Subscribe to Breaking News
Loading ...Obama transition team bans LGBT discrimination
11.10.2008 1:21pm EST
(Washington) The Obama-Biden transition team is telling prospective employees in the new administration it will not discriminate against LGBT workers.
“The Obama-Biden Transition Project does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, age, national origin, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, or any other basis of discrimination prohibited by law,” the Transition team says on its official Web site.Although the commitment pertains only to transition team workers, LGBT civil rights activists say they believe Obama will issue an Executive Order shortly after being sworn in to extend that throughout the administration.
“The inclusion of gender identity is a bold departure from the past – and it sends a clear message,” said Christopher E. Anders, ACLU Senior Legislative Counsel.
“By including sexual orientation and gender identity in its non-discrimination policy, the Obama-Biden transition team makes clear that it will focus on the relevant qualities that actually predict an applicant’s success on the job – professional experience, character, skills and education.”
Although President Bill Clinton signed Executive Order 11478, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, there are no explicit federal protections from gender identity bias in government hiring.
During the Bush administration, U.S. Special Counsel Scott Bloch refused to protect LGBT workers. The Office of the Special Counsel is supposed to protect whistleblowers and investigate complaints of discrimination by federal workers.
Bloch’s stonewalling of complaints of discrimination by LGBT federal workers dates to February 2004, when he ordered references to sexual orientation removed from the Office of the Special Counsel website.
A month after the references disappeared from the OSC website, Bloch said gay workers were no longer protected.
After intense pressure from Federal Globe – the LGBT organization for federal civil servants – and from Democrats on the Hill, the White House said it would honor the Executive Order signed by Clinton that assured LGBT workers of civil rights protections.
But with Bloch’s approval, several union contracts negotiated with various branches of the government removed the list of categories that are protected, replacing them with the more nebulous phrase “any class protected by law.”
Bloch said in May 2005 before the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs subcommittee that his interpretation of the Clinton executive order cannot be used to protect gay workers, because it does not specifically name LGBT workers.
“President-elect Obama and Vice President-elect Biden, by explicitly rejecting the bigotry and intolerance of the past, are committing that gay, lesbian, and transgender professionals can serve in government without fear of discrimination,” said Anders. “This is a critical next step in securing the basic rights of LGBT community.”
The ACLU and other rights groups are calling on Obama to make passage of a gender-identity inclusive Employment Non-Discrimination Act – known as ENDA – one of his priorities.
The Employment Non-Discrimination Act, or ENDA, passed the House in 2007, but without protections for the transgendered.
The legislation would make it illegal for employers to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation in hiring, firing, promoting or paying an employee.
ENDA as originally introduced by Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass) included transpeople, but Frank removed those protections in committee, saying it would be impossible to pass.
More than a dozen LGBT groups immediately distanced themselves from the legislation. Frank and the Human Rights Campaign now say they will fight to ensure an inclusive ENDA is passed.
The bill expected to be reintroduced with gender identity protections in the next session of Congress.
I have always said (sometimes in sadness)
the religious right wing-nuts will never stop us.
If you look how far we have come in the past 20 years. They are really panicked and that is why they are doing all of this so fast..
Think of them like a Jake Brake on a 18 wheeler. The Jake Brake is designed to slow the truck down, but it will never stop it.
If you were coming down a steep grade the Jake Brake is what would allow you to get through the steep winding road with out crashing. It make take you a bit longer to get to your destination but you will get there safely.
These low to NON educated folks are the reason the church has an audience in the first place. They are sitting there captive and being told that this is Gods will by “One person” that has to intimidate them with fear and guilt.
If any of you remember, about 10 months before Jerry Falwell assumed room temperature, he was going around every where saying that from now on he was going to use all of his clout and all the money it took to defeat the gay agenda on every front.
You can bet he would have been on the front lines to defeat Obama. So some how there must be a God. A God that is looking out for ALL of his children, because he smite Jerry Falwell Ker-Plunk and allowed Obama to win hands down.
In some ways it might be better for us not to have all rights at one time. I know this sounds crazy but typically there are to many of us worrying more about what were going to ware to the bar
or who were going to date next, who is hot and who is not.
I hope with all my hart this is the biggest wake up call in our history. We have taken to much for granted for to long.
If this kick in the ASS hurts as much as it should then you brothers and gay sisters will strap an ice pack on your butt, contact your local LGBT head quarters, ask what you can do to help the cause. Donate what money you can but most of all donate your time as it is needed.
A little time donated now will help secure your victory for a life time.
Besides you will be around your own kind working for a worthy cause,….And what a great way to meet new people. Imagine that.
Call 5 of your friends and tell them to 5 of their friends and them to call 5 of their friends.
Now get off your whinnie butts and make a call and see what you can do.
Excuse me, hi? The oxymoronic, sycophantic, lemming here. I just have a question for you all.
Have I misrepresented the Obama platform in any way? When I post literal quotes from Obama’s running mate about their stance on gay couples did I somehow post them out of context or leave out important words?
Do you disagree with my analysis that shows that the Obama platform very carefully differentiates a religious union from a civil union? Would you like me to repost said analysis?
Aww, what the heck! In for a penny, in for a pound, huh? Here I go again:
On the other hand, I think an Obama/Biden administration is realistically the best chance we have at the moment to make a gain in rights. McCain and Palin represent a step backwards, what with Palin advocating a federal Amendment to ban gay marriage. This despite her state’s rights stance.
I personally don’t think Biden slipped up or contradicted himself at the debates. I think his words were very consciously and purposefully chosen. Here, let’s review:
Absolutely. Do I support granting same-sex benefits? Absolutely positively. Look, in an Obama-Biden administration, there will be absolutely no distinction from a constitutional standpoint or a legal standpoint between a same-sex and a heterosexual couple.
This sounds good, right? Notice the specific use of the words “constitutional” and “legal.” It seems to me that he uses these words precisely to specify what he’s talking about so that he can come back later and talk about a kind of marriage that is non-constitutional and non-legal.
The fact of the matter is that under the Constitution we should be granted — same-sex couples should be able to have visitation rights in the hospitals, joint ownership of property, life insurance policies, et cetera. That’s only fair.
It’s what the Constitution calls for. And so we do support it. We do support making sure that committed couples in a same-sex marriage are guaranteed the same constitutional benefits as it relates to their property rights, their rights of visitation, their rights to insurance, their rights of ownership as heterosexual couples do.
Again he reiterates that that, from a legal standpoint, same sex couples are to be treated the same as opposite sex couples. This is a far cry from McCain’s stance, which basically “allows” us to spend thousands of dollars in lawyers fees to enter into contracts that garner us only some of the rights that opposite sex couples get with one document.
This is not a gift, McCain, we can do it already, and it doesn’t work out so well.
No. Barack Obama nor I support redefining from a civil side what constitutes marriage. We do not support that. That is basically the decision to be able to be able to be left to faiths and people who practice their faiths the determination what you call it.
Here’s the line that gets hisses and boos. Again, though, I think the wording here is again very deliberate. Notice how in the first sentence he says they don’t support redefining marriage “from a civil side” and how it’s up to people of faith how they define marriage. This is where that non-legal marriage idea comes in. This is where he’s reassuring the religious that the government isn’t going to come into their places of worship and telling them what to do, rewriting their holy books, etc.
This is good, because the government has nor right doing that. From the legal and constitutional standpoint, however, Biden rightly says that marriage is equal for hetero and homosexual couples.
The bottom line though is, and I’m glad to hear the governor, I take her at her word, obviously, that she think there should be no civil rights distinction, none whatsoever, between a committed gay couple and a committed heterosexual couple. If that’s the case, we really don’t have a difference.
Here again, he repeats the stance of the Obama campaign; that homosexual couples are equal in the eyes of the law to heterosexual couples.
If you’ll remember, the Connecticut Supreme Court said the exact same thing a couple of years ago and left the legislature to decide how to make gay couples equal in the eyes of the law. They chose civil unions. The reports came in, civil unions were not garnering gay couples the rights they were promised by the courts and thus the courts revisited the case and determined that gay couples could not be denied access to marriage.
Honestly, the rest of the country should take this as a lesson, but this does show that civil unions are a stepping stone to marriage equality.
So yeah, there’s my analysis once again.
Of COURSE I think we need to get over this religious crap that makes us tip toe around the word “marriage” and OF COURSE I think a dual status system is inelegant, unwieldy, and ultimately wrong.
Do I think we should be satisfied with anything less than complete equality? No, of course not. But to spit on progress on call it the rankest bigotry is simply counterproductive.
We’re hurt and we’re mad right now, and that’s completely understandable, but we have to stand together and work for progress, people!
We can’t let this kind of negativity slow our momentum. Stop with the infighting and the backbiting. Open your eyes and see progress where it truly is.
Save your invective for real bigotry, not just the inevitable concessions that politicians always make. Get mad and show your support at the rallies and protests Nov 15th, but don’t just lash out at everyone. You might just be cutting off your nose to spite your face.
Look back at all my posts if there’s a search function. Have I been a cheerleader at all? Do I talk like someone’s who’s starry-eyed and voting because of celebrity status? I’d hope that the thought I put into this comes through and you don’t think I’m a mindless Obama groupie.
My Friend you said it beautifuly.
Ophidimancer reiterates Obama’s stance that is one of full legal and constitutional equality with straight couples.
That he won’t call our unions “marriage” is the only wrong, and something that he even admits is wrong.
So how is this going to work? Are we going to change it at the Federal Level to somehow recognize our relationships only to have them not recognized by the states? Married Gays in MA, CT, and CA would finally be able to file as Married for both Fed and State purposes. The rest of still in limbo? OR
Are we going to change laws all over this far flung nation to accomodate the dual stance?
Why can’t we just get over the religious crap LIKE CANADA DID and let Gays and Lesbian MARRY?!
OK, I voted for Obama, and have hreat hopes.
HOWEVER, how does a constitutional lawyer defend a “separate but equal” policy on Gay Marriage?
IN 1996 Plessy v Ferguson Supreme Court case the “Supremes” rules that Separate but Equal was ok for racial division. The Separate came but the Equal did not. The Supremes rectified that in 1954 in Brown v Board of Education effectively sayng Separate but Equal is inherently unequal. How can Obama with a “straight” face not recognize the parallels and disavow “Separate but Equal?”
Wayne wisely said: “If anyone should be saying “I told you so” it’s those of us who warned that an Obama win would be the stake in the heart of gay marriage equality. And we were sadly proven right.”
Right on, Wayne! Glad to see that everyone is not a sychophant in the GLBT community like Kris, Blacksteel, Ophidimance, and so many other deluded lemmings.
And as the poster Randy so aptly put it: ” I notice that he includes the phrase where prohibited by law or some such. Which means he has an escape clause.If your not going to discriminate why the proviso. Because you are already against gay marriage that’
s why.The federal gov. already discriminates against us with there 1138 items that protect them and not us. And as for not calling it marriage and still wanting us to have the same rights…I guess that he’’s right…..we’ll still get there with you…we’ll just be in the back of the bus.”
….Yes, thank you Wayne and Randy and so many others who exposed this crime against our kind. Obama wins by mobilizing the haters against us in his own community. He knew what he was doing. We were expendable. Kind of Hilteresque.
Watch and see how our issue will just evaporate in this new congress. After all, they have “other” priorities don’t they? Civil rights are not an important enough issue with which to be concerned in this country, unless you are Black and straight and a bigot that is.
Blacks 70% against Equality for GLBT in California.
Whites 51% for Equality for GLBT in California.
…It’s a fact. Who’s the bigot now? And now we have another one for President. Happy now?
The flip side of the prop 8 disaster is
that if prop 8 had been defeated, we wouldn’t have these wonderful protests nation wide that are so positive. We now know where some of our most important work needs to be done. This has helped reveal our antagonists. Most are mislead. Many are misinformed. Many are afraid of us.
We’ve been depicted from the pulpit in the worst possible light; the devil himself! (And it must be true or everything else in my religion would have to be a lie too… my preacher would not lie from the pulpit!). This is the kind of thinking that goes on. I remember reading the bible in seventh grade with the realization that I was going to Hell.
I also knew that for what ever reasons, my prayers to change went unanswered. I was painfully aware that this trait of mine was so vile that it
was not to be discussed with anyone.
I’ve since discovered a most illuminating discussion of this topic. Anyone having questions about this topic will find this to be an easy read. A Google search for “A Letter To Louise” is all that is needed. It is found on the web site: http://WWW.Godmademegay.com.
My life would certainly have been different if I had had access to this information. I certainly would have felt better about myself. I continue to look on the bright side and look forward to change that will someday leave me feeling that I have the support of my country in life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
I love the talk Michelle Obama has spoken . I await anxiously the walk President Obama will guide our country on.
Religion is the signpost that points the way. The way is blocked by people who have latched onto the signpost.
This is what you call leadership? His transition team says it will hire gays, and yet the Gay community across America is uniting and protesting against our inequality like never before, and yet Obama can’t even be bothered to mention our struggle. If anyone should be saying “I told you so” it’s those of us who warned that an Obama win would be the stake in the heart of gay marriage equality. And we were sadly proven right.
I have this sudden urge to say “told ya so” to all those vehement nay sayers dogging Obama these past few weeks.