Thirty seven Senators urge Obama to act on gay workplace rights

[babylonsister]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2013/02/14/thirty-seven-senators-urge-obama-to-act-on-gay-workplace-rights/

Thirty seven Senators urge Obama to act on gay workplace rights
Posted by Greg Sargent on February 14, 2013 at 10:38 am

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Now, in a move that could increase the pressure for action, 37 Senators have sent a letter to the President — spearheaded by Senator Jeff Merkley — urging him to issue this executive order. The letter, which was sent my way by a source, can be read right here, and is signed by new Senate liberals like Elizabeth Warren and Tammy Baldwin, as well as much of the Democratic leadership: Chuck Schumer, Dick Durbin, and Patty Murray. It says:

{Y}ou are in a position to protect millions of American workers immediately by including sexual orientation and gender identity alongside long-standing anti-discrimination protections.

As you know, ENDA would prohibit most workplaces in the United States from discriminating against potential and existing employees on the basis of their sexual orientation or gender identity. From our perspective, ENDA’s premise is simple: it would make federal law reflect the basic principle that Americans should be judged on their skills and abilities in the workplace, and not on irrelevant factors such as their sexual orientation or gender identity.

Currently, an Executive Order prohibits federal contractors from discriminating against employees based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin…Issuing an Executive Order that includes sexual orientation and gender identity is a critical step that you can take today toward ending discrimination in the workplace.

Such a move by Obama would be enormous. The American Civil Liberties Union recently argued that it could help “create a tipping point moment with employment protections based on sexual orientation and gender identity.” When combined with current workplace protections on the state and federal level, the ACLU argued, an executive order of this kind “would likely mean that, for the first time in history, more than half of all American workers would have legally binding workplace rights.” A Post editorial last year noted that such a move would extend protections to some 16.5 million employees who work for contractors that don’t have non-discrimination policies that extend to sexual orientation.

Obama deserves tremendous credit for ending Don’t Ask Don’t Tell; for no longer defending the Defense of Marriage Act in court; for being the first American president to come out for gay marriage; and for using his Inaugural Address to call for full equality for gay and lesbian Americans before the law. At a time when the Supreme Court is preparing to hear cases (involving DOMA and Prop 8) that could have far reaching consequences for gay rights, an ENDA executive order would send another resounding message that the culture is changing, and would constitute another step towards making the ideal of full equality before the law a reality.

[Bluenorthwest]

1. Love Senator Merkley, for whom I volunteered from primary onward...

best time I ever spent on a politician, Jeff has made me proud again and again.