Just Because You Don't Hear Republicans Screaming About Strides Towards LGBT Equality, It Doesn't Mean They Aren't Working To Curtail Them

Shenna Bellows has a record of fighting for equality. Susan Collins has a record of dragging her feet and compromising away basic rights for people

I imagine that immigration activists must stay awake late into the night from time to time wondering what gay activists did that they didn't to get such incredible treatment for their platform. And advocates for economic equality must be ready to commit suicide over the same question. No identity group seems to have made out as well, after 6 years of the Obama presidency, as the LGBT community. Their activists worked hard and worked smart, made the most noise at the right time and raised immense sums of money. It all came together and the latest manifestation of the success of their strategy was Obama, kicking the deranged Republican obstructionists to the curb on behalf of an executive order prohibiting discrimination against gays from anyone doing business with the federal government.

ENDA, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which has already passed the Senate with bipartisan support and has been blocked from getting a vote in the House by Boehner, Cantor and McCarthy, the three hateful stooges. Jared Polis' House version of the bill, H.R. 1755, has 205 co-sponsors, including 8 Republicans (and several generally homophobic Blue Dogs). Among the Republicans are 3 of the most electorally vulnerable in the country: Michael "Mikey Suits" Grimm (NY-11), Mike Coffman (R-CO), and Frank LoBiondo (R-NJ). Still refusing to sign on: Georgia's gutless wonder John Barrow.

The bill would undoubtably pass if it came to a vote, but Boehner has been lying his ass off, claiming gays are already protected-- which they aren't-- and refusing to allow the Senate bill come up for a vote. Monday, the President announced he was having the White House staff draft an executive order barring discrimination by federal contractors on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity-- something right around 90% of Fortune 500 companies already adhere to. Last night Obama was the guest of honor at the DNC’s annual LGBT Gala in New York.

LGBT activists complain that ENDA has a gargantuan religious exemption that does allow certain companies to continue discriminating against gays and lesbians by claiming their religion mandates it-- including hospitals and universities that are connected to churches and religionous hate groups.

Title VII provides houses of worship and religiously affiliated organizations like universities and hospitals with an exemption from the law’s ban on discrimination on the basis of religion, allowing them to prefer members of their own faith in hiring. The purpose of this exemption is to permit a religious organization to require those who carry out its work to share its faith (and applies even when an employee’s work is not religious). It is not, however, a blank check for these organizations to discriminate for any reason they want, including on the basis of sex.

In fact, there is no religious exemption from Title VII’s prohibition on sex discrimination. When religious organizations have argued that Title VII’s exemption should allow them to pay women less because of religious teachings about the appropriate roles of men and women, courts have rightly said no.

Yet the religious exemption in ENDA opens the door for religiously affiliated organizations to engage in employment discrimination against LGBT people-- for any reason.

This exemption is so broad that it could leave a transgender doctor at a hospital or a gay food-services worker at a university without protection from workplace discrimination. Given the protections LGBT people are increasingly gaining under Title VII in the courts, it seems absurd that the price for explicit inclusion in federal law should be a religious exemption that creates a lesser standard for sexual orientation and gender identity discrimination.

Progressive Democrat Shenna Bellows, running for the Maine Senate seat held by Susan Collins, announced this week that she supports Obama's new executive order while calling on the White House to reject the religious exemption loophole created by the Senate version of ENDA as a sop to phony-baloney "supporters" of equality like Collins, who back the religious exemption.

"Speaker Boehner's statement tells us everything we need to know about the chances for anti-discrimination bills in a Republican-controlled Congress," Bellows said. "I support the President's order because we need to make progress where we can and when we can. But we also need to see the big picture, and the big picture is that if Mitch McConnell becomes Senate Majority Leader after this year's election, we can say goodbye to anti-discrimination bills even getting a hearing from now on. There's no excuse for equivocating on full equal treatment under the law for all LGBT Americans."

As head of the Maine Civil Liberties Union, Bellows was part of the coalition that won Maine Won't Discriminate non-discrimination protections on the ballot in Maine in 2005.  Maine's non-discrimination laws do not contain a religious exemption. Blue America has endorsed Bellows and you can contribute to her campaign here.