The New York Times reports that Solis, who helped found the House of Representative’s Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Caucus when she was in Congress, was outraged and wrote an email to the department.

The Healthy Families Act, introduced by Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D), would include all companies with 15 or more workers and guarantee employees one paid hour off for each 30 hours worked, enabling them to earn up to seven paid sick days a year. 

Employees could use the leave provided by the Act to attend to their own medical needs or the medical needs of children, parents, spouses or any other individual “whose close association with the employee is the equivalent of a family relationship.”

Current federal law does not require that private employers provide employees with any paid sick leave.  

While some employers may provide sick leave, many do not.  Furthermore, employers that do provide leave do not always include families headed by same-sex couples, said Cristina Finch, senior counsel for the Human Rights Campaign.

Almost half of all American workers have no paid leave to take care of themselves or family members when they fall sick.  For families in the lowest quartile of earners, almost 80 percent lack paid sick leave.  Forcing employees to choose between a paycheck and taking care of their own illness or a family member’s illness negatively impacts national health and costs businesses an annual $180,000,000 in lost productivity, said Finch.

“Providing paid sick days is essential for working Americans and their families to ensure they can take time for regular, preventive medical check-ups or to care for a sick family member without risking their job,” said Finch.  

“For families headed by same-sex couples, when employers do not provide paid leave, there are no options beyond missing work, foregoing a paycheck, and potentially losing a job.  Passage of this valuable legislation would assist millions of Americans in committed, long-term relationships care for a same-sex partner or family member.”

Republicans and business groups have vowed to fight the bill. The same issue was supposed to go up for a vote last year, but was pulled just a few months before the November election.

The state House passed the bill on a 34-30 vote on Tuesday.  It had already passed the Senate.

Under the legislation the state employee would have to be in a committed relationship for at least a year.  

Workers had been lobbying for the provision for several years but was fought by Republicans who argued it violated a 2006 referendum that defines marriage as a union of one man and one woman.

GOP lawmakers also claimed it would cost too much and was discriminatory because it does not apply to unmarried opposite-sex couples who live together.

The plan is expected to cost about $150,000 a year and will go into effect in July.

Earlier this month Ritter signed a domestic partner bill making it easier for unmarried couples to make medical decision for incapacitated partners and leave property to their partners.

The measure would apply to same and opposite-sex unmarried couples.

The Designated Beneficiary Agreement Act was passed last month in the state House of Representatives and the Senate.

The law will permit any two people – regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity – to enter into designated beneficiary agreements that confer specific legal rights and responsibilities, including the right to receive state employee pension benefits, the right to make medical decisions for an incapacitated partner, and the right to inherit if a partner dies without a will.

Our sex life is fantastic, and he never has complained about that. He seems very happy to be with me and tells me all the time how much he loves me. Should I mention his comments to him, or just be satisfied that he’s my lover? –Confused in Grafton, VA:

Dear Confused,

With gay male couples, it’s a common dynamic for one or both partners to tell each other how hot another guy is (or isn’t, for that matter). Some couples are comfortable with this, while others are not. Although straight couples sometimes ogle others of the opposite sex and talk about their attractiveness, most don’t—and would find it hurtful if their partner brought it up.

In his research on straight and gay couples, marital therapist John Gottman found that in general, gay and lesbian couples feel more at ease talking about the good looks of someone outside their relationships than do heterosexual couples. His research showed that lesbian and gay couples take this “other approval” less personally and find it less threatening than do their straight counterparts.

With that preamble, I must admit that when I met my partner, I felt just like you. At the time, he was just coming out. Wherever we went, he was interested in—and talking about—all the eye candy around us. I remember feeling insulted and inferior and hurt, even though deep down, I knew that he wasn’t comparing me to those other guys. His conscious attraction to men was all new to him, and being able to talk about it was refreshing and liberating. Nevertheless, I didn’t like it one bit.

Gay or straight, the biggest danger any couple faces is not communicating. I told my partner that I didn’t appreciate his admiring other guys out loud around me. I recommend you do the same, because if you don’t, you’ll probably resent him for it, and that unspoken resentment will come out sideways with you “punishing” him in negative ways that he can’t possibly understand.

I would begin the conversation by acknowledging the wonderful: Tell him how much you appreciate enjoying a good sex life and his constantly saying how much he loves you. Then you can tell him that whenever he comments about another guy’s “cute ass,” you feel [fill in the blank with your honest reaction]. When you tell him this, don’t accuse him or act defensive, because that only makes a partner defensive right back. Restrict your comments to yourself and your feelings, letting him know that kind of talk hurts you. If he indicates that he wants to keep on talking about other hot men (as in “Hey, what’s wrong with that?”), I suggest you ask him—with genuine curiosity—why doing that is so important for him. Again, without making him take it personally.

I met my partner when he was 37 years old. He told me that he’d waited until he was 37 to talk to anyone about cute guys, and that even though we were partners; he hoped that he could do that with me. For my part, I tried to understand. For his part, he tried to refrain from telling me about hunky-looking passersby. It wasn’t a total victory for either of us. But as time went on, I became more comfortable with his comments, and he needed to make them less and less.

To keep your relationship lively and well, the most important thing is to keep your lines of communication wide open. When a problem comes up, talk it through as much as you both need to.

NEXT PAGE: I am out everywhere – except at work

It would amend the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act to include “sexual orientation” and “gender identity or expression” as protected classes. The bill, introduced by Rep. Dan Frankel (D) has 79 co-sponsors from both parties and from across the commonwealth.

“This legislation is critical to thousands of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Pennsylvanians who are trying to work and have a roof over their heads, and it enjoys substantial support from Pennsylvanians from every corner of the Commonwealth,” said Jake Kaskey, policy and outreach coordinator of Equality Advocates Pennsylvania.

“At a time when more and more people across the state find themselves unemployed, we need to make sure every Pennsylvanian who wants to work has a fair chance at work,” Kaskey added.

The bill is expected to go to the House State Government Committee, where it has been assigned in the past.

“We are very encouraged by the record number of legislators who have signed on as co-sponsors of this bill and we think it is a good sign for future progress,” added Andy Hoover, legislative director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania.

Current Pennsylvania law provides basic legal protection against discrimination on the bases of race, color, religion, ancestry, age, national origin, handicap or disability, education and the use of a guide dog. 

Thirteen Pennsylvania municipalities have already enacted civil rights laws including protections based on sexual orientation and gender identity or expression. State College also has an ordinance that only covers sexual orientation discrimination in housing and employment. 

But nearly 80  percent of the state’s 12 million residents live or work in communities that do not provide these protections. 

Twenty states in the country have similar laws, including Pennsylvania’s neighboring states of New Jersey, Maryland and New York.

Rights groups say that people looking for work need to check whether prospective employers have written protections for LGBT workers and domestic partner benefits.

The Human Rights Campaign on Tuesday released its list of the Best Places to Work.

The group named 260 companies this year that met its standards for their employment policies and practices that include LGBT workers. 

All 260 businesses scored 100% on the HRC Foundation’s 2009 Corporate Equality Index which evaluates non-discrimination policies, benefits, diversity training and other internal resources for LGBT workers, as well as external support for LGBT consumers and job seekers.

The list is broken down into nearly 30 categories, from Advertising and Marketing to Transportation and Travel and is available at the HRC Web site.

“As our nation faces unprecedented economic challenges, people are being forced to make important decisions about their career’s and livelihood,” said Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese.  

“Though equal opportunity and benefits are not the only factors that prospective employees should consider, they are vital to ensuring a business values and respects its LGBT workforce.”

Economists this week predicted a net loss of at least 2 million jobs this year- possibly more – even if President Barack Obama’s $825 billion package of increased government spending and tax cuts is enacted. Last year, the economy lost a net 2.6 million jobs, the most since 1945, though the labor force has grown significantly since then.

So far this week, tens of thousands of new layoffs were announced in just two days by some of the biggest names in American business – Pfizer, Caterpillar, Home Depot and GM.

More pink slips, pay freezes and other hits are expected to slam workers in the months ahead as companies desperately look for ways to survive.

“All Floridians should have the opportunity to earn a living and provide for their families without fear of being unfairly fired or denied housing for reasons that have nothing to do with their job performance or their ability to maintain a home,” Skidmore said in a statement.

Currently, the Florida Civil Rights Act protects against discrimination in employment based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, handicap or marital status

Florida’s Fair Housing Act currently protects against discrimination in housing and public accommodations based on race, color, national origin, sex, handicap, familial status or religion.

Last year, 31 of Skidmore’s House colleagues signed on as co-sponsors of the bill.   Despite the support, the bill did not receive a hearing.

A Senate version of the bill did not include protections for transgendered Floridians and was opposed by LGBT rights groups.

An inclusive version is expected to be filed later this month.

“Contrary to popular belief, in most parts of Florida it is still legal to fire someone solely because he is gay,” said Palm Beach County Human Rights Council President Rand Hoch.

“Just last month, the manager of a gas station in Lee County reported that he was fired after two years on the job simply for reporting anti-gay comments made by a co-worker.”

The council is the largest LGBT rights group in Palm Beach County.

While Florida has no comprehensive statewide law protecting gay and lesbian employees, several counties and cities have amended their fair employment and housing laws to cover “sexual orientation” or “gender identity or expression.

These laws are in effect in Broward, Leon, Miami-Dade, Monroe, Orange, Palm Beach and Pinellas counties, as well as in the cities of Gulfport, Gainesville, Key West, Lake Worth, Miami Beach, Orlando, Sarasota, St. Petersburg, Tampa and West Palm Beach.

Across the country, 20 states and the District of Columbia have fair employment and housing laws covering sexual orientation. The most recent 13 of these states that enacted these laws also include gender identity or expression.

A poll taken in November by the Sun-Sentinel newspaper found that 89 percent of Floridians believe gays should have the same rights as everyone else to housing, job opportunities and public accommodations.

“Hardworking Floridians should not be fired from their jobs just because they are gay,” said Hoch.  “The time has come for Florida to join the twenty other states which protect gay employees from being unfairly fired.”

Sanchez was hired by Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA), Chairman, House Financial Services Committee to serve as his Legislative Assistant for LGBT, Healthcare, Labor, Veterans and Census issues.

Sanchez takes up the new position on Jan. 6.

Until his appointmen, Sanchez served as Director of Public Relations & External Affairs for AIDS Action Committee of Massachusetts, New England’s first and largest AIDS organization, and AIDS Action Council in Washington, DC.

He directed media relations for the National AIDS Strategy Coalition, which successfully urged President-elect Barack Obama to support the design and implementation of a national AIDS strategy for the United States.

Earlier this year, Sanchez became the first transgender person appointed to a standing committee of the national Democratic party, the DNC Platform Committee.

As a member of the Platform Committee, he successfully worked to include support for a national AIDS strategy, federal employment protections based on both gender identity and sexual orientation, and affirmation of same-sex couples as families.

He was also appointed to the positions of Party Leader and At-Large Delegate to the 2008 Convention in Denver.  Sanchez served on President-elect Barack Obama’s LGBT Policy Advisory Committee and Transgender Policy Sub-Committee and previously was a national LGBT advisor for Senator Hillary Clinton’s Presidential Campaign.

In July 2008, he testified before Congress as one of three transgender witnesses on the issue of employment discrimination faced by the transgender community.

Sanchez is a member of the Human Rights Campaign Business Council and Diversity Co-Chair of its Boston Steering Committee, founding Board member of the National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE) and SomosLatinos LGBT, first Co-Chair of Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition (MTPC) and on the Board of Boston’s Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America.

“Diego dedicates his community involvement to social justice and his corporate and non-profit experience will help in many important policy arenas beyond advancing legislation for transgender employment inclusiveness.” said Meghan Stabler, national transgender activist and fellow HRC Business Council member.

It calls for passage of the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Act; a gender-inclusive Employment Non-Discrimination Act; repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell; repeal of the federal Defense of Marriage Act; opposition to any attempt to reintroduce an amendment to the Constitution to ban same-sex marriage, support for inclusive adoption rights; and an expanded war on HIV/AIDS.

The program is identical to Obama’s positions during the campaign and LGBT rights groups said it shows that the president-elect is committed to keeping his word.

The Matthew Shepard Hate Crime Act would add sexual orientation to the list of categories covered under federal hate crime law. It passed the House in 2007 and the White House threatened to veto it. In an effort to get around a veto, the Senate version was tied to the 2008 defense authorization bill.  It passed but then went to conference, where it was stripped out.

Obama was a co-sponsor of the bill. On his transition Web site, Obama notes that in 2004, crimes against LGBT Americans constituted the third-highest category of hate crime reported, making up more than 15 percent. As a state senator in Illinois, Obama helped pass tough legislation that made hate crimes  – and cthe onspiracy to commit them -  against the law.

Obama, in his eight-point plan, also supports the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, and says it must include gender identity.

ENDA passed the US House in 2007 without protections for the transgendered, but was not taken up by the Senate.

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 the bill if it included gender identity.

More than a dozen LGBT groups immediately distanced themselves from the legislation. Frank has since said he would fight to ensure an inclusive ENDA is passed.

Obama’s support for an inclusive ENDA virtually assures it will include gender identity when it is reintroduced in the next session of Congress.

“While an increasing number of employers have extended benefits to their employees’ domestic partners, discrimination based on sexual orientation in the workplace occurs with no federal legal remedy,” Obama says on the transition site.

Legislation to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” the ban on gays serving openly in the military, was taken up in committee this year for the first time, but did not make it to a vote.

DADT was enacted in 1993. Since then more than 12,000 servicemembers have been dismissed when it was learned they are gay.  According to statistics from the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, which advocates for gays in the military, an average of two service members each day are dismissed under the law .

“The key test for military service should be patriotism, a sense of duty, and a willingness to serve. Discrimination should be prohibited,” the Obama transition site says.

“Obama will work with military leaders to repeal the current policy and ensure it helps accomplish our national defense goals.”

The Web site also touts Obama’s commitment to same-sex families, but he remains reluctant to support gay marriage.

“Barack Obama supports full civil unions that give same-sex couples legal rights and privileges equal to those of married couples.” the transition site says.

“Obama also believes we need to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act and enact legislation that would ensure that the 1,100+ federal legal rights and benefits currently provided on the basis of marital status are extended to same-sex couples in civil unions and other legally-recognized unions. These rights and benefits include the right to assist a loved one in times of emergency, the right to equal health insurance and other employment benefits, and property rights,” the Web site says.

He also supports adoption rights for all couples “regardless of their sexual orientation.”

Obama’s plan also offers a comprehensive plan for combating HIV/AIDS.

“In the first year of his presidency, Barack Obama will develop and begin to implement a comprehensive national HIV/AIDS strategy that includes all federal agencies. The strategy will be designed to reduce HIV infections, increase access to care and reduce HIV-related health disparities,” the Web site says.

Part of that plan would see a diminished role for the Bush administration’s dependence on abstinence education, as well as distributing contraceptives in prisons and lifting the federal ban on needle exchanges.

Currently, 20 states and the District of Columbia prohibit employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation; 13 of those states also prohibit gender identity discrimination.

The Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law found that laws prohibiting sexual orientation discrimination in the workplace are used as frequently by LGBT workers as laws prohibiting sex and race discrimination are used by women and people of color.

Analyzing employment discrimination complaints filed with state agencies in states prohibiting sexual orientation discrimination, the study found that five out of 10,000 LGBT people in the workforce file sexual orientation employment discrimination complaints each year, compared to sex discrimination complaints filed by five out of 10,000 women in the workforce and race discrimination complaints filed by seven out of 10,000 people of color in the workforce.

“Our analysis directly questions the popular argument that sexual orientation anti-discrimination laws are unnecessary,” said study co-author M.V. Lee Badgett, research director at the Williams Institute. “They are needed and utilized by the LGBT workforce.”

The report also addresses any worry that expanding employment discrimination to LGBT people would overwhelm state and federal agencies. “Given the size of the LGB population and the filing rates of LGB people, any increase in complaint intake would be negligible,” the study concluded.

Christopher Ramos, a researcher who also worked on the study, said that in eight states sexual orientation claims surpass sex claims; the same is true for three states when compared to race claims.

“Clearly, LGBT employees are not only facing a certain level of discrimination, but also, taking advantage of protective state policies,” Ramos said.”

While almost half of the states in the country have some form of LGBT protection there is no federal coverage for LGBT workers.

The Employment Non-Discrimination Act, or ENDA, passed the US 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.

When ENDA returns it is likely to include gender identity protections.

ENDA, 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.

Brad Sears, executive director of the Williams Institute, noted that over 3.1 million LGBT adults live in states that do not provide workplace protections.

“As the debate surrounding the necessity of LGBT workplace protections begins again in Congress we must keep in mind the fragile economic position of these LGBT employees and their families,” Sears said in a statement.