The Obamas held a conference on anti-bullying at the White House on March 10, 2011, and said many of the "right things." As MetroWeekly reports, however, Barack Obama has yet to endorse or champion two pending bills - the Safe Schools Improvement Act ("SSIA") and the Student Non-Discrimination Act ("SNDA") - now pending in Congress. The SSIA would amend the Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act to include bullying- and harassment-prevention programs, including ones based on sexual orientation or gender identity. The SNDA, modeled after Title IX, would add sexual orientation and gender identity to federal education nondiscrimination law. Unfortunately, it's a pattern all too familiar to many who sought a leader in Obama and instead found a follower. As long as protections based on sexual orientation are missing from the federal laws, the message is quietly sent that such discrimination and bullying is in fact OK. Here are some highlights from the MetroWeekly article:*
On March 10, the White House held a conference dedicated to discussing bullying prevention and sharing ideas and strategies for combating the crisis. Despite the setting, the two pieces of federal legislation specifically crafted with that aim were not mentioned by the multiple senior administration officials, including President Barack Obama, who spoke at the event.
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[B]ut the focus was remarkably local. Breakout sessions focused on in-school, campus-based and community-based programs and policies, as well as cyberbullying. No similar sessions, however, focused on federal legislative or even administrative efforts – although participants raised them in the other sessions.
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What was completely absent from the president's remarks was any mention – however fleeting – of either legislative effort aimed at combating bullying or discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.
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The SSIA was reintroduced by Sens. Bob Casey Jr. (D-Pa.) and Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) earlier in the week of the conference and has 19 co-sponsors. At the end of the 111th Congress, the bill had 132 sponsors and co-sponsors in the House and 18 sponsors and co-sponsors in the Senate.
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The SNDA, meanwhile, was reintroduced by Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colo.) and Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) on the same day as the conference. The House bill has 99 co-sponsors, and the Senate version has 29 co-sponsors. At the end of the 111th Congress, the bill had 127 sponsors and co-sponsors in the House and 32 sponsors and co-sponsors in the Senate.
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Neither bill was mentioned by Obama in his remarks, nor were they mentioned by Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius or Education Secretary Arne Duncan later in they day when they addressed the attendees.
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Over the course of the past nine months, in fact, White House and other administration officials have declined numerous opportunities to endorse either bill and have rarely even mentioned the bills except in response to specific questions about them.
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Efforts to draw attention to the issue of anti-LGBT bullying – most notably, the ''It Gets Better'' campaign started by Dan Savage – struck a chord with the country, even leading Obama to record a message that was uploaded to YouTube on Oct. 21, 2010. He did not mention either bill as a way that the government could help make it better in his three-minute message.
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Gaylord said, ''Both bills have a lot of support in Congress. Both bills have a lot of support in the [relevant] committees. I think we're making a really good case for both bills at the moment.'' Of the lack of an endorsement of the bills from the White House, Gaylord said, ''It would be great if they had done it already, but I don't think the moment has passed. ''I think that a statement of support around either or both bills is clearly what we're looking for.''
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My thoughts? Don't hold your breath.
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