Michael wrote: > There has been significant work done on the Employment > Non-Discrimination Act for many, many years, with some > legislative successes in the Senate. Remember that at > least one Congressional chamber has been in Republican > hands for 7 years now, and for most of that time the > national Republican Party has been under enough > influence from the religious right that their response > to gay civil rights has ranged from lukewarm to > outright hostile. And it takes both houses and the > President to pass a law.
Do you know which Republicans have held this up, which states are they from and what has been their objection? Will this be and amendment to the existing Federal law or a separate enactment? The original sponsor of the bill is Christopher Shays, a Republican from Connecticut, and there are a number of other Republican co-sponsors to the bill. > Also to Kakki's points, there was a HUGE flap > regarding the Salvation Army's exemption from > non-discrimination regulations tied to federal monies > earlier this year, when an internal White House money > promising such an exemption to the Salvation Army in > return for the SA's support of legislation important > to the White House. (Can someone fill in the blank on > what this legislation aimed to do--my memory fails me > right now. I also don't remember how it was resolved. > Sheesh.) I did some searches and all the talk of this seems to be coming from the SA. The White House spokepersons denied th SA'a characterizations in the Washington Post. The Washington Post also indicated that prior laws have given religious organizations exemptions from some state and Federal discrimination laws, as does the ENDA that you cite above. > Another little wrinkle: the SA's western division made > moves to introduce benefits for same-sex domestic > partners of its employees a couple of months ago, and > the hand of the national organization quickly smacked > them down. What was reported is that the national organization originally did agree with the western division on this, but then received a barrage of protests from many of their contributors and reneged. In doing so, they have given up around $30 million in state monies from California and will no doubt be giving up several more millions in funding from other states and cities who prohibit this discrimination. Bottom line for me is that this has left a bad taste in my mouth on many levels and I really am feeling more opposed than ever to providing government funding to religious organizations. > And, Americans, write your Reps./Sens. urging them to > sponsor ENDA immediately. A breakthrough on this > legislation is very possible in the next couple of > years, but our leaders have to know that support for > it extends to Americans from all regions of all sexual > orientations and religions. What better way to > support the democracy we're now so proud of post-9/11? I agree - we need the law to be uniform across the board. Kakki
