HarlotMinx
Literotica Guru
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- Nov 10, 2008
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Well, I remember reading here that Obama needed to step up to the plate and handle the LGBT issue, seems he'll now have the chance. Congress just had the hearing on ENDA today, frankly I'm curious what Obama will do and if he'll come out batting for us. If this passes it can be a major step forward for gay, lesbians, and transexuals everywhere. I'm sitting with fingers crossed on this one, if their was ever a time to pass this it'd be now. I know it's not gay marriage but if this passes it could strike down "Don't ask don't tell" as unlawful AND pave a hell of a start for gay marriage.
One of the more recent articles.
"The Employment Non-Discrimination Act this week elicited predominantly favorable reactions during a congressional hearing from lawmakers who lauded the legislation as a means to protect more Americans from workplace discrimination.
The House Education & Labor Committee heard testimony Wednesday regarding ENDA, which would bar job bias based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.), the committee's chair, said the measure would "ensure that employment decisions are based on merit and performance and not prejudice."
"Fully qualified individuals are being denied employment or are being fired from their jobs for completely non-work-related reasons," he said. "This is profoundly unfair and, indeed, un-American. And, it is bad for business."
Based on Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination by employers based on race, gender and religion, ENDA would extend similar protections based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Exempt from the bill are the armed services, veterans' service groups, religious organizations and groups with fewer than 15 employees.
While some states offer the kinds of protections that ENDA, also known as H.R. 3017, would afford, discrimination based on sexual orientation is not barred in 29 states and discrimination based on gender identity is not barred in 38 states, according to Miller's testimony.
A version of ENDA passed the House in 2007, but that bill offered protections based only on sexual orientation, omitting gender identity. After former President George W. Bush pledged to veto the legislation, the Senate never took up the bill.
Gay Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), the sponsor of ENDA, testified before the committee in favor of his bill.
"I find it hard to argue for legislation that bans discrimination," Frank said. "It just seems to be so self-evident that an American who would like to work and support himself or herself ought to be allowed to be judged solely on his or her work ethic and talent that I don't know what more to say."
Frank encouraged House members to support ENDA's gender identity protections. He said he didn't think the House had the votes to pass ENDA with such language in the last Congress, but he hopes there are enough votes now to include the protections.
"There is no more reason to discriminate against someone because he or she is transgender than because he or she is gay or lesbian or any other category," Frank said.
Joining Frank to testify in favor of ENDA was Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), the only out lesbian in Congress, who said the legislation was important to help put an end to documented workplace discrimination against LGBT people throughout the country.
"There is a clear record demonstrating the need for these protections: lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender employees are harassed, fired, not hired and passed over for advancement without regard to their merit," she said.
Baldwin cited a 2007 study from the American Civil Liberties Union, which found that nearly 30 percent of LGBT workers reported that they experience workplace discrimination and that one in four said they experience it on a weekly basis.
Representing the administration and President Obama's support for ENDA was Stuart Ishimaru, acting chair of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. He said he came to voice the administration's "strong support for legislation that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity."
"Unfortunately, this right remains elusive, or almost non-existent for many Americans, because of the lack of federal legislation explicitly prohibiting sexual orientation and gender identity discrimination in employment," Ishimaru said. "Study after study has shown that employment discrimination against LGBT individuals remains a significant problem."
Ishimaru said the EEOC "regularly" hears from Americans who say they feel they've been discriminated against because of their sexual orientation or gender identity, but his office has to inform these complainants that federal laws provide them no explicit protection.
With few exceptions, committee members spoke favorably about ENDA. Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colo.), the only other openly gay member of Congress, noted that Colorado had instituted similar workplace protections and urged for such legislation on the national level.
"It's a moral issue for our country to ensure that every American has the opportunity to succeed regardless of their race, their gender, their sexual orientation, their gender identity, their religion," he said.
Polis also said that discrimination harms the economy because it "means that somebody who is second-best, or third-best, fills the position rather than the best candidate because the employer discriminates based on criteria that do not affect that person's job in the workplace."
Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio), spoke favorably about ENDA, but questioned that provision exempting organizations that have 15 or fewer employees.
The lawmaker asked Ishimaru whether the same standard was held in current law for protections against employment discrimination based on race. Ishimaru confirmed it was the same, although he said there could be recourse under state or local law, prompting Kucinich to ponder aloud if the federal exemption should be dropped for all categories.
"Since we acknowledge that more and more of Americans' commerce is conducted by small business … I just wonder if it's time for this committee to start looking at whether or not a shop that has 15 employees shouldn't have to abide by these non-discrimination laws," he said. "Maybe five would be a more reasonable number."
The only lawmaker during the hearing to voice significant concern regarding ENDA was Rep. John Kline (R-Minn.), the committee's senior GOP member. He said the House passed ENDA in 2007 even though many lawmakers had concerns about the legislation and many of these issues had not been resolved.
"H.R. 3017 represents a significant departure from longstanding civil rights law," he said. "It creates an entirely new protected class that is vaguely defined and often subjective."
Kline took particular issue with creating protections based on "perceived" sexual orientation.
"Attempting to legislate individual perceptions is truly uncharted territory, and it does not take a legal scholar to recognize that such vaguely defined protections will lead to an explosion in litigation and inconsistent judicial decisions," he said.
But noting that numerous states had enacted similar workplace protection laws, Frank disputed the notion that enacting ENDA would cause a backlog of legal challenges against employers in court.
"The opponents of discrimination predict disruption and it never happens," he said. "The secret about anti-discrimination legislation is that it becomes very hard to enforce. They have historically been under-enforced rather than over-enforced."
The extent to which the state and public workforce discriminates against LGBT people drew significant attention during the hearing. One witness, Vandy Beth Glenn, who's transgender, described how she was terminated from her job as an aide to the Georgia General Assembly in 2007 after she announced she was transitioning from male to female.
She said Sewell Brumby, legislative counsel to the General Assembly and head of her office, asked to speak with her after she informed her supervisor about her decision.
"Mr. Brumby told me that people would think I was immoral," she said. "He told me I'd make other people uncomfortable, just by being myself. He told me that my transition was unacceptable. And, over and over, he told me it was inappropriate."
Glenn said she was then fired, escorted back to her desk, told to clean it out and was marched out of the building.
"The only thing that changed was my gender — and because of that, the legislature I'd worked so hard for no longer had any use for my skills," she said. "I was devastated."
Lambda Legal is currently representing Glenn in a federal lawsuit against the Georgia General Assembly. The case, known as Glenn v. Brumby, was filed in July 2008 and is pending before the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia. Lambda Legal says the General Assembly violated Glenn's protections under the equal protection clause when she was fired after she confirmed her intent to transition.
Brad Sears, executive director of the Williams Institute, a think-tank on sexual orientation law at the University of California, Los Angeles, testified that research done by his institute shows that discrimination against LGBT people in the public workforce is not uncommon.
"We find no difference between the patterns of employment discrimination against LGBT people in the public sector and in the private sector, and no difference in the patterns of such discrimination against LGBT workers in state versus local government agencies," he said.
Sears said one in five gay, lesbian and bisexual people working in the public sector reported in a 2008 survey being discriminated against on the basis of their sexual orientation. He also noted that a 2009 survey of more than 1,900 LGBT employees in state university systems across the country reported having experienced discriminatory treatment or harassment in the past year.
The Education & Labor Committee is expected to report out ENDA as the next step in the process before House lawmakers can vote on the measure on the House floor. Aaron Albright, a committee spokesperson, said the mark up on ENDA has yet to be scheduled.
In the Senate, Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) introduced a version of ENDA for that chamber in August. Activists are hoping the Senate Health, Education, Labor & Pensions Committee will hold a hearing on the legislation this fall."
One of the more recent articles.
"The Employment Non-Discrimination Act this week elicited predominantly favorable reactions during a congressional hearing from lawmakers who lauded the legislation as a means to protect more Americans from workplace discrimination.
The House Education & Labor Committee heard testimony Wednesday regarding ENDA, which would bar job bias based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.), the committee's chair, said the measure would "ensure that employment decisions are based on merit and performance and not prejudice."
"Fully qualified individuals are being denied employment or are being fired from their jobs for completely non-work-related reasons," he said. "This is profoundly unfair and, indeed, un-American. And, it is bad for business."
Based on Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination by employers based on race, gender and religion, ENDA would extend similar protections based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Exempt from the bill are the armed services, veterans' service groups, religious organizations and groups with fewer than 15 employees.
While some states offer the kinds of protections that ENDA, also known as H.R. 3017, would afford, discrimination based on sexual orientation is not barred in 29 states and discrimination based on gender identity is not barred in 38 states, according to Miller's testimony.
A version of ENDA passed the House in 2007, but that bill offered protections based only on sexual orientation, omitting gender identity. After former President George W. Bush pledged to veto the legislation, the Senate never took up the bill.
Gay Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), the sponsor of ENDA, testified before the committee in favor of his bill.
"I find it hard to argue for legislation that bans discrimination," Frank said. "It just seems to be so self-evident that an American who would like to work and support himself or herself ought to be allowed to be judged solely on his or her work ethic and talent that I don't know what more to say."
Frank encouraged House members to support ENDA's gender identity protections. He said he didn't think the House had the votes to pass ENDA with such language in the last Congress, but he hopes there are enough votes now to include the protections.
"There is no more reason to discriminate against someone because he or she is transgender than because he or she is gay or lesbian or any other category," Frank said.
Joining Frank to testify in favor of ENDA was Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), the only out lesbian in Congress, who said the legislation was important to help put an end to documented workplace discrimination against LGBT people throughout the country.
"There is a clear record demonstrating the need for these protections: lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender employees are harassed, fired, not hired and passed over for advancement without regard to their merit," she said.
Baldwin cited a 2007 study from the American Civil Liberties Union, which found that nearly 30 percent of LGBT workers reported that they experience workplace discrimination and that one in four said they experience it on a weekly basis.
Representing the administration and President Obama's support for ENDA was Stuart Ishimaru, acting chair of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. He said he came to voice the administration's "strong support for legislation that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity."
"Unfortunately, this right remains elusive, or almost non-existent for many Americans, because of the lack of federal legislation explicitly prohibiting sexual orientation and gender identity discrimination in employment," Ishimaru said. "Study after study has shown that employment discrimination against LGBT individuals remains a significant problem."
Ishimaru said the EEOC "regularly" hears from Americans who say they feel they've been discriminated against because of their sexual orientation or gender identity, but his office has to inform these complainants that federal laws provide them no explicit protection.
With few exceptions, committee members spoke favorably about ENDA. Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colo.), the only other openly gay member of Congress, noted that Colorado had instituted similar workplace protections and urged for such legislation on the national level.
"It's a moral issue for our country to ensure that every American has the opportunity to succeed regardless of their race, their gender, their sexual orientation, their gender identity, their religion," he said.
Polis also said that discrimination harms the economy because it "means that somebody who is second-best, or third-best, fills the position rather than the best candidate because the employer discriminates based on criteria that do not affect that person's job in the workplace."
Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio), spoke favorably about ENDA, but questioned that provision exempting organizations that have 15 or fewer employees.
The lawmaker asked Ishimaru whether the same standard was held in current law for protections against employment discrimination based on race. Ishimaru confirmed it was the same, although he said there could be recourse under state or local law, prompting Kucinich to ponder aloud if the federal exemption should be dropped for all categories.
"Since we acknowledge that more and more of Americans' commerce is conducted by small business … I just wonder if it's time for this committee to start looking at whether or not a shop that has 15 employees shouldn't have to abide by these non-discrimination laws," he said. "Maybe five would be a more reasonable number."
The only lawmaker during the hearing to voice significant concern regarding ENDA was Rep. John Kline (R-Minn.), the committee's senior GOP member. He said the House passed ENDA in 2007 even though many lawmakers had concerns about the legislation and many of these issues had not been resolved.
"H.R. 3017 represents a significant departure from longstanding civil rights law," he said. "It creates an entirely new protected class that is vaguely defined and often subjective."
Kline took particular issue with creating protections based on "perceived" sexual orientation.
"Attempting to legislate individual perceptions is truly uncharted territory, and it does not take a legal scholar to recognize that such vaguely defined protections will lead to an explosion in litigation and inconsistent judicial decisions," he said.
But noting that numerous states had enacted similar workplace protection laws, Frank disputed the notion that enacting ENDA would cause a backlog of legal challenges against employers in court.
"The opponents of discrimination predict disruption and it never happens," he said. "The secret about anti-discrimination legislation is that it becomes very hard to enforce. They have historically been under-enforced rather than over-enforced."
The extent to which the state and public workforce discriminates against LGBT people drew significant attention during the hearing. One witness, Vandy Beth Glenn, who's transgender, described how she was terminated from her job as an aide to the Georgia General Assembly in 2007 after she announced she was transitioning from male to female.
She said Sewell Brumby, legislative counsel to the General Assembly and head of her office, asked to speak with her after she informed her supervisor about her decision.
"Mr. Brumby told me that people would think I was immoral," she said. "He told me I'd make other people uncomfortable, just by being myself. He told me that my transition was unacceptable. And, over and over, he told me it was inappropriate."
Glenn said she was then fired, escorted back to her desk, told to clean it out and was marched out of the building.
"The only thing that changed was my gender — and because of that, the legislature I'd worked so hard for no longer had any use for my skills," she said. "I was devastated."
Lambda Legal is currently representing Glenn in a federal lawsuit against the Georgia General Assembly. The case, known as Glenn v. Brumby, was filed in July 2008 and is pending before the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia. Lambda Legal says the General Assembly violated Glenn's protections under the equal protection clause when she was fired after she confirmed her intent to transition.
Brad Sears, executive director of the Williams Institute, a think-tank on sexual orientation law at the University of California, Los Angeles, testified that research done by his institute shows that discrimination against LGBT people in the public workforce is not uncommon.
"We find no difference between the patterns of employment discrimination against LGBT people in the public sector and in the private sector, and no difference in the patterns of such discrimination against LGBT workers in state versus local government agencies," he said.
Sears said one in five gay, lesbian and bisexual people working in the public sector reported in a 2008 survey being discriminated against on the basis of their sexual orientation. He also noted that a 2009 survey of more than 1,900 LGBT employees in state university systems across the country reported having experienced discriminatory treatment or harassment in the past year.
The Education & Labor Committee is expected to report out ENDA as the next step in the process before House lawmakers can vote on the measure on the House floor. Aaron Albright, a committee spokesperson, said the mark up on ENDA has yet to be scheduled.
In the Senate, Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) introduced a version of ENDA for that chamber in August. Activists are hoping the Senate Health, Education, Labor & Pensions Committee will hold a hearing on the legislation this fall."
