When President Obama signed a memo granting a few benefits for federal employees in same-sex relationships, lost in the mix was that he was also having his minions draft guidelines to protect transgender employees as well. Could this be the first president in America's history to not just mention the "T" word, but also provide anti-discrimination rules for 'em?
"The administration’s plan to draft a policy explicitly warning federal supervisors about discrimination against transgender employees was lost in the criticism, and Mr. Obama did not outline it in last week’s announcement," reports the Times. Also: "John Berry, the director of the federal agency in charge of such workplace issues, the Office of Personnel Management, said in an interview on Tuesday that the administration was not trying to hide its work on the new provisions. Mr. Berry noted that he had mentioned them last week at a news briefing about the president’s same-sex benefits plan, though it came up only briefly in a discussion that mostly focused on the complaints."
The move comes 11 years after President Bill Clinton added sexual orientation to the list of protected classes for federal employees.
And if the House can get a trans-inclusive Employment Non-Discrimination Act on the president's desk? We'll have GLBT protections for all employees!
Still not clear in Obama's forthcoming guidelines for federal supervisors: Whether they'll stipulate transgender employees can use the bathroom they feel most comfortable with. But the topic will make for a great ice breaker on Monday!
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This is all well and nice, but still it will be even nicer when ENDA actually makes it through.
Comeon Queerty – Where's the obligatory anti-O snarkiness in the post?
A good move from the Administration, but a long way to go before they regain trust (and $$).
Disagree how you will with Barack Obama on some pretty serious issues (are we really debating whether or not to release a Gitmo detainee held because we mistook the video of him being tortured by al-Qaeda for him being trained as a suicide bomber?). Wonder who the fuck he's pleasing when it comes to some other issues (dude made some pretty explicit damn promises on the campaign trail when it came to Don't Ask, Don't Tell, among other shit). Accuse him of whatever you like, yell at him about whatever you like, call him a dirty smoker. But the man is trying to be a goddamned alchemist in transforming a vat of shit into a gold bathtub.
This is great, and I think goes a good way towards repenting for his previous slights against The Community. Of course, even with ENDA there won't be protection for the employees of the armed services. They're still REQUIRED to be fired by law.
More proof of how much Obama hates us…God, why does he hate us so much? He is a homphobe and an unrepentant bigot. blah, blah, fucking, screeching blah.
Moving more slowly than we'd like on our issues? Agreed. Unwilling to put his ass on the line for us, without other political support? An unfortunate political reality. Should we keep the pressure on to continue receiving the civil rights protections we deserve? Absolutely!
But, WTF?!…3 posts on this thread acknowledging progress the administration has made for our cause?! Pathetic, just pathetic.
Where is Barry Soetero's BIRTH CERTIFICATE? He is NOT my president!!!
@botofu:
I hope this is a joke post…if not, crawl back under your rock please, with the rest of the cockroaches.