop Pelosi and her friends?

This is what happens when the left runs Congress. As they push special protection for cross-dressing, transgenderism and "gender identity," they prove how right Will Rogers was when he said, "When Congress makes a joke it's a law, and when they make a law, it's a joke."

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Ernest Istook is a distinguished fellow at the Heritage Foundation. He served 14 years in the U.S. House as a representative from Oklahoma. A frequent guest host on talk radio, Istook hosts the Heritage Foundation's radio program on XM Radio's POTUS '08 Channel.