LGBT Rights Groups Drop Support for ENDA

Rea Carey

In the wake of the ruling in Hobby Lobby which radically expanded religious based rights to discriminate, leading LGBT Rights groups have dropped their support for the Senate passed version of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act ("ENDA") which includes an expansive religious exemption.  The fear is that if the Hobby Lobby rational is applied to the exemption, ENDA could become a license to discriminate against LGBT employees - the total opposite of the Act's objective.  Rea Carey of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force has an op-ed in The Advocate that lays out why the NGLTF has dropped its support for ENDA.  Here are highlights:

The morning the sun rose after the Supreme Court’s Hobby Lobby ruling, we all woke up in a changed and intensified landscape of religious exemptions being used as an excuse to discriminate. The reality is that while politics is about compromise, some compromises are too great.

After much soul searching, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Action Fund has decided to withdraw its support for the current version of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. As one of the lead advocates on this bill for 20 years, we do not take this move lightly but we do take it unequivocally — we now oppose this version of ENDA because of its too-broad religious exemption.

Frankly, it is becoming harder and harder for me, for us, to tolerate our own moral and political inconsistencies by protesting the Hobby Lobby decision, then advocating for the current ENDA with its broad religious exemption, and then insisting that the president not include a broad exemption in the upcoming executive order protecting LGBT people working for federal contractors. How can we demand that a woman have coverage for reproductive healthcare at a company but support a bill that allows a lesbian cafeteria worker in the religiously affiliated hospital next door to be fired from her job?

In the last year alone, we have seen a wave of attempted and successful efforts at imposing religious exemptions on issues of reproductive health and LGBT equality on the local, state, and federal level. And it is crystal clear in the week following the Supreme Court’s Hobby Lobby decision that the momentum is building on religious exemptions. Not 48 hours after the decision, Pastor Rick Warren joined other faith leaders in a letter to the president asking that he include a broad religious exemption in the contractor executive order. We cannot be complicit in writing such exemptions into federal law.

There is a better alternative: federal nondiscrimination legislation that contains a reasonable religious accommodation. LGBT people should have the same protections as those contained in Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Legal equality is legal equality. 

The campaign to create broad religious exemptions for employment protections repeats a pattern we’ve seen before in methodically undermining voting rights, women’s access to reproductive health, and affirmative action.

We are also deeply concerned that ENDA’s broad religious exemption will serve as a template — a new floor, not a ceiling — not only for our work on LGBT nondiscrimination across the country, but also for other issues that affect our community deeply including marriage, access to HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention, and access to other reproductive health services. We are well aware that there are many states with zero protections for LGBT people. This weighs on us heavily, as does the fact that many LGBT people would be at risk of having no protections with this broad religious exemption. We will all need to double down to move forward on nondiscrimination laws in the states where none exist as we push for federal protections with a fair and equal religious accommodation.

There is nothing inherently inconsistent between religion and living our lives freely as LGBT people. We do not need to settle for a law that has a loophole this large, that will embolden our opposition and that has the potential to curb our progress on other federal, state, and local laws protecting LGBT people and their families.

Carey is 100% on the money in her analysis.  We cannot afford to see passage of a law that could perversely become a vehicle for anti-gay discrimination.

ENDA Would Still Allow Discrimination Against LGBT Workers

While ENDA - the Employment Non-Discrimination Act - which remains stalled in the U.S. House of Representatives thanks to Congressional Republicans would be an improvement for those of us living in states like Virginia who currently have zero employment protections.  However, as passed by the U.S. Senate ENDA continues to contain a religious exemption that is so broad that one could drive a convoy of eighteen wheelers through it.   Sadly, the exemption is symptomatic of the undeserved and corrosive deference still give to religion.  Imagine if laws barring discrimination on age, national origin or even religious based discrimination contained a similar exemption and one quickly sees the ridiculousness of including such an exemption in a non-discrimination law.  The irony, of course, is that if anything is NOT an immutable characteristic, it is religious belief which ultimately is 100% a choice.  A piece in The Nation looks at how ENDA, if passed by Congress, would still give license to anti-gay discrimination in the work place. 

Most Americans workers have no protection from being fired because they are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT). This fact comes as a shock to many people. Around three-quarters of the public assumes that LGBT workers already have federal job protection. But they don’t. Legislation to address that problem has been kicking around Congress for forty years—it is now called the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, or ENDA—but Congress has not succeeded in passing it.

In 1974, when the first federal bill to protect LGBT workers was introduced, the landscape for equality was unfriendly—and things got worse before they got better. But they did get better. The military’s ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy, enacted in 1993, was repealed in 2010, and gay people now serve openly in the armed forces. The Defense of Marriage Act was passed in 1996, but it was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 2013. Now nineteen states and the District of Columbia recognize full marriage equality, with more to come.

This progress has made the lack of employment protection for LGBT people nonsensical. We can hardly imagine that a gay man could serve his country in the military, only to get fired for being gay when he returns to his civilian job. But in most parts of the country, that is exactly what could happen.

In the face of continued congressional inaction, President Obama has announced that he will issue an executive order to prohibit most federal contractors from discriminating against workers on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity—protections that are already in place for race, gender and other categories. The president’s action is important, but it can only do so much. Congress must still enact ENDA.

But what should ENDA look like? The right answer to that question is simple: LGBT workers should have the same protection that other workers already enjoy under the 1964 Civil Rights Act—no more, no less. But something is getting in the way of that simple answer: the forty years of history that we have been dragging around with us like the wreckage of a derelict ship.

[O]nly one piece of flotsam is left in the statute: a provision called the “religious exemption.” Among federal anti-discrimination laws, it is unique to ENDA. And that is the very reason that it must be stricken. At issue is when religious organizations should get special exemptions from civil rights laws. Should they be allowed to discriminate in some circumstances when other employers cannot? 

One could take a range of approaches to this question. On one end, there is the view that the only special exemption should be the one that the Constitution actually requires: that churches and religious organizations remain free to choose ministers and other employees with ministerial duties free from any interference from government. On the other end, we have recently seen legislation like Arizona’s SB1062 that would create exceedingly broad religious exemptions that would even apply to for-profit businesses. 

We cannot have one approach to religious exemptions for discrimination based on gender or disability and a different approach for discrimination based on race or sexual orientation. To do so would be to accept the idea that some types of equality are inherently at odds with religion. That dangerous argument has been misused many times in our history. The unequal treatment of women, racial segregation, even slavery itself—all have been justified by religious doctrine.

The current draft of ENDA violates this important principle. It contains a broad religious exemption that takes protections away from LGBT people—and only from them. If you are a maintenance worker at a religious organization, you cannot be fired for being white or a woman, but if ENDA is not fixed, you could be fired for being gay. 

If that detritus were included in the law, then ENDA would stand for the intolerable idea that equal treatment of LGBT people is inherently incompatible with religious belief. We are long past the point where it is acceptable for Congress to endorse such polarizing stereotypes. This last vestige of appeasement from an earlier time must now be removed from ENDA.

All things considered, across the march of history religion has proven to be a pervasive evil that has brought wars, death and violence - it is still doing so at this very moment in Iraq - and it is far past time that it lose its undeserved deference.  The religious exemption needs to be stripped from ENDA and all non-discrimination laws.

What Can Happen When Your Boss is Anti-Gay

Sadly, in 29 states whether or not one is competent at their job and popular with customers and/or the citizenry still doesn't matter.  All it takes is a new homophobic boss (usually coupled with spineless co-workers) and before you realize what is happening you are unemployed.  What happened to police chief Crystal Moore in Latta, South Carolina is a case in point. Two decades of commendatory service went out the window.  I know how she must feel - the same thing happened to me.  Meanwhile, the GOP controlled House of Representatives continues to block the passage of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act and Barack Obama sits with his thumb up his ass and refuses to sign an ENDA executive order.  Slate looks at the fate that fell Crystal Moore all because her new boss is a raging homophobe.  Here are highlights:

The tiny town of Latta, S.C., found itself embroiled in scandal last week after Mayor Earl Bullard fired police chief Crystal Moore. Moore alleges that her firing was nothing more than a vindictive display of homophobia by Bullard, who became mayor in December 2013. After loyally serving Latta for more than two decades without incident, the openly gay employee suddenly found herself at odds with a new boss who opposes gay rights. Seven reprimands later—the only reprimands she had received during her time on the force, all issued on the same day—Moore was out of a job. This is what can happen when your new boss is anti-gay.

During a secretly recorded phone call, Bullard said that he would rather have a drunkard look after his children than an openly gay individual. (If you’re concerned with Bullard’s privacy, he claimed he would say this to anyone directly.) In perhaps the most damning part of the call, Bullard states, “I'm not going to let two women stand up there and hold hands and let my child be aware of it.” Other councilmembers have alleged that Bullard’s intention to fire Moore was formed even before he took office.

I hope those who view former Mozilla CEO Brendan Eich as the victim of a vengeful mob are paying attention. In South Carolina, we have a police chief who was allegedly terminated for her sexual orientation. Where is the outrage over Moore’s firing?

Latta residents continue to express their support for the now-deposed police chief, but the loss of a dedicated and respected public servant should come as no surprise: South Carolina offers absolutely no employment protections for LGBTQ employees. Last year, South Carolina’s Republican senators, Tim Scott and Lindsey Graham, both voted against the federal Employment Non Discrimination Act, known as ENDA. House Speaker John Boehner claimed that “people are already protected in the workplace,” suggesting that ENDA would lead to frivolous lawsuits. Since then, Boehner has been instrumental in blocking a simple up-or-down vote on the legislation.

While some seem to think that the gay rights movement is mounting witch hunts against those it brands homophobic bigots, cases like Crystal Moore’s remind us that for most the battle remains one for simple equality.

Hopefully, Moore will file a federal lawsuit against Bullard and the town.

Billionaires Push Republicans on Employment Non-Discrimination Act

While Barack Obama sits on his hands and refuses to sign an executive order ENDA, some Republican billionaires are pushing anti-gay Republicans in the House of Representatives to change their position and vote for passage of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act ("ENDA") which was passed by the U.S. Senate.  The result is that GOP Congress members must decide between angering major GOP donors or continuing to prostitute themselves to Christofascists within the GOP base.  There is certainly an element of sweet irony to the situation.  Politico looks at the pressure being applied to members of the House GOP.  Here are excerpts:

Republican billionaires Paul Singer and Seth Klarman are supporting gay rights activists in a $2.2 million campaign to get the Republican-controlled House to extend workplace protections to the LGBT community.

An umbrella group called Americans for Workplace Opportunity wants a vote on a bill passed by the Senate before the end of the year.

“We really see this as an important piece of unfinished business for LGBT workers and people around the country,” said Campbell Spencer, who is managing the campaign.

Spencer said the group’s goal is to demonstrate they have the 218 supporters needed for passage and then work with House GOP leadership to get it to the floor and passed. The group is already having a “tactical conversation about how best to move to passage,” according to Spencer.

Currently, the House bill has 202 co-sponsors. Only six Republicans are signed on as co-sponsors. Rep. Tom Reed (R-N.Y.) has also voiced his support of the measure.

But the campaign is already getting some traction from Colorado Republican Rep. Mike Coffman.

That Coffman is one of the first Republicans coming out in support of ENDA is no surprise, and it highlights another step in his political evolution. The Colorado Republican has reversed positions on immigration and abortion in recent months as he tries to fend off an challenge from Democrat Andrew Romanoff in Colorado’s competitive sixth district.

“I see this legislation as the workplace equivalent of the Golden Rule — do unto others, as you would have them do unto you,” Coffman said in a statement to POLITICO. “In the workplace, in 2014, we should judge employees the way we would want to be judged — based on our qualifications, our contributions and by our character, period.”

The group has identified GOP Reps. Mario Diaz-Balart (Fla.), Mike Fitzpatrick (Pa.), Jim Gerlach (Pa.), Joe Heck (Nev.), Leonard Lance (N.J.), Frank LoBiondo (N.J.), Dave Reichert (Wash.) and Democratic Rep. Dan Lipinski (Ill.) as top-tier targets to try and convince them to support the legislation.

Other groups involved in the group include Log Cabin Republicans, AFSCME, ACLU and the SEIU.

ON ENDA Obama Throws Gays Under the Bus Yet Again

As noted before,while marriage equality is important, also critically important in 29 states is the utter lack of employment protections.   Despite calls from LGBT advocates and Democrat members of Congress, Barack Obama continues sit with his thumb up his ass on his hands when it comes to protecting LGBT employees - notwithstanding his promise six years ago(that's right, six years ago) that he'd sign an ENDA executive order if elected to the White House.  Now, to add insult to injury, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said that the administration believes the executive order would be “redundant” if ENDA passed into law.   Never mind that ENDA doesn't have a snow ball's chance in Hell of passing the GOP controlled House of Representatives.  With important elections in November, it is once again time to send Obama a message that, if he wants gays to rally for the Democrats, we want something in return.  It's a message that I will tell Mark Warner and others tonight to their face if I see them at tonight's Commonwealth Dinner event.   Think Progress looks at Carney's insulting and ridiculous statement:

In 2008, then-candidate Obama pledged that if elected president, he would use an executive order to protect the LGBT employees of all federal contractors from discrimination. After several years of pressure from LGBT advocacy groups, the Obama administration still refuses to act on this executive order, explaining that it would prefer that Congress pass the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA).

Advocates have called for both, but this Thursday, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney told the Washington Blade that the administration believes the executive order would be “redundant” if ENDA passed into law. When the Blade pointed out that the executive order would protect people that ENDA would not, Carney stayed committed to the administration’s ENDA-only position, calling such other possibilities of discrimination “hypothetical.”

In reality, the two would work in conjunction. On its own, the executive order would extend protections to an estimated 11 to 16 million employees of federal contractors who are not already protected by their companies. Though ENDA would extend to all public and private employers instead of just contractors, the executive order would still protect many workers that ENDA wouldn’t. There are at least two significant reasons why ENDA — watered down after decades of haggling — and a nondiscrimination executive order would not be “redundant.”

First, ENDA does not cover small businesses. In its current form, passed by the Senate in November, the bill defines “employer” as a business that has “15 or more employees for each working day in each of 20 more calendar weeks in the current or preceding calendar year.” This means that there are many small businesses that would be totally exempt from the protections ENDA extends to LGBT employees. Any such business that provided at least $10,000 of service to the federal government, however, would be bound by the expectations of an executive order, regardless of how many employees work there daily.

Secondly, ENDA has a glaring religious exemption that would allow many organizations and some businesses to continue discriminating against LGBT employees. . . . Thus, ENDA would still allow religious corporations and schools, for example, to either refuse employment because of someone’s LGBT identity, or condition employment on conformity to anti-LGBT doctrine. Any such organization that was also a federal contractor, however, would be bound by an executive order to not discriminate.

All of the major LGBT organizations that the Blade reached out to disagreed with Carney’s description of the executive order, including the Human Rights Campaign, the ACLU, the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force, and Freedom To Work. In particular, Freedom to Work pointed out that an executive order would allow the Labor Department to proactively investigate companies for discrimination, whereas ENDA would only provide relief after a victim of discrimination files a complaint.

[N]ot only would an LGBT nondiscrimination order protect millions of employees until Congress passes ENDA — which House Speaker John Boehner says won’t be happening this year — it would continue to protect many employees that would not be covered by ENDA.

In the meantime, it remains legal to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation in 29 states and on the basis of gender identity in 32 states (once Maryland’s new law takes effect).

Federal Judge Rules Gays Are Protected by Sex Discrimination Laws

Library of Congress

Today it remains perfectly legal in 29 states for employers to fire gays because of their sexual orientation regardless of how well they perform their job duties.  Religious based bigotry is allowed to trump all else.  Meanwhile, the Republicans in the House of Representatives are blocking a vote on the Employment Non-Discrimination Act ("ENDA") and Barack Obama blathers and sits on his hands rather than sign an ENDA executive order - evens as Democrats daily demand money from LGBT citizens.   It is a disgusting situation.  Now, a federal judge has very sensibly ruled that gays are protected under current laws barring discrimination based on sex (I would add that bans on religious based discrimination should apply as well as suggested by the judge).  The Advocate looks at the development which will no doubt have Christofascists howling.  Here are highlights:

A federal judged has determined that gays and lesbians who have experienced bias in the workplace can find relief under existing sex discrimination laws.

U.S. District Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly has ruled that Peter TerVeer, a gay man who is suing his employer, the Library of Congress, because his supervisor created "a hostile environment in which he imposed his religion and sexual stereotypes," falls under the protections of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act.

In a preliminary ruling that allowed the lawsuit to move forward, Kollar-Kotelly found that discrimination that stems from noncomformity to “gender stereotypes associated with men” is prohibited by Title VII, which prohibits workplace discrimination due to sex.

As Kollar-Kotelly notes in her preliminary ruling issued Monday, “Title VII prohibits an employer from discriminating ‘against any individual … because of such individual’s … sex.’ Under Title VII, allegations that an employer is discriminating against an employee based on the employee’s non-conformity with sex stereotypes are sufficient to establish a viable sex discrimination claim.”

“Here, Plaintiff has alleged that he is ‘a homosexual male whose sexual orientation is not consistent with the Defendant’s perception of acceptable gender roles,’ that his ‘status as a homosexual male did not conform to the Defendant’s gender stereotypes associated with men under Mech’s supervision or at the LOC,’ and that ‘his orientation as homosexual had removed him from Mech’s preconceived definition of male," she continued.

“As Plaintiff has alleged that Defendant denied him promotions and created a hostile work environment because of Plaintiff’s nonconformity with male sex stereotypes,” she concluded, “Plaintiff has met his burden of setting forth ‘a short and plain statement of the claim showing that the pleader is entitled to relief’ as required by Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 8(a). Accordingly, the Court denies Defendant’s Motion to Dismiss Plaintiff’s sex discrimination claim (Count I) for failure to state a claim.”

Because TerVeer’s boss, John Mech, also allegedly imposed antigay religious views upon his employee, TerVeer may also be able to find relief under religious discrimination, noted Kollar-Kotelly. The preliminary ruling listed several instances of such acts. On June 24, 2009, Mech told Vermeer “putting you … closer to God is my effort to encourage you to save your worldly behind.” A few months later, TerVeer also received an email from his Catholic boss that contained photographs of assault weapons. The caption read “Diversity: Let’s Celebrate It.”

In 2012 the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission made the landmark ruling that Title VII does not simply prohibit discrimination based on biological sex, but also includes “protections sweep far broader than that, in part because the term 'gender' encompasses not only a person’s biological sex but also the cultural and social aspects associated with masculinity and femininity.”

Since this ruling, several transgender people have found relief under Title VII, but TerVeer would be the first to obtain a ruling that these protections cover sexual orientation.

As I have said over and over again, special rights based on adherence to ignorance based religious beliefs need to end.  For too long Christofascists have been allowed to punish others who do not conform to their fear and hate based belief systems.  Kudos to Judge Kollar-Kotelly

 

Still No Progress on ENDA Executive Order

While same sex couples are seemingly making steady progress on the gay marriage front, the same cannot be said for workplace non-discrimination protections.  It remains perfectly legal in 29 states to fire LGBT employees at will and the employees have no legal recourse.  NONE. ZERO.  And at the federal level, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act remains dead in Congress thanks to the GOP controlled House of Representatives. Meanwhile, at the White House, despite calls from 200 members of Congress, Barack Obama continues to resist signing an ENDA executive order that would apply to government contractors. The Washington Blade looks at the situation.  Here are excerpts:

Despite a letter this week signed by nearly 200 congressional Democrats calling on President Obama to take administrative action on behalf of LGBT workers, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney had no updates Wednesday on a potential executive order barring anti-LGBT discrimination among federal contractors.

Under questioning from the Washington Blade, Carney reiterated the position he’s stated numerous times that Obama is focused on passing the Employment Non-Discrimination Act through Congress as a means to protect LGBT workers.

“The fact is that legislation, which has moved in the Senate, if it were to be passed by the full Congress and signed into law would have the greatest benefit when it comes to ensuring the rights of LGBT individuals,” Carney said.

Blade: But what makes you think that legislation should be the only course of action if lawmakers in Congress are saying that the president should issue an executive order as they pursue legislation?

Carney: Again, Chris, I just don’t have any new information to provide to you about our views on this, which we have discussed many times. There is no question, I think, in anyone’s mind that the passage of legislation, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, would provide those protections broadly in a way the EO would not.

And as I’ve said before, opposition to that legislation is contrary to the tide of history and those lawmakers who oppose this will find, in the not too distant future, that they made a grave mistake and that they will regret it.

Blade: One last very important question on this. The letter takes note that “time is of the essence” because after an executive order is signed, full implementation will require a process that last many months, if not longer. Do you deny there’s a limited time for the president to exercise this option before time’s up at the end of his administration?

Carney: Chris, I’m not even sure there’s a question there, but I’ll point you to my previous answer.

Meanwhile, people continue to be fired  daily and have their lives turned upside down It is time for Obama to stop the double talk and sign an executive order.  This is a very important issue to me since I was forced out of a law firm for being gay and destroyed financially.  The vast majority of Americans support such employment protections yet Obama refuses to act.

GOP Civil War: Wealthy GOP Donors Join Push for ENDA

I suspect that hysteria is quietly overtaking some in the Christofascist circles.  Between polls indicating that a majority of young Republicans support same sex marriage and recent federal court rulings in Utah, Texas, Virginia, Oklahoma and Virginia striking down anti-gay animus motivated bans on gay marriage, these hate and fear consumed folks must be feeling that their sick world is ending indeed.   Now compounding this Christofascist distress are reports of wealthy GOP donors joining forces with Democrats to push for passage of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act ("ENDA").  A piece in USA Today looks at this new GOP donor effort which must be triggering large amounts of spittle flecked rants behind closed doors.  Here are excerpts: 

A deep-pocketed group of Republican donors and former GOP lawmakers is joining a gay rights coalition to push the U.S. House to vote on a bill banning workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.

"America is a place where the freedom to be who you are shouldn't be a barrier to your ability to get a job and provide for your family," said Paul Singer, a billionaire hedge fund founder and big Republican donor. Singer is putting $375,000 toward the push for passage of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. "In the workplace, employees should be judged on their merit and hard work and not on aspects that are irrelevant to their performance."

Fellow billionaire and GOP donor Seth Klarman also donated $375,000 to the campaign spearheaded by the Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest gay rights lobby. HRC is putting up an additional $1.3 million in the effort to get 218 House lawmakers — a majority of the chamber — on record in support of ENDA.

Already 199 House lawmakers are ENDA co-sponsors, all but six of them Democrats. The campaign will target 48 House Republicans who the coalition believes are most likely to support the bill either because they hail from more moderate or suburban districts or have more moderate voting records.

The campaign, working under an 11-member umbrella group called Americans for Workplace Opportunity, will dispatch two local organizers per congressional district to build on-the-ground support through district meetings, town halls and local editorials, among other efforts.

If the group can get 218 lawmakers on public record in support of the legislation, they say House GOP leaders, including Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, may have to rethink their decision not to vote this year.

Obama Adviser Claims An ENDA Executive Order Is Again "Under Consideration"

With John "I'm a Douche Bag" Boehner stating that the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, a/k/a ENDA, will go nowhere in the GOP controlled House of Representatives, pressure is again mounting on Barack Obama to issue and Executive Order banning discrimination based on sexual orientation which would be binding on the federal government and perhaps more importantly all government contractors.  In the Hampton Roads area, such an order would have significant impact given the area's high number of defense contractors.  Now, White House counselor John Podesta says such an order is under active consideration.  Here are highlights from the Washington Blade:

In a departure from previous public comments from the Obama administration, White House counselor John Podesta said on Friday an executive order barring LGBT discrimination among federal contractors is “under consideration.”

During an interview with Bloomberg News’ Al Hunt, Podesta made the remarks when asked if President Obama would issue a heavily sought-after executive order prohibiting federal contractors from discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.

“Well, what he said in the State of the Union was he was going to require federal contractors to pay a minimum wage of $10.10,” Podesta said. “The order that you’re talking about is under consideration at the White House. We’re looking at that.”

Asked by Hunt what Obama is likely to do, Podesta said, “Well, you know, I’m not going to prejudge that.”

Podesta’s assertion the executive order is “under consideration” is consistent with an email from Democratic National Committee Treasurer Andy Tobias leaked to the Washington Blade in June in which he said a “process” is holding up the directive. It’s also consistent with a one-time statement from White House spokesperson Shin Inouye that the administration “continue[s] to study the issue.”

Tico Almeida, president of Freedom to Work, welcomed the comments from Podesta, but said the time for consideration of the executive order is over.

“It’s great to hear Mr. Podesta say that the LGBT executive order is still under consideration at the White House, and I know that many LGBT organizations plan to keep pushing until this long overdue campaign promise becomes a reality,” Almeida said. “But I don’t think there’s anything left to study or consider: both Republican and Democratic presidents before President Obama have signed orders banning discrimination at federal contractors and they’ve always been upheld in the courts. This order fits perfectly with the White House plans for a ‘year of action,’ and the time to sign is now.”

I agree: Obama needs to stop contemplating his navel and procrastinating and act.  Sign the executive order now!!

Cuba Passes Ints Version of ENDA

You know that America's claim to be the land of liberty and religious freedom is a lie when Cuba now provides more employment non-discrimination protections for its LGBT citizens than 29 states in this country, Virginia naturally being one of the 29.  This strange state of affairs underscores the need to eliminate the special deference and special privileges afforded conservative Christianity - which is neither truly Christian nor a positive force - in America.  One can only hope that anti-gay Republicans in Congress will be embarrassed that Cuba is now more protective of its LGBT citizens than this country.   Andrés Duque has details on the historic legislation in Cuba.  Here are details:

In what Cuban LGBT advocates are calling a historic victory the Cuban parliament has reportedly adopted changes to the island's labor codes to include language that explicitly bans employment discrimination based on sexual orientation.

We now have the 1st law that protects gays, in this case at the workplace. The intense parliamentary debate left it almost for certain that the labor law will also ban discrimination based on gender identity. [President Raul Castro's daughter] Mariela Castro proposed banning discrimination based on gender identity and obtained the support of Christian and intellectual parliamentary leaders."

In a follow-up blog post in which he expanded his thoughts Francisco stated that a majority of the parliament voted in favor of banning discrimination based on sexual orientation at work ("We succeeded! The first Cuban law to protect LGBT people's rights").

He also said that while other protections had yet to be approved Mariela Castro, daughter of Cuban president Raul Castro and newly elected member of the parliament, stood up and called for additional language banning employment discrimination on the basis of gender identity, HIV status and disability.  Francisco says that while some deputies spoke against the measures they received immediate support from Miriam Ofelia Ortega Suárez who is also the first woman to be ordained as pastor of the Presbyterian Church in Cuba as well as deputy Pablo Odén Marichal who is an Episcopalian pastor as well.

Cuban vice president Miguel Díaz-Canel, who also has a seat in the parliament, said he recognized the political value of Mariela Castro's proposals and suggested the creation of a parliamentary commission to study and implement the suggestions.  President Raul Castro who led the Friday parliamentary sessions backed the proposal and a majority voted in favor of sending the additional proposals to a committee.

 It is long past time that Congress enact ENDA.  It is also long past time that America normalize relations with Cuba and open up trade and tourism with and to that country a mere 90 miles from Key West.

Florida Tea Party Leader: Log Cabin Republicans a "Thug Organization"

Danita Kilcullen

One thing that I cynically always find entertaining is how the far right always attributes others with their own traits and tactics.  A case in point: a Florida Tea Party leader (pictured above) who claims that the Log Cabin Republicans are a "thug organization."  Obviously, this woman must have been looking in the mirror as she uttered the statement.  The statement is ludicrous for several reasons, not the least of which is the fact that the Log Cabin Republicans might best be described as a bunch of delusional masochists who continue to support a political party that hates them.  Second, it's the Tea Party that uses thug tactics to assert its agenda against rational Republicans who - unlike the Tea Party - are not wholly untethered from reality and who are not motivated by hate, religious extremism and racism.  The Sun-Sentinel looks at the batshitery that is typical of the Tea Party.  Here are excerpts:

An email from Danita Kilcullen, co-founder of Tea Party Fort Lauderdale, has caused a new round of agita in the Broward Republican Party.

Kilcullen’s email, written earlier this month, was apparently a response to an email below, from Andy Eddy of the Broward Log Cabin Republicans, a largely gay group.

She said the Log Cabin Republicans are “a thug organization” which has “all but taken over” the Broward Republican Party.

Kilcullen also makes clear she does not like the proposed federal law banning discrimination based on sexual orientation.

Here's [a portion of Kilcullen's] e-mail:

“We must fight with all we have... We must put  pressure on the House like has never been seen before.  I'll be damned if I will ever be forced to hire someone with orange hair, body/neck/face covered with tattoos, multiple piercings, or a man in a dress... or for that matter, a demonstrative effeminate male or purposeful butch-looking female.  The Log Cabins are the same lobbyist organization that has all but taken over BREC; and besides that, we have someone on the Board of BREC who is using her position to openly put pressure on some BREC members to stand for same-sex marriage.

Can't you feel the Christian love towards others?  If the Log Cabin Republicans really want to change the GOP rather than engage self-flagellation, they need to work to have the GOP defeated across the board so that the party will have to either change and come into the modern world or die.

The GOP's Next Gay Rights Balancing Act

Survey after survey indicate that Americans support workplace non-discrimination policies for LGBT employees.  Indeed, many mistakenly believe that they already exist.  Yet for the Christofascists in the GOP base, few things are more anathema than a law that would restrict the ability of hate-filled "godly Christians" to fire gays at will.  Indeed, opposition to non-discrimination protections is one of the pillars of the Christofascist goal of keeping LGBT citizens inferior under the law.  Among other things, it is a way to justify their own bigotry.  It is also a way to frightened the ignorant and simple minded into handing over money to hate groups such as Family Research Council.  This dicotomy puts many Republican elected officials on a high wire as they try to prostitute themselves to the Christofascists without totally alienating the rest of the voting public.  A piece in Politico looks at the challenge ENDA will pose for many in the GOP.  Here are excerpts:

[W]hen it comes to the ENDA bill heading to the Senate floor as soon as next week, those GOP senators aren’t so sure. They are balancing growing public acceptance of gay rights against concerns that the bill — which includes provisions addressing gender identity — is too expansive and doesn’t do enough to protect religious institutions.

“I said when I did ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ don’t misinterpret this as a blank check on issues that relate to same-sex anything,” Burr told POLITICO.

With the Senate poised to consider perhaps the most significant gay rights measure since the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell,” a handful of Republican senators will help determine its fate. While the bill has the support of every Senate Democrat, just four out of 44 Republican senators have yet to endorse the measure — a sign of how the party is still trying to appeal to a new bloc of voters who are becoming more open to gay rights.

“It’s significantly broadened [from the 2007 House bill], and with that comes greater possibilities for litigation and compliance costs,” Flake said. “I’m a firm ‘no’ if it’s the Senate bill.”

But supporters of the measure say those concerns are misplaced. And with Republicans in Congress still overwhelmingly opposed to gay marriage despite growing public approval of the issue, GOP backers of the ENDA bill argue that supporting the measure would help broaden the party’s appeal to young and LGBT voters who have been turned off by social conservative policies.

Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.) . . . added, “Some of us aren’t there on marriage equity, but there’s no reason we shouldn’t be there on nondiscrimination. We’re the party of Lincoln. It’s our roots.”

The Employment Non-Discrimination Act of 2013 would address discrimination in the workplace by making it illegal to fire, refuse to hire or refuse to promote employees based on their sexual orientation or gender identity. It is crafted to mirror Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, though it provides what proponents call a “broad” religious exemption.

[T]he American Unity Fund, founded by major GOP donor Paul Singer, has hired two former GOP lawmakers as lobbyists — Coleman and former New York Rep. Tom Reynolds — to press Republicans to back the plan. Reynolds is making clear that this issue isn’t the same as gay marriage — an issue he opposed when he served in Congress — saying the bill eliminates only “workplace discrimination.”

A prime target for backers of the bill is Ohio Sen. Rob Portman, who became the first sitting GOP senator to back same-sex marriage earlier this year after learning his college-age son is gay.

Proponents of the measure say it’s time for the federal government to catch up as 17 states, the District of Columbia, and hundreds of local governments have laws on the books to prevent workplace discrimination against gays and lesbians. A wide array of Fortune 500 companies have also adopted such policies. And polls show that an overwhelming majority of the American public not only supports the proposal but also believes such laws are already on the books.

“The times they are a-changing,” said New York Sen. Chuck Schumer, the chamber’s No. 3 Democrat. “If you want to alienate young voters, opposing this is a good way to do it. And they know that.”

Meanwhile, some of the usual hate groups are shrieking about male sexual predators dressing as women in order to prey on children in rest rooms.  Hate and lies are the defining attributes of today's conservative Christians.  

Why ENDA Needs to be Enacted Now

Gay marriage continues to get plenty of news coverage and for good reason.  But in the process the sad state of affairs that exists for LGBT individuals in 29 states gets lost in  the process. What am I referring to?  The fact that we can be fired at will for the mere fact that we are LGBT and that we have ZERO legal protections from such firings.  In its main page editorial the New York Times goes full court press and argues that ENDA - the Employment Non-Discrimination Act - needs to be enacted NOW.  Here are some editorial highlights:

The overwhelmingly supportive response to Jason Collins, who came out last week as the first openly gay male athlete playing in a major American team sport, is an encouraging measure of the nation’s civil rights progress. But his barrier-breaking announcement a dozen years into his N.B.A. career also carries a reminder of a reality millions of gay people live with every day: being open about their sexual orientation could put their job and career at risk. 

A pair of landmark cases pending before the Supreme Court will help decide the future of same-sex marriage. But even if the justices do the right thing and issue a broad ruling legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide, that would not prohibit workplace discrimination, a profound impediment to real equality. The lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community remains vulnerable to employment discrimination in more than half the country.

Mr. Collins’s announcement coincided with the reintroduction in the House and Senate of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, an overdue measure to outlaw employment discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. It has been stalled in Congress for years. But the idea that job applicants and employees should be judged on their professional credentials and the caliber of their work, and not be penalized because of who they are, is a basic fairness principle, and one that polls indicate most Americans support. 

Some conservative opponents of the act, known as ENDA, contend it would threaten religious freedom because its exemption for employers affiliated with religious organizations is too narrow. Actually, the proposed religious exemption is far too broad and needs to be scaled back. .   .   .   .    as it is now drafted, the exemption — extending well beyond just houses of worship to hospitals and universities, for example, and encompassing medical personnel, billing clerks and others in jobs that are not directly involved in any religious function — amounts to a license to engage in the discrimination that ENDA is meant to remedy.

It is one thing for religious groups to further their religious mission by favoring people of their own faith in hiring, as Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act permits. It is quite another to allow the firing of a lesbian physician or transgender nurse when a hospital that is not affiliated with a religious group happens to merge with an institution that is. 

Congress has a duty to stop dawdling and approve a strong bill. In the meantime, President Obama, a supporter of ENDA, can take a significant step toward ending discrimination in the workplace by issuing an executive order barring discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity by federal contractors. He has the power to protect millions of American workers, and it is about time he used it.

Fired For Being LGBT - Why ENDA Is Needed Now

I sincerely applaud the advance of gay marriage in Rhode Island, Delaware, New Zealand and other places around America and the world.  But here at home in Virginia another scourge continues to plague LGBT citizens: we can be fired at will simply for being LGBT.  I know all about it because it happened to me and I continue to get calls from victims of this bigotry and sadly have to tell them that they have no state or federal law protections.  In short, they are screwed.  A lengthy article in The Advocate looks at some who have been fired and the dire need for ENDA - the Employment Non-Discrimination Act - to be passed this year.  Here are highlights (including two of the firings):

Sixty years ago, the federal government spearheaded a massive purge of gay employees, no matter how qualified or essential they were to their department's operations. The firings were the result of an executive order by President Dwight D. Eisenhower on April 27, 1953. According to an upcoming documentary, Lavender Scare, even LGBT private sector workers who were under contract with the federal government were also fired or forced to resign.

Why? Because gay people were viewed as a godless, immoral group likely to work with communists to spill government secrets.

Nine in every 10 American voters believe that there are already laws to protect LGBT employees in the workplace, just like policies for women, people with disabilities, racial minorities, or people with particular religious affiliations. But that's not the case. An employee could still be fired in 29 states for being gay, and in 34 states for being transgender or gender non-conforming. So as we mark 60 years since the federal government's mass firings, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act has been introduced for the 19th time in Congress. With a Republican-dominated House of Representatives, ENDA might be tough to gain momentum even though, according to the Center for American Progress, 73% of voters support protections for LGBT workers (even 66% among Republicans voters).

Texas, March 2013
Talented and respected, University of Texas track coach Bev Kearney (right) led her team to six NCAA championships. But she was ousted when news spread that she was in a relationship with one of her female students (who was of age). Whether that is acceptable or not, a white, male UT football coach kept his job after it was revealed he had an inappropriate relationship with a student trainer. Kearney has since filed a complaint of discrimination, based on her race, gender, and sexual orientation, with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. 

Virginia, March 2013
Bradley Kindrick said he was assaulted while working the graveyard shift at a 7-Eleven in Virginia Beach, Va., and then fired because he is openly gay. Kindrick said a man entered the convenience store around 2 a.m., pinned Kindrick against a wall, and assaulted him by forcibly kissing him. Kindrick says he has had panic attacks since the incident, which was compounded further when 7-Eleven management fired him a few days after the assault. 7-Eleven corporate officials told WAVY News that Kindrick was fired because he was drunk on the job — a claim Kindrick denies.

This is wrong and religious based discrimination needs to be barred from the employment sphere.

Could There Be Some GOP Support For ENDA?

Other than gay marriage, few thing causes the Christofascists to foam at the mouth and proclaim that civilization is ending than the prospect of the enactment of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act which would bar discrimination in the workplace by employers with 15 or more employees.  The Christofascist opposition to ENDA is part and parcel with their overall agenda to keep LGBT Americans inferior under the civil laws so that the Christofascists can then point to such laws as a justification for their anti-gay hatred and bigotry.  Yes, it is sick, but that's the nature of most Christofascists.  Thus, with ENDA reintroduced into both houses of Congress, the question become whether or not some in the GOP - at least those who hope to save the future of the party - will run the risk of Christofascist wrath and vote for ENDA anyway.  A piece in Huffington Post suggests that some in the GOP may be ready to put the party's future ahead of prostituting themselves to the Christofascists and hate groups.  Here are some highlights:

Pointing to the dramatically-changed political climate on marriage equality and LGBT issues, Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley (Ore.) said yesterday that he’s been having talks with key Republicans in the Senate about supporting the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), which would ban discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity and which he reintroduced in the Senate on Thursday. Those conversations have included GOP Sen. Rob Portman (Ohio), who came out for marriage equality in March, announcing that he'd reversed his position two years after his son came out as gay. 


“But I can tell you I’ve sat down with a number of Republicans who have not come out publicly yet. They’re still mulling over what they’re going to do, but I think there’s a very good chance they’re going to be supporting this bill. Whether that comes in a co-sponsorship or an affirmative vote when we are on the floor is yet to be seen. But I think that our numbers will be increasing both in sponsorship and in a floor vote than where we would have been had we had a floor vote even two years ago or four years ago.”

“In 1996, we came within one vote of getting employment non-discrimination passed,” Merkley continued, referring to the last Senate vote on the issue, in which ENDA was voted down, 49-50. “That was 17 years ago and the world’s changed quite a bit since then. This bill is way overdue.This is about equality under the law. This is about fundamental fairness. How can you possibly be a full member of society if you’re discriminated against in getting a job?”

Merkley acknowledged, however, that today, in a Senate in which the Republican minority uses the filibuster rule to try to stop just about every Democratic bill, 60 votes would be needed to pass ENDA.

“I feel with the bipartisan sponsorship out of the gate, I think we can get the 60 votes that will probably be required,” he sad in an interview on my SiriusXM radio program. “We have a good chance of getting it done. I think if we can put out a bipartisan bill out of the Senate, we have a chance in the House to move forward. I think that many of my Republican House colleagues who’ve stood in the way of this type of fight for fairness have realized they’re wrong, on the wrong side of history, on the wrong side of connecting with our younger folks.”

The Oregon Senator is also pressuring Obama:

Merkley also continued to press President Obama to sign an executive order banning workplace discrimination against gay and transgender people among federal contractors. In February Merkley spearheaded a letter to the president, signed by 37 senators, calling on him to sign the order.

“This is something that can be done tomorrow,” Merkley said. “It would be a huge step forward. I’ve been encouraging the president and his team for several years to take such an action.