Subscribe to Breaking News
Loading ...Gay rights bill pases Ohio House
09.16.2009 3:51pm EDT
For the first time, a bill prohibiting employment or housing discrimination based on sexual orientation passed the Ohio House.
The bill, which has been introduced four times but has always stalled in committee, passed 56-38 and now goes to the state senate.Says the Columbus Dispatch:
The bill could hit a wall in the GOP-controlled Senate, where President Bill M. Harris, R-Ashland, has said repeatedly that although the measure will get a hearing, he doesn’t see a need for the legislation and that there are already sufficient protections in place.
“Other people are getting that evidence and information (of discrimination), but I am not,” Harris said. “I talk to business people all the time, and they’re saying it’s not an issue. If they had trouble with it, they’d be trying to get a law passed.”
Twenty states have gay anti-discrimination laws, as do 443 Fortune 500 companies and 17 Ohio cities.
Such BS! So if no one is trying to get it passed, then there’s no problem.
But if we form a lobby, then we’re THE GAY CONSPIRACY ZOMG ZOMG ZOMG PROTECT THE CHILDREN.
Republicans (and most Democrats) are such buck passers, it’s almost humorous.
Harris is not the brightest bulb, is he? Why am I not surprised that the business folks he chooses to talk to want to be able to freely discriminate?
Anyway, thanks to the Ohio House. Maybe I need to revise my opinion of Ohio.
Remember that Gov. Ted Strickland reinstated protections for LGBT state employees, almost as soon as he took office. And who was the governor who initiated that protection? I do believe that was now-Senator George Voinovich. (That buck-toothed puppet Bob Taft removed the executive order in his second term.) If I work for the state, I have protection. I am protected if I work for Progressive Insurance, or for some other companies. I am protected in some cities (but no counties as far as I know). Sen. Harris claims there is no problem. What we have in Ohio is a mess, and it forces litigation which would otherwise be unnecessary. If my company says I have a right in my workplace, then even that question may well go to the courthouse. One standard law for all sets a very clear standard, and it imposes no new costs–unless, of course, you’re in the habit of checking up on your employees’ (or co-worker’s) sexuality, and using that as grounds for termination (I’ve been on the receiving end of it–it sux). So, thanks to my Statehouse for acting like they stopped sniffing glue, and to Senator Harris…well sir, since the GOP took over Ohio, we’ve been in a race with Michigan to see who’s the first to look like one of those godawful former Soviet republics where everything not corrupt is toxic or collapsing. Maybe that would change if all the hilljacks south of the Turnpike would go back to fucking their pigs instead of being allowed to discriminate against gay humans. Just sayin’.
Twice in my career, I was fired by Ohio Companies for being Gay! Both times it was overt. Once, I won severance from the company by threatening a lawsuit, the second time I just moved on. In Texas I’ve had the opportunity to work for companies which appreciated my talents and didn’t discriminate against me for my personal life outside work. Glad to be a Texan now.
Proofread your articles! 365gay staff, I have so much respect for your site. It’s an invaluable lgbt news source. It is because I have so much respect for your site that I am constantly put off by its poor editing for simple spelling and grammatical errors. For example, this article’s title reads: “Gay rights bill pases Ohio House”.
But that’s just the tip of the ice berg. I’ve written to your site on several occasions concerning articles with sentences missing key words, and a few times literally inadvertently expressing the opposite meaning than was intended!
This has been rather confusing often in the past when a paragraph seems to all be leading to a conclusion, and then the opposite conclusion is stated, due to carelessness.
I love you all, and you do us readers a great service. Please take more pride in your work as journalists, and show yourselves, this site, and your readers the respect and the duty to proofread, or to have someone else do it for you.
Thanks! And a comment reply here would be appreciated!
Dan
They’re really short-staffed right now, as far as I understand
But, you know, I’m sure a lot of us wouldn’t mind lending a hand!
check out the 3rd google search result for the word, ‘pases’
It’s spelled “passes” not “pases”.
I am glad I don’t live in Ohio at this time. I left Ohio at age 12 in 1966.
Of course the business community of Ohio will say there is no discrimination, they prefer for the state’s politicians to stay out of their business, which Senate President Bill M Harris Republican of Ashland, Ohio is doing being a good Republican. Pro-business, alright, with rose-colored glasses on and his head in the sand conveniently not looking for discrimination in Ohio’s business world. With Ohio looking rosy and with his head in sand, of course all is well and there is no antigay discrimination in the Buckeye State. (Yes, Ohio actually does have some sand near the lake where good man Harris can bury his head and pretend that all is well).
At least Ohio has a pro-gay governor Strickland, a nice change from the antigay governor Taft. But if you can’t get progay legislation past antigay Senate President Harris, how is it going to reach Gov. Strickland’s desk to sign?
No hilljacks south of the turnpike? Well then, no pork and no bacon. Don’t complain about the farmers with your mouth full of food. Oink, oink, oink!! Sorry, Just being funny!
Yes, if the potential perpetrators say that there’s no crime being committed, then surely that must be true.
DOH!
We need a national ENDA law…
Again, this is about sexual orientation discrimination? Then straights have got to worry too. Maybe if straight people were to be showed that everyone has a “sexual orientation”, including them, and that by not having laws protecting against sexual orientation discrimination opens them up to be discriminated against as well. Laws that protect against sexual orientation discrimination protect straight as well as gay people.