Episode 21 - GLBT News transcript
GLBT News transcript
Host: phaballa
I was going to talk about Barack Obama's ex-gay gospel-singing douchebag publicity nightmare, but then the House of Representatives went and passed ENDA, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which after 30-some odd years of being put forth and rejected, has finally managed to achieve a useless enough state to satisfy our friends in the US government.
What is ENDA? It's exactly what it sounds like-a bill that would make it a federal crime to discriminate based on age, gender, race, disability, and now perceived or actual sexual orientation. Sounds great, right? It is pretty great, although LGBT groups like the Human Rights Campaign aren't particularly happy with this version of the bill and have only given minimal support to it. Why? Because they don't think it does enough.
Originally when Barney Frank introduced the latest version of the bill in April of this year, it included protections for transgender people. But the version of the bill that passed does not include these protections. Instead, the new language would make it illegal “to fail or refuse to hire or to discharge any individual, or otherwise discriminate against any individual with respect to the compensation, terms, conditions or privileges of employment of the individual, because of such individual’s actual or perceived sexual orientation.”
And maybe this isn't enough. Civil rights isn't something any of us particularly want to compromise on, especially when such compromises have, in the past, led to things like Don't Ask Don't Tell or even the Separate But Equal ruling that dominated the country for decades. Compromise can be a slippery slope and there should never have to be compromise when it comes to equal rights.
But there's another slippery slope in this case, which is the one conservatives fear the most-that giving an inch will lead to a mile, that if we let LGBT folks be equal in the work place and acknowledge them in federal law as a minority group worthy of protection will lead to more rights and more protections until-GASP-they end up with all the rights and privileges of straight Americans!
And it's this reasoning that leads me to believe Nancy Pelosi when she says that “History teaches us that progress on civil rights is never easy. It is often marked by small and difficult steps.” This is a small and difficult step that's been some 30 years in the making. But it's finally here, finally coming to fruition, and if ENDA can somehow, some way, be passed into law; if we can override Bush's inevitable veto and actually pass into federal law language that protects gays and lesbians as a minority group, that will be a major first step. I hope as much as conservatives dread that this will lead to a domino effect; that once gays and lesbians are recognizes federally as a group, their rights will be federally protected in the same way that racial minorities and women's rights are protected.
I've said before that the LGBT civil rights movement will be a slow revolution, as most civil rights revolutions are. This is a small step; maybe too small for some people, but it is a step forward nonetheless. The fact that conservatives fear it and have feared ENDA for the past 30 years says something about the power and influence a bill like this has. What's more, in most states where LGBT people are not specifically protected against workplace discrimination, it is perfectly legal to fire someone simply for being gay. Federal law protects other minority groups from this sort of discrimination, but as we see from the way the US government conducts its military, they are perfectly happy to leave the LGBT community out in the cold. ENDA would end that.
Of course, its opponents claim that it would lead to unnecessary lawsuits; that “It would be impossible for employers to operate a business without having to worry about being accused of discriminating against someone based on their ‘perceived’ sexual orientation,” as Representative Ginny Brown-Waite of Florida said. Republicans claim they're opposed to ENDA because it interferes with capitalism and the way private businesses are run. But of course, the hypocrisy of Republicans knows no bounds. When they want to interfere in our private lives, by making sexual acts illegal, by denying gays and lesbians the right to marry, by denying them the right to serve openly in the US military-then meddling in private affairs is perfectly acceptable in order to maintain the morality of the nation.
My question to them is this: what is more IMMORAL than denying equal rights to a minority class? What is more abhorrent than limiting the rights and abilities of an entire group of people to maintain their livelihoods without fear of being terminated for the simple flaw of being themselves? Of course, this being me, it's a rhetorical question and the answer is always this: the most immoral thing anyone can do in government is attempt to police the moral righteousness of its citizens without regard for the harm it does them.
Next year, we'll see how the story ends. Maybe the Senate will pass their own version of ENDA; maybe it will go back and forth until we have a receptive Democrat in the White House who will actually sign the bill that's been 33 years in the making. This bill is older than I am! But if it finally gets passed, it may only be a small step toward the greater goal, but it will be a great accomplishment nonetheless.
Host: phaballa
I was going to talk about Barack Obama's ex-gay gospel-singing douchebag publicity nightmare, but then the House of Representatives went and passed ENDA, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which after 30-some odd years of being put forth and rejected, has finally managed to achieve a useless enough state to satisfy our friends in the US government.
What is ENDA? It's exactly what it sounds like-a bill that would make it a federal crime to discriminate based on age, gender, race, disability, and now perceived or actual sexual orientation. Sounds great, right? It is pretty great, although LGBT groups like the Human Rights Campaign aren't particularly happy with this version of the bill and have only given minimal support to it. Why? Because they don't think it does enough.
Originally when Barney Frank introduced the latest version of the bill in April of this year, it included protections for transgender people. But the version of the bill that passed does not include these protections. Instead, the new language would make it illegal “to fail or refuse to hire or to discharge any individual, or otherwise discriminate against any individual with respect to the compensation, terms, conditions or privileges of employment of the individual, because of such individual’s actual or perceived sexual orientation.”
And maybe this isn't enough. Civil rights isn't something any of us particularly want to compromise on, especially when such compromises have, in the past, led to things like Don't Ask Don't Tell or even the Separate But Equal ruling that dominated the country for decades. Compromise can be a slippery slope and there should never have to be compromise when it comes to equal rights.
But there's another slippery slope in this case, which is the one conservatives fear the most-that giving an inch will lead to a mile, that if we let LGBT folks be equal in the work place and acknowledge them in federal law as a minority group worthy of protection will lead to more rights and more protections until-GASP-they end up with all the rights and privileges of straight Americans!
And it's this reasoning that leads me to believe Nancy Pelosi when she says that “History teaches us that progress on civil rights is never easy. It is often marked by small and difficult steps.” This is a small and difficult step that's been some 30 years in the making. But it's finally here, finally coming to fruition, and if ENDA can somehow, some way, be passed into law; if we can override Bush's inevitable veto and actually pass into federal law language that protects gays and lesbians as a minority group, that will be a major first step. I hope as much as conservatives dread that this will lead to a domino effect; that once gays and lesbians are recognizes federally as a group, their rights will be federally protected in the same way that racial minorities and women's rights are protected.
I've said before that the LGBT civil rights movement will be a slow revolution, as most civil rights revolutions are. This is a small step; maybe too small for some people, but it is a step forward nonetheless. The fact that conservatives fear it and have feared ENDA for the past 30 years says something about the power and influence a bill like this has. What's more, in most states where LGBT people are not specifically protected against workplace discrimination, it is perfectly legal to fire someone simply for being gay. Federal law protects other minority groups from this sort of discrimination, but as we see from the way the US government conducts its military, they are perfectly happy to leave the LGBT community out in the cold. ENDA would end that.
Of course, its opponents claim that it would lead to unnecessary lawsuits; that “It would be impossible for employers to operate a business without having to worry about being accused of discriminating against someone based on their ‘perceived’ sexual orientation,” as Representative Ginny Brown-Waite of Florida said. Republicans claim they're opposed to ENDA because it interferes with capitalism and the way private businesses are run. But of course, the hypocrisy of Republicans knows no bounds. When they want to interfere in our private lives, by making sexual acts illegal, by denying gays and lesbians the right to marry, by denying them the right to serve openly in the US military-then meddling in private affairs is perfectly acceptable in order to maintain the morality of the nation.
My question to them is this: what is more IMMORAL than denying equal rights to a minority class? What is more abhorrent than limiting the rights and abilities of an entire group of people to maintain their livelihoods without fear of being terminated for the simple flaw of being themselves? Of course, this being me, it's a rhetorical question and the answer is always this: the most immoral thing anyone can do in government is attempt to police the moral righteousness of its citizens without regard for the harm it does them.
Next year, we'll see how the story ends. Maybe the Senate will pass their own version of ENDA; maybe it will go back and forth until we have a receptive Democrat in the White House who will actually sign the bill that's been 33 years in the making. This bill is older than I am! But if it finally gets passed, it may only be a small step toward the greater goal, but it will be a great accomplishment nonetheless.