Republican US Senators Kill Anti-LGBT Bullying Bill

Despite the major triumph the LGBT community experienced in the Obergefell marriage ruling, we sadly remain less than human in the minds of the Christofascists and, as a result, open game for abuse and bullying.  To the "godly folk" the lives of LGBT individuals simply do not matter and since, the Republican Party are the tawdry whores of the Christofascists, are lives and safety mean nothing to the GOP.  This reality was underscored by GOP action in the United States Senate led by Lamar Alexander - a proven douche bag - that killed proposed federal legislation that would have protected LGBT students from discrimination and bullying.  Stated in simple form, Alexander's excuse for killing the bill was a formulation of the "states' rights" bullshit that has been used in the past to justify slavery, then discrimination against blacks under Jim Crow, and now gays.  The New Civil Rights Movement looks at this disappointing anti-gay action.  Here are highlights:

For years, Democratic U.S. Senator Al Franken has been trying to pass a bill to protect LGBT students in public schools from discrimination. And for years the bill, known as the Student Nondiscrimination Act, or SENDA, failed to even get voted out of committee.

The two-term junior Senator from Minnesota tried a different approach, today attaching his legislation to a revision of the No Child Left Behind Act.

Led by GOP Senator Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, Republican Senators just voted it down, 52-45. 60 votes were needed to pass.

Franken's legislation had 40 cosponsors, including one Republican, Sen. Mark Kirk of Illinois. Franken knew the vote would be "very close," but hoped for passage.

“Kids have these protections for race, national origin, gender and disability,” Franken told Buzzfeed. “We want to extend to LGBT kids the same right that other kids have.”

Bullying of LGBT students is “becoming an epidemic,” he said, citing three boys who committed suicide after they were being harassed by classmates who believed they were gay. “You can’t learn if you are afraid,” he added.

Franken's legislation is amendment #2093 to S1177, aka the "Every Child Achieves Act of 2015."

The Washington Post reports Senator Alexander "urged his colleagues to vote against the amendment, calling it a federal intrusion into matters best handled at the local level."

Here is a breakdown how voted voted to allow the bullying and abuse of LGBT students to continue:

Here's the list of all U.S. Senators who this afternoon voted to allow our nation's LGBTQ youth to continue to be bullied – these are the NAY's. You'll notice that each NAY is from a Republican Senator, headed by Sen. Alexander:

Alexander (R-TN) Barrasso (R-WY) Blunt (R-MO) Boozman (R-AR) Burr (R-NC) Capito (R-WV) Cassidy (R-LA) Coats (R-IN) Cochran (R-MS) Corker (R-TN) Cornyn (R-TX) Cotton (R-AR) Crapo (R-ID) Cruz (R-TX) Daines (R-MT)

Enzi (R-WY) Ernst (R-IA) Fischer (R-NE) Flake (R-AZ) Gardner (R-CO) Grassley (R-IA) Hatch (R-UT) Hoeven (R-ND) Inhofe (R-OK) Isakson (R-GA) Lankford (R-OK) Lee (R-UT) McCain (R-AZ) McConnell (R-KY) Moran (R-KS)

Paul (R-KY) Perdue (R-GA) Risch (R-ID) Roberts (R-KS) Rounds (R-SD) Sasse (R-NE) Scott (R-SC) Sessions (R-AL) Shelby (R-AL) Sullivan (R-AK) Thune (R-SD) Tillis (R-NC) Toomey (R-PA) Vitter (R-LA) Wicker (R-MS)

Here's the list of all the US Senators who voted to help protect LGBTQ youth from bullying – these are the YEAs:

Ayotte (R-NH) Baldwin (D-WI) Bennet (D-CO) Blumenthal (D-CT) Booker (D-NJ) Boxer (D-CA) Brown (D-OH) Cantwell (D-WA) Cardin (D-MD) Carper (D-DE) Casey (D-PA) Collins (R-ME) Coons (D-DE) Donnelly (D-IN) Durbin (D-IL) Feinstein (D-CA) Franken (D-MN) Gillibrand (D-NY)

Heinrich (D-NM) Heitkamp (D-ND) Heller (R-NV) Hirono (D-HI) Johnson (R-WI) Kaine (D-VA) King (I-ME) Kirk (R-IL) Klobuchar (D-MN) Leahy (D-VT) Manchin (D-WV) Markey (D-MA) McCaskill (D-MO) Menendez (D-NJ) Merkley (D-OR) Mikulski (D-MD) Murkowski (R-AK) Murphy (D-CT)

Murray (D-WA) Peters (D-MI) Portman (R-OH) Reed (D-RI) Reid (D-NV) Sanders (I-VT) Schatz (D-HI) Schumer (D-NY) Shaheen (D-NH) Stabenow (D-MI) Tester (D-MT) Udall (D-NM) Warner (D-VA) Warren (D-MA) Whitehouse (D-RI) Wyden (D-OR)

I'm sorry, but to my mind, a gay voting Republican is akin to a 1930's German Jew supporting the Nazi party.    Candidly, I hold today's GOP in almost the same level of contempt as I hold for the "godly folk" who use the Bible to justify evil.