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Loading ...Kansas LGBT rights bill advances
01.30.2009 9:59am EST
(Topeka, Kansas) A key legislative committee has approved a bill to add sexual orientation and gender identity to the state’s anti-discrimination law.
The law currently prohibits workplace discrimination based on race, religion, sex, disability, national origin or ancestry.“It’s clear that the time has come to extend the same protections from discrimination to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people that so many other Kansans already enjoy,” said Maggie Childs, chair of the Kansas Equality Coalition.
Approval by the Senate Federal and State Affairs Committee moves the bill forward, but it still needs hearings and a vote by the full legislature.
Childs said she is hopeful the measure will be passed this year. A similar bill was pulled last year when it appeared there were not enough votes in the committee to approve it.
In 2007, Gov. Kathleen Sebelius issued an Executive Order adding sexual orientation and gender identity to the non discrimination protections already extended to most State of Kansas employees.
“We need to make sure all our employees are treated with dignity and respect, and that the doors of employment are open to all,” she said at the time.
A statewide poll conducted last year asked prospective voters how they felt about firing someone merely for being gay or lesbian.
The poll by Jayhawk Associates found that 79 percent agreed that would be a poor employment practice. Of those respondents who believe it is poor practice to fire employees merely because of their sexual orientation, an overwhelming 80 percent agreed that gays and lesbians deserve the same protections from discrimination as other Kansans, and would support changing Kansas law to achieve that goal.
I live in the not-so Great State of OZ! Kansas is notoriously anti-gay. Topeka is the slimey spawning pool of Fred “God Hates Fags” Phelps. I hope it passes, but I am not optimistic. Bringing back hanging for horse theft and sodomy is more likely to pass. But miracles have been known to happen.
~ Bud Evans
http://rainfish2000.blogspot.com
As a native Kansan, this is quite surprising turn of events.
However, the Kansas Senate is more moderate than the conservative Kansas House so I’m skeptical it will get out of committee in the Kansas House.
It’s rather unusual to see the words “Kansas” and “advances” in the same headline. I’ll wait to see if this isn’t simply another poll that was a waste of time and money. After the ruling on Prop 8 that donors must be made public, I have very little faith in bigots responding truthfully to polls.
no offense Kansans – but the ONLY good thing to come out of Kansas is “The Wizard of Oz” and SMALLVILLE
I’m a political reporter and freelance writer living in Kansas, and I’d like to very respectfully note that this story is extremely misleading. The rights bill did not “advance.” The committee merely introduced it as a committee bill. This is not an unusual procedure in the Kansas Legislature, and the Kansas Equality Coalition, the state’s lgbt rights group, has been able before to get this introduced as a committee bill. What will be news is if this bill is passed out of committee and sent to the floor of the Kansas House. That would be a first. Stay tuned.
kansas is coming into this century??? and not waiting another century to do it? *falls over dead*
Disgusted American,,I am Canadian and I have awesome friends from Kansas that come to Toronto Pride every year,,lemme tell ya,,they are the hit of the show!! Everyone loves the Kansas gals!! Oh, and that Spice Merchant in Wichita,,thats a good thing too!!
The poll found that 79% disapproved of discriminatory firing, and 80% of those would support changing Kansas law to protect gays and lesbians from discrimination. Thus, at least .79 * .80 = .632 or 63% of all respondents would support the change in Kansas law.
If the law does pass, I think it would be a big boon for the LGBT community. When gay groups were pushing for employment protections, states and cities rapidly added those protections. Employment nondiscrimination is something large majorities favor, and it has been very productive. Kansas is a tough state, but if it passes there, maybe it will lead to similar protections in other round of states.
When Sebelius leaves office, this bill, if by some miracle it does pass, will be repealed by Brownback or whomever else replaces her.
Damn..if only my state (AR) could hop on that progressive wagon. Nah, they’re too busy worried about “unmarried couples” adopting or fostering children.
The hypocrisy of the reddest of the red “Bible Belt” states is breathtaking.
They are anti-choice, anti-sex-ed, anti-gay, anti-women, etc. etc. etc. … yet they have the HIGHEST divorce rates, the highest number of unmarried teen pregnancies, the highest rates of STDs, while the “godless liberal” state of Massachusetts has the LOWEST.
Bubba Butt-Crack has seen his job outsourced to Bangladesh; he’s lost his health insurance; his house is in foreclosure; but he still votes Republican because BY THE LIVING GOD OF THE KING JAMES BIBLE (Scofield red-letter edition, black leather bound, with zipper case) the Republicans will protect him from those awful queers getting married, ’cause THEY’RE the reason his job was outsourced, his health insurance was cancelled, etc.
WE’RE *obviously* to blame for his stupid, dead-end, inbred, meaningless life.
Right.
Bud Burgoon-Clark
San Diego CA USA
Wow … now we can work but still be 2nd class citizens. Native Kansan — but thank God everyday I left. Jerkoffs.