Introduced by Oregon’s Sen. Jeff Merkley, along with Maine’s Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe, Massachusetts’ Ted Kennedy, the standalone Employment Non-Discrimination Act hit the Senate today — the first time such legislation did so. The goal? Join the House is passing a workplace protections bill; the House saw this year’s ENDA bill introduced in June.
Wondering whether your senator is on board? Check this list.
MORE: The bill has 34 co-sponsors; only two are Republicans (Collins and Snowe).
Snowe: “This legislation is long overdue. We cannot continue to allow two standards of rights in the workplace, based on sexual orientation or identity.”
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Merkley: “No worker in America should be fired or denied a job based on who they are. Discrimination is wrong, period.”
Collins: “Similar to the current law in several states, including Maine, and the policies of many Fortune 500 companies, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act would close an important gap in federal civil rights laws by making it illegal to discriminate in employment based on sexual orientation. Our legislation affirms the principle that individuals should be judged on their skills and abilities, and not by who they are.”
Kennedy: “The promise of America will never be fulfilled as long as justice is denied to even one among us.”
AlwaysGay
Call, email and fax your U.S. senators NOW. If you have extra time also contact Arlan Specter of Pennsylvannia. He was a republican and switched over to being a democrat this year. Make sure he votes like a democrat.
youcanthandlethetruth
Merkley: “No worker in America should be fired or denied a job based on who they are. Discrimination is wrong, period.”
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Does this guy live in a cave?
The vast majority of Americans are employed “at will” meaning they can be “let go” at any time without any need of any explanation.
Is ENDA yet another example of homosexuals receiving privileged treatment because they have made themselves into a “protected class”?
SM
@youcanthandlethetruth:
You ever heard of a little thing called the Civil Rights Act of 1964 or the EEOC…lol
youcanthandlethetruth
@SM: What effect do they have on emplyment at will?
Nada
threshold
And now I will continue my proud tradition of emailing John Cornyn and Kay Baily Hutchison with a 0% chance of affecting anything.
Don’t feed the trolls guys.
SM
@youcanthandlethetruth:
Tell that to all the people who have won discrimination lawsuits 🙂
How come the High School kids in my conservative area are smarter than you? Do you think they are voting yet?
tick tock..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXHSx_1khyU
InExile
Looks like gays cannot be cured which proves being gay is not a “lifestyle”.
The proof:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090805/ap_on_re_us/us_psychologists_gays
Bill Perdue
We desperately need a fully inclusive ENDA.
The original proposal, even before being raped by Barney Frank and the Democrats was a modest thing. If truth be told it needs more teeth, bigger teeth and sharper teeth. It needs to cover housing and the rights of students and consumers. Its language has to clearly cover ourselves, women and national minorities. What it really needs are new provisions making it easy as pie to sue and win huge awards from bigots. And put their asses in jail for a long time.
Weak or strong, on the way to becoming law it’ll have to pass several hurdles. The worst one is Barney Frank, winner of the title “Official Quisling” of the GLBT movement for the last several years. Frank may try to rape ENDA again to please bigoted employers, business owners and managers.
Or far right-wingers and right-centrists from both parties might try to mutilate it again with the help of Barney Frank, Hillary Clintons GLBT Campaign manager. (cue Clintonista whiners.)
Finally it has to get past the Bigot in Chief (cue the Obot whiners). Obama’s the guy who thinks we shouldn’t have civil rights because the sky pixies might disapprove. You know who I mean, Mr. “gawd’s in the mix” himself. And to give him credit Obama does have lot on his plate. He’s very busy ignoring and insulting us, ordering the murder of Iraqi and Afghan civilians and passing out welfare checks to the looter rich. And don’t forget all his union busting. Its hard work but if he wants to amass millions while in office like Bill Clinton, king of pardons for drug dealer and other business owners, Obama will just have to knuckle down and tough it out.
If ENDA is tough enough to be effective Obama will surely veto it. But not to worry. Barney and his packs of blue dawgs, yellow dawgs, Dixiecrat dawgs and Republican attack chihuahuas (that covers pretty much everyone in Congress) will see to it that the bill is as feeble and unproductive as most of the civil rights bills of the 1960’s and ‘70’s.
[img]http://tbn1.google.com/images?q=tbn:Kvb9hL5EEbx5iM:http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/aa181/Okieboy_1/OkieontheLam/ReidPelosiFrank.jpg%5B/img%5D
youcanthandlethetruth
Why do homosexuals need additional legal privileges on top of their “protected class” status?
Why should homosexuals be made more equal than others?
Surely there are far more deserving minorities to pamper?
rudy
This bill is a big game changer as it will free up voices even in Dixie.