- US House Fleetingly Passes Historic Protection for Gays and Lesbians

BBSNews - US House Fleetingly Passes Historic Protection for Gays and Lesbians

Thursday, November 08 2007 @ 02:07 AM ESTEdited by: Michael Hess
But Not by a Veto Proof Margin
BBSNews Blog 2007-11-08 -- A partial and probably fleeting victory of sorts was won yesterday by gays and lesbians in the US when the House of Representatives passed ENDA, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. The act is necessary given that about thirty states have no laws protecting gays and lesbians from being fired based upon their sexual orientation. Virginia, the state where Dick Cheney's daughter resides with her life partner Heather Poe and their new baby has an anti-gay marriage law, and according to the LAMBDA Legal Defense Fund has no private employment protections against discrimination against sexual orientation or gender identity, and no law against public employment discrimination against sexual orientation.

BBSNews file photo of a Gay Marriage Rally outside Safeco Field in Seattle, Washington on May 1st, 2004. James Dobson, the founder of an extremist evangelical group claimed famously at the anti-gay rally inside the stadium, "If this [gay marriage] happens, the culture war is over and everything associated with it is lost."
Image Credit: J. Coyle. Used with permission.
For those that continually write us about how being gay is a choice, and that gay people choose to discriminate against themselves by choosing "unnatural" or "immoral" or a "heathen lifestyle" and all the other unprintable epithets, and for those tempted to write and weigh in with their low opinions of people who prefer facts over religion based hysterical bigotry, as always we refer you to the American Psychological Association (APA) who answers authoritatively the questions of whether being homosexual is a choice and whether some sort of intervention or "therapy" can change who humans are sexually:
"... human beings can not choose to be either gay or straight. Sexual orientation emerges for most people in early adolescence without any prior sexual experience. Although we can choose whether to act on our feelings, psychologists do not consider sexual orientation to be a conscious choice that can be voluntarily changed ...
... Even though most homosexuals live successful, happy lives, some homosexual or bisexual people may seek to change their sexual orientation through therapy, sometimes pressured by the influence of family members or religious groups to try and do so. The reality is that homosexuality is not an illness. It does not require treatment and is not changeable."
Get over it.
ENDA has been watered down a bit from where it was, because protections from transgender citizens were removed to make the bill more palatable even for Democrats who are usually assumed to support equal rights for all Americans. Reuters reports:
"Democrats had initially sought transgender protection. But many backed off when they realized they did not have the votes, and feared transgender coverage could sink the bill."
The report continues outlining that President Bush will likely veto the bill because the White House believes that being gay or lesbian is "subjective" and it would be confusing to figure out how to enforce such a law. That may be true for the GOP, the country knows they have an inordinate amount of gay citizens in every corner of Republican life and politics but they try to ignore them so effectively that they cannot truly fathom a gay, lesbian or transgender person when they actually come face to face.
And of course the Republicans are upset that extremist right-wing Christians, in particular religious institutions and churches would no longer get to fire people simply based upon their sexual orientation. They hate that. The extremist right-wing churches would raise hell if they thought they had to keep a gay day care worker, an adult care giver, or a special needs medical professional who is gay. Heaven forbid, that would offend their narrow and upstanding sensibilities. The more Christ like churches don't have this facet of self hatred. The Reuters report continues:
"Mostly Republican critics also complained the bill, despite Democratic claims to the contrary, would inadequately exempt religious institutions from the proposed law, and could even undermine state laws banning same-sex marriage."
The report concludes with always a favorite of those in the US who are holier than all of us peons, the Christian Right's mover and shaker Tony Perkins:
"'Tony Perkins of the conservative Family Research Council, which opposed the bill, said the proposal would permit 'mainstream homosexuality, bisexuality ... and provide activists a legal tool for punishing employers who do not approve of these lifestyles.'"
Sigh. Sometimes you have to wonder at the right-wing's ability to ignore that which is right under their nose. It's obvious Tony does not receive broadcast or cable television programs in his world that the rest of America sees. How else does he miss "Will & Grace" reruns that are fairly ubiquitous? Representative Barney Frank, once famously called "Barney Fag" by 1995 Republican House Majority Leader Dick Armey, is an out of the closet US Democrat member of the House of Representatives, one of two, and Frank is chief sponsor of the bill.
Did Perkins miss the irony of his "mainstream homosexuality" quip by conveniently forgetting that the Vice President of the United States, Dick Cheney and his wife this year welcomed the birth of their lesbian daughter's child? I mean seriously, one has to marvel at the ability of extremist haters like Perkins to ignore the very realities and unchangeable facts right in front of them.
The so-called "moral majority" can give it up. The debate is over. Gay folks are in their midst, they cannot eliminate them without exterminating large numbers of their own ranks, they cannot rid themselves of the scourge of gayness unless they first inflict a pogrom upon themselves and then militantly extend it to all the progressives and the liberals and independents.
They'd have far more luck rounding up and shipping out all the currently illegal aliens in the US or outlawing abortion.
Republicans clearly do not like the idea of extending protection to gays and lesbians from employment discrimination but they will support a fellow GOP politician who reportedly cheats on his wife with paid sex workers, themselves discriminated against by extremist religious based laws outlawing the world's oldest profession. Americans got a good view of their double standard when Republican Senator Larry Craig was popped for allegedly soliciting same-sex company in a public airport bathroom stall but when Republican Senator David Vitter cheated on his wife Wendy with a prostitute of the same name, he is feted at the time the news of his "family values" transgressions are being aired in the media.
There is a political angle as always. Republicans will sell the so-called "family values" they wear on their sleeves right down the river when a political seat is at stake.
Selling out Craig on a dubious charge of seeking out same-sex contact, given the extremist closet the GOP likes to keep their adherents in, was easy because his Senate seat is safely in Republican hands. Vitter on the other hand, were he forced to kow tow to those same self-serving Republican values that win them votes from the bigots, self-styled moralists and intolerants in America, would have been replaced by an appointment of a Democrat to fill the seat by Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco, hated by Republicans only slightly less than gays and lesbians and stem cell research advocates.
But politics wins out over principle for Republicans at all costs. Adultery is forgiven if it will save a Senate seat, "toe tapping" in any way that implies seeking out same-sex contact is seen as egregious enough to cast the formerly loved by the GOP Senator Craig into the fiery pit of GOP self-loathing that they have among them gays and lesbians just like any other sample of the human race. We can only wonder how it would have been if Craig would have been replaced with a Democrat gubernatorial appointment. Would they have reacted differently?
Some day, Republicans will realize that the hatred they exhibit to those they feel are immoral and inferior, is aimed as much at themselves as anyone else.
Joe Solmonese of the Human Rights Campaign allowed in a statement yesterday that the version of ENDA that was passed falls short of actual equal protection of all those who face discrimination because of their inate sexuality. To put it bluntly, it would be roughly equivalent to passing a non-discrimination law for black folks that said every black person was protected except any of those identified by their community as "high yellow" or "red bone". Those folks will be left out until further notice. Solmonese writes yesterday:
"Supporting this version of the bill was a difficult and painful decision. But, without a doubt, the only path to achieving a bill protecting our whole community was by achieving the successful House vote today. A defeat of ENDA would have set back the possibility of an inclusive bill for many, many years.
HRC remains 100% committed to doing the hard work necessary to pass legislation that protects our entire community, including transgender workers who remain especially vulnerable to workplace discrimination."
He's right of course in terms of politics. Until Republicans realize that their anti-gay stance is penalizing themselves to the point of paralysis, even the daughter of the current Vice President of the United States is liable to lose her job just because of her unchangeable and quite normal sexual orientation.