 | kaminski (@normadriv… on Catholic University’s #L… |
 | Kip on Cautiously optimistic… |
Great long weekend in NYC back in September for the Climate. From Friday’s “A Queer Response to Climate Change” performances put on by Queers For The Climate, to Saturday’s Yes Men session at the Climate Convergence, to the People’s Climate March itself, and then the #FloodWallAction it was all good and energizing…
J Mase III
Joe Stevens
Our statement on today’s announcement that President Obama will sign the federal contractor employment protection Executive Order:
“We are thrilled the President is seriously considering signing the long awaited Executive Order for sexual orientation and gender identity protections for federal contractors, though we have concerns about any religious exemptions the White House would include.
Unfortunately, the present version of ENDA which passed the Senate last Fall was amended by Senators Ayotte and Portman to protect religiously affiliated federal contractors who legally discriminate against LGBT employees from retaliation by the federal government, thus gutting the as yet unsigned Executive Order.
We cannot accept this version of ENDA or an Executive Order which includes religious exemptions beyond those included in the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Julian Bond has cautioned us against it and the women’s rights community (Hobby Lobby decision expected later this month) is furious with the LGBT community for sitting back accepting the broad religious exemptions contained in ENDA 2013.
We worry that thanks to the Ayotte/Portman amendment, Speaker Boehner will hurry to get this to the House floor. A golden opportunity to legally discriminate against the LGBT community might be too attractive for him to pass up.
1AngryOldLesbian.org strongly opposes any legislation or governmental action which legalizes discrimination. We strongly oppose the current version of ENDA and encourage others who only artfully craft language stating they oppose the exemptions, but still support the bill, to come out strongly and work with those of us campaigning to kill ENDA 2013.”
At DC Pride we try to find someone at HRC that can tell us why they are still pushing that bad ENDA despite everyone now knowing its religious exemptions are harmful to not only our community but to many others as well.
Leah Brown finds the HRC contingent…
Much more on the D.C. Pride Parade and our attempts to find an HRC person who would explain their $2M ENDA campaign here.
The Senate Historical Office was celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the 1964 Civil Rights Act with a discussion of the ‘Civil Rights Proponents’ Strategy for Success”. So, we dreamed using the knowledge they would impart resulting in a future ‘Stonewall at 50: LGBT Rights Proponents’ Strategy for Success’ discussion.
It made us ask ‘What will you do to help make this reality?‘
More on the story and HRC & NGLTF failing to learn from this history lesson here.
“Hope will never be silent“, nor will we. The U.S. Government gave Harvey Milk a postage stamp for his birthday, we asked that he be truly honored with more than that! We think Harvey would agree that 36 years after his death we should have attained his dream of ‘full un-qualified equality’! “It takes no compromise to give people their rights.”
More of the story, pics and panels here.
Hilary says “The president needs to sign this damn executive order already so we can stop talking about it.” We agree! But all we hear from the White House is “Be patient” … “Wait for Congress”. We think that’s really “Give me more LGBT money” !
More about our White House Correspondents Dinner weekend fun here.
New art project today at the Ugandan Embassy – 8 poster mural. How will the world respond to Uganda’s state sponsored homophobia? Lives are dependent…
More of the story here.
Updates
4/20 Day 2:
…and 4/21 Day 3
South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma’s failure to condemn Uganda’s anti-gay laws is an insult to their Constitution and former president Nelson Mandela’s views on human rights.
Full coverage here.
We went to visit Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of Labor Perez to see why the LGBT community can’t get relief from our “BARBARIC” lack of employment protections. No one seems to know… and no one would see us.
In front of the Supreme Court this morning for the Hobby Lobby / Conestoga case. Religious liberty claims used to deny women’s health care not much different than religious liberty claims behind public accommodation refusal bills against the LGBT community…
| kaminski (@normadriv… on Catholic University’s #L… |
| Kip on Cautiously optimistic… |
