Sunday, May 01, 2016

Congressional Republicans quietly gut President Obama's executive order protecting LGBT workers employed by federal contractors from discrimination.

Courtesy of HuffPo: 

Republicans quietly voted Thursday to gut President Barack Obama’s executive order barring workplace discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender employees of federal contractors. 

The House Armed Services Committee voted 33 to 29 to tuck language into the 2017 defense authorization bill — must-pass legislation — that blocks the president’s 2014 executive action that makes it illegal to fire or harass employees of government contractors based on their sexual orientation or gender identity. Instead, the amendment applies a broad exemption that would allow contractors to openly discriminate against LGBT people based on the contractors’ religious beliefs. 

More than 2,000 federal contracts are awarded every year to religious organizations. In all, the executive order affects 24,000 companies employing roughly 28 million workers, or about one-fifth of the nation’s workforce.

Here I have a solution.

Why don't we simply stop awarding federal contracts to religious organizations? 

What, too radical?

Oh yeah I forgot, we all have to respect everybody's superstitious nonsense.

And isn't that so much more important than respecting their human rights?

14 comments:

  1. Anonymous4:58 AM

    Religious freedoms came about to protect one Christian religion from another discriminating against it. Funny how they forget.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous5:09 AM

    Now if he can only deal with ageism.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Age, color, sexual orientation, weight.

      Humans find all sorts of things to discriminate and hate on.

      Age and weight are the hardest prejudices to fight because they aren't obvious and are hard to prove. You can even prove gender discrimination easier than age or weight.

      Delete
  3. Anonymous5:20 AM

    Yes -- Anglicans, Congregationalists, Quakers, Dutch Reformed, Roman Catholic, not to mention Jews, deists, and unaffiliated.
    To create the United States, religion took a back seat, because the Puritans and then other settlers, were escaping state religions in Europe.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous5:31 AM

    Agreed..no government contracts to anyone not paying taxes. No government contracts to religious schools. No tax dollars spent busing kids to their religious schools, or paying for their lunches, or supplying them with music and art teachers the religious schools don't want to pay for.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. How about no government contracts to companies that aren't in the U.S. and don't pay U.S. taxes.

      Like G.E.

      I won't patronize Burger King because they just became "Canadian" so they no longer had to pay U.S. taxes.

      Delete
  5. Phyllis5:37 AM

    A must pass bill unless President Obama vetoes it like he vetoed the one that was passed last year.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:01 AM

      And why did he veto it? Could it be that the bill in it's entirety was unacceptable?

      Delete
  6. Anonymous6:36 AM

    Fed Cons>
    http://www.rawstory.com/2016/05/heres-how-the-us-military-got-hooked-on-a-high-caffeine-energy-drink-called-rip-it/

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous6:46 AM

      "One soldier told National Public Radio that it was Rip Its and tobacco that kept him up late into the night while on patrol. “Patriotism,” the company ad slogan reads. “…If only we could bottle it!”
      Stateside, Rip It keeps connected to servicemen and women via support on social media, while hashtags like #teamnosleep try and appeal to cramming students, all-night gamers and law enforcement.

      Delete
  7. Who says it's must pass?

    If I were Obama I'd tell them point blank they take the language out or he'll get out his veto stick and beat them with it.

    Lame duck my ass. Let them hold up that legislation until after January 20.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Anita Winecooler4:10 PM

    Just how far back do they want to take our country? The chistofascists want their way at the expense of every other person's right.

    Was it Jesus who said "I had to do it, it was either him or me"? Did their god not make LGBT people in his image? POTUS will find a way to get it past. A good start would be passing a bill to tax all religions. The property tax, alone, could reform our schools and do a hell of a lot of good.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. They love them some Puritan austerity and suffering, so ballpark, 16th century. But with running water and toilets I'm guessing. And air conditioning in the south.

      Delete
  9. Anonymous1:06 AM

    Our 2016 federal contracts have already been drawn up. There's a lot of new stuff in there about sexual orientation,bullying,religion,politics,personal space ect. that wasn't in our contracts before.

    ReplyDelete

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