Congress stuck in neutral on LGBT equality

[William769]

Any high school Civics student could tell you that it takes 218 votes to block a piece of legislation in the United States House of Representatives. According to the Human Rights Campaign’s new Congressional Scorecard released last week, there are currently 219 members of the House dead-set against fair treatment of LGBT Americans. That’s why Congress is stuck in neutral on this important civil rights issue — even as President Barack Obama, state governments and the American people have moved forward in their support for LGBT equality.

By rating members of Congress based on their support for LGBT-relevant Congressional actions, the HRC Congressional Scorecard is able to track how support for LGBT equality on Capitol Hill has changed over time. This year’s edition makes it perfectly clear that elections have consequences. The extreme Tea Party Republicans elected in droves in 2010 are broadly anti-LGBT, and as a result the number of House members scoring a zero percent increased dramatically from 144 in the last Congress to 219 this session. On the Senate side, the average score also declined to 35 percent even as the number scoring a zero dropped from 32 to 14.

Make no mistake about it, this increased hostility has a real and negative impact on the lives of individuals and families across this country. In dozens of states, Congressional inaction means it is still perfectly legal for LGBT people to be fired from their job for living openly. And blatant discrimination persists in the form of the so-called Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), even though Congress has the tools at its disposal to set things right.

This is also the first year that HRC has included individual members’ support of marriage equality on the Scorecard. After all, it was only a few short years ago that Congress was debating whether to enshrine discrimination in the United States Constitution. And as public support has swung dramatically in favor of marriage equality, fair-minded Americans of all stripes should know that only slightly more than one third of their elected representatives share this opinion.

http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/civil-rights/263349-congress-stuck-in-neutral-on-lgbt-equality

[Booster]

1. They won't address it until after the election cause Mitt will sign it and Obama will veto it.