Sen. Sherrod Brown's (D-OH) mass e-mail on ENDA

[Deep13]

"*** Issue Update from Sen. Sherrod Brown ***

"All Americans deserve equal protection under the law. However, the lesbian, gay, bisexual & transgender (LGBT) community faces many hurdles in its pursuit of justice and equality in this country. Currently, employment discrimination based on sexual orientation is legal in 29 states and employment discrimination based on gender identity is legal in 38 states.

"In the 21st century, qualified, hard-working Americans should not be denied job opportunities or risk losing their jobs due to their sexual orientation or gender identity – real or perceived. Congress outlawed this policy for the military with repeal of the discriminatory “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy in December, and now it is time to do the same across the board. Working people in this country deserve to be judged based on their performance, period.

"Senator Brown is proud to announce his co-sponsorship of the fully-inclusive Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), introduced by a bipartisan group of senators on Thursday. ENDA will extend federal employment-discrimination protections, currently based on race, religion, gender, national origin, age, and disability, to include sexual orientation and gender identity. It would prohibit employers, employment agencies, and labor unions from using an individual’s sexual orientation or gender identity as the basis for employment decisions such as hiring, firing, promotions, or compensation. ENDA would apply to government employees, but not to religious organizations, uniformed members of the armed forces, or small businesses with 15 or fewer employees. Additional information is available here.

"Passing ENDA will extend fair employment practices and protections – not special rights – to all Americans. Twenty-one states and the District of Columbia already have laws protecting LGBT Americans. According to the Human Rights Campaign Workplace Project, 87 percent of Fortune 500 companies extend protections based on sexual orientation and 46% extend protections based on gender identity. These are hopeful statistics, but we must do better as a nation. ENDA is an important step on the road to equal justice for all Americans."

Here's the link referenced in the note.

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d112:s.811:

[xchrom]

1. recommend

[The Philosopher]

2. I hope ENDA is passed

It seems trivial, but I really want to wear nail polish without worrying about being fired for being gay. Not that my homosexuality or nail polish have anything to do with each other.

[Deep13]

3. Frankly, I think this is more critical than DADT or gay marriage.

In most places in this country, people are forced to be in the closet for fear of being fired or evicted. Once people are allowed to be open about who they are, it will be impossible for most other people to live in denial about who gay people are.

[The Philosopher]

6. Right

That's why there's so much opposition. It's social oppression. I can guarantee you that after a few years of ENDA being passed, the Republicans will find a way to strengthen right-to-work laws, to make it easier to fire people (even though it's super easy anyway). If they can't discriminate what they want to discriminate about, they'll find something else that the law can't protect. And if they can't find anything, they'll say of your job performance, "Right, you did meet the goals...just not in the exact way we wanted...."

[Deep13]

4. The exception for businesses with

[Deep13]

7. It didn't post my message.

I said, the exception for business with <15 employees is bullshit.

[thanks_imjustlurking]

8. I'll say!

It's not like it will cost them any money not to discriminate.

[The Philosopher]

9. It will

in therapy bills.

[thanks_imjustlurking]

10. .

:rofl:

[Zorra]

5. Sad. It's better than what we have, but it still validates discrimination for no reason

other than the persistent illusion that we are somehow inferior to "straight" people as well as LGBT's that aren't out.