Posted on 11/01/2013 9:22:45 PM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
The search is on for one last senator to protect gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender employees from workplace discrimination.
Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., will bring the Employment Non-Discrimination Act to the Senate floor for the first time in 17 years next week, a statistic that both awes and infuriates advocates who say the vote is long overdue.
"People realize this is the next big civil rights step in America," says Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa. "It is a historic step forward."
The legislation would make it illegal for employers to fire workers based on their sexual orientation. Already nearly two dozen states have workplace protections for gay and transgender workers, and 90 percent of Fortune 500 companies have embraced their own guidelines to protect workers. But the federal government has no such blanket protection for workers.
Reid will need 60 votes to overcome a procedural vote and so far he has 59 senators, all the Democrats as well as Sens. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., and Susan Collins, R-Maine.
That is where the advocates are working around the clock.
LGBT rights groups are targeting a handful of GOP senators who they believe can be swayed to vote 'yes' on ENDA.
Among their targets is Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, who came out in support of gay marriage after announcing publicly his own son, Will, was gay.
Friday, Portman told reporters during a conference call that he agreed with the "basic principle of ENDA," but still harbored concerns about whether the legislation included a broad enough exception for religious institutions.
"I don't think that any of my constituents ought to be able to be fired because he or she is gay," Portman said according to a report from the Cleveland Plain Dealer.
Gay rights groups are also courting Republican Sens Pat Toomey, R-Pa., and Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H. , who both hail from swing states where gay rights have broader state-wide support.
"In order for the Republican Party to be able to stay competitive with younger voters, this is an issue where it would be very wise to support workplace protections for LGBT Americans," says Tico Almeida, the founder of Freedom to Work, a national LGBT organization.
Almeida's organization has also targeted Arizona Republican Sens. John McCain and Jeff Flake through a phone banking campaign. And in October, the Human Rights Campaign, another LGBT advocacy group, commissioned McCain's wife Cindy McCain to sign a postcard to senators advocating for ENDA's passage in Congress.
Across the country, ENDA enjoys high public volumes of public support with 81 percent of Democrats and 66 percent of Republicans embracing the law.
But even if ENDA passes in the Senate, experts predict the law will get buried in the GOP-controlled House of Representatives.
"There is no way you will get a Republican majority to bring this up for a vote in the House," says Patrick Egan, an LGBT policy expert at New York University. "This is a party whose primary coalition is explicitly against expanding rights for gay people."
There’s a bill going far.
It sounds like Dingy Harry has been getting “bullied” around the office lately and is getting tired of it.
LOL!
You can't make this kind of stupidity up!
So if Mr. “Susan” wants to show up in a dress and use the ladies’ room, it’ll be illegal to fire him?
Homosexuals are not a protected class per the US Constitution. On the other hand, religious liberty is expressly protected. The Democrats have no moral or legal right to force me to hire a homosexual, but that’s not going to stop them from trying of course. After all, they are the party of the big cram down. If I don’t want a flaming sodomite representing my business, tough.
I see this as a direct assault on freedom of religion.
Why do they waster their time on this nonsense when there are much more pressing problems. Why don’t you try fixing the economy first, Harry?
I’m sorry sir, but we found a more qualified candidate for the position that was open.
Someday...the global community is gonna realize that all of you bstrds have marginalized us Gypsies for 2000 yrs...The most abused social group in the HISTORY OF MAN!
THEN I will CASH IN......After the FAGS we are NEXT DNM-IT.
:)
I’ve recently been investigating this development. I had no idea that feminists, as well as radical feminists, truly dislike transsexuals. I can certainly see why. I hope these harpies push back against this. Of course, they’re too stupid to make common cause with conservatives.
Well I always find it funny when far-left feminists and far-right religious types both denounce any expression of female sexuality. Albeit one for being immoral and the other for “objectifying” women. As for me I have no problem with women shaking their stuff whenever they want to.
I didn’t know feminists disliked transsexuals. I guess it has something to do with women losing their ability to get special rights if a man can put on a dress and get the same rights.
Those laws are already in effect here where I live.
I never understood giving special protections to people solely based on THEIR sexual desires, and only a specific set of them too.
Makes no sense.
“if a man can put on a dress and get the same rights.”
Now you are being sexist.
That should be a Pant Suit.
“Why do they waste their time on this nonsense when there are much more pressing problems.”
These issues are nothing but bombs the Democrats can throw to put the GOPe on the defensive and gin up hysteria.
It’s all they have now.
“I never understood giving special protections to people solely based on THEIR sexual desires, and only a specific set of them too.”
This is so “Walter” can wear a dress to work and not be fired for it while he’s making a laughing stock of the company and driving away customers.
Yes, what if your sexual orientation is exhibitionism and you have to do porn to get turned on. Why aren't protections extended so you can live your dream to be a porn star without being in fear of losing your job as a teacher, lawyer, etc.?
Even less provocative,
How about if your sexual orientation is a voyeur ?
Then it is against your fundamental human rights and eventually constitutional rights (someday) to punish employees for cruising porn sites at work.
But liberal-istic creation of rights are carved out with a Surgeon’ carving tool. They are progressives. They try to move at a pace that the public wont backlash.
With Guv. Moonbeam Brown signing the “Anybody, any bathroom, any shower, for K-12 in California, it sure seems Satan and his minions are running around pushing as much stupidity into law, as is possible, in a very short time.
Imagine male teachers deciding to shower with the 8th grade girls.
Think they’d repeal the crap?
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