Think We Don't Need ENDA? Think Again ....

Yesterday the Senate voted 61-30 to allow for debate on the Employment Non-Discrimination Act [ENDA], a bill that would make it illegal nationwide for employers to discriminate against LGBT people. ENDA, naturally, has the support of all Senate Democrats but only a handful of Republican Senators, like cosponsors Susan Collins of Maine, Mark Kirk of Illinois, Orrin Hatch of Utah, Dean Heller of Nevada, Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire, Rob Portman of Ohio and Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania.

But that handful of GOPers isn’t enough because, even f the Senate votes to pass ENDA — making it the first time the Senate has approved it in the 20 years it has been under consideration — the House, under Speaker, Republican and Perpetual Weeper, John Boehner isn’t keen on ENDA. In fact, Boehner says the House will not consider it after it passes the Senate which means ENDA would head into a third decade as a ‘pending’ bill.

A Boehner spokestool offered a couple of reasons why Boehner and his Party of No would not support ENDA; first, Boehner believes preventing employers from firing employees for being LGBT would “increase frivolous litigation and cost American jobs” but then he also added that ENDA would actually do nothing because “existing law” already prohibits employers from firing LGBT workers.

Existing law is already in place where it’s illegal to fire a person for being gay? Well, then shut it down, y’all, it’s all good. The Gays are safe in the workplace.

Sadly, Boehner’s wrong … again … and he is in huge company. A recent poll found that 69% of Americans incorrectly believe that a law like ENDA is already in place. In 29 of these good old United States, there is is no law protecting gay, lesbian and bisexual workers from being fired; and in 33 states there is no law protecting our transgender brothers and sisters.

Yup, in most of America you can be fired for your sexual orientation, like …..

• Tippi McCullough, a Catholic high school English teacher and coach in Arkansas was fired on her wedding day.  McCullough and her wife, Barb Mariani, say they believe McCullough was singled out by Mount St. Mary’s Academy for being gay, though the school says McCullough violated the terms of her contract, which has a clause allowing for dismissal if a staff member violates Roman Catholic teaching.
• Ken Bencomo had taught English at St. Lucy's Priory High School in Glendora, California for 17 years until he was fired for marrying his longtime partner. The Catholic school discovered his husband when they were photographed in a local newspaper article about marriage equality. Students have protested and appealed to the school board without any success in getting their teacher reinstated.
• Bev Kearney, a University of Texas track coach was fired when news spread that she was in a relationship with one of her adult female students. Think it’s wrong for a teacher to be in a relationship with a student? Okay, then please to explain how a white, male UT football coach kept his job after it was revealed he had an inappropriate relationship with a student trainer. Oh, yeah, that was a heterosexual relationship.
• Carla Hale's firing was nasty and mean-spirited. She was fired after an anonymous source told her employers at Bishop Watterson High School that she was gay. The source learned that Haler was gay in the obituary for Hale's mother, who recently passed, that mentioned Hale's partner. After 19 years of service, the Catholic school fired Hale for “immorality” a few weeks after she returned to work following her mother's death.
• Tom Klansic, a school principal, was fired by the Gresham, Oregon school district because he divorced his wife and came out as gay, according to Klansic. Though the district says otherwise, after ten years of exemplary service Klansic’s contract was not renewed after he announced he was gay.
• Mark Krolikowski, a well-respected teacher at St. Francis Prepatory School in Queens, had taught school for 32 years but his gender nonconformity likely led to his dismissal. Krolikowski had recently begun dressing in women's clothing, though he prefers to use his birth name and male pronouns. His principal took aim at his appearance, calling him "worse than gay" in 2011. After agreeing to "tone down" his appearance, and receiving excellent marks for his teaching, Krolikowski was ultimately fired in 2012.
• Nikki Williams, a history teacher and basketball coach, was fired from the Life School in Waxahachie, Texas because she's gay, according to some parents. A petition was circulated to get Williams's job back, but school officials dug in, even refusing to expunge the firing from her records.
• Reverend James St. George, an adjunct professor of world religion at Philadelphia’s Catholic Chestnut Hill College, was fired after he made statements about gays that apparently went against Vatican teachings. School officials say the story was sensationalized, while the college's president tried to voice concern for gay students and staff of the school: "We ache for the negative impact this story is having on them." 
• Lisa Howe, the women’s soccer coach at Nashville's Belmont University was ALLEGEDLY fired from the Christian university after she announced her partner was pregnant. Her dismissal led to protests, new protections for gay employees and students at Belmont, a campus LGBT group recognized by the university, and a citywide ordinance requiring companies contracted by the city protect their gay employees from workplace discrimination; the latter was later overturned by Tennessee state legislators.
• Seth Stambaugh, a young teacher in Oregon, was fired when his fourth-grade student asked him why he wasn't married and he responded that he was gay. He was later reinstated at Sexton Mountain Elementary School and awarded $75,000 for his troubles; he donated some of the money to a charity to youth-oriented nonprofits.
• Marty Edwards, an assistant vice president at First National Bank of Granbury, asked the bank's executive vice president and the human resources director why he had been passed over for promotions in the past, despite a strong 11-year track record. They replied that the other workers who had received promotions were "a better fit for the image we are looking for." Edwards was hired right out of college and was groomed to move up the ladder at the bank until he came out five years ago; he also says he experienced a hostile work environment after coming out. When Edwards asked whether his sexual orientation was the main reason he had been denied chances to move up, executive vice president James G. Hodges demanded his resignation, and when Edwards refused, Hodges fired him.
• Tim Griffin, a gay former Eagle Scout, was fired as an employee at Camp Winton because he's gay, and in solidarity with Griffin, Camp Winton program director Alex Hayes quit in protest. The pair gathered 70,000 signatures and delivered them to the Golden Empire Boy Scouts Council in Sacramento.
•  Bradley Kindrick was assaulted while working the graveyard shift at a 7-Eleven in Virginia Beach, and was subsequently fired because he is openly gay. 7-Eleven corporate officials told WAVY News that Kindrick was fired because he was drunk on the job — a claim Kindrick denies.
• Anastacia St. Claire-Hannah, a housekeeper, says the couple whose house she cleaned found out she is transgender via a background check. They allegedly called her "disgusting" and "a freak," barred her from preparing their meals, and told her that she needed a psychologist. Three days later, St. Claire-Hannah was fired. She says the couple claimed her working at their home would look bad for the husband's image and business.
• Cori McCreery was fired from her job as a grocery store clerk shortly after she announced plans to transition from male to female. She had moved up the ranks from clerk to supervisor at Don's Valley Market in Rapid City over five years, but after the announcement, the owner told McCreery she was "making other employees uncomfortable," and because the owner had a "seven million dollar investment in the project," McCreery was abruptly fired.
• Bill Stein, music director at Rockford's largest Catholic church, was fired after some parishioners objected to his desire to adopt a child with his partner of 10 years. The church offered to let him keep his job if he took a vow of chastity, which he refused, and so he was fired. 
• Peter TerVeer was fired in 2012 from his job as a management analyst at the Library of Congress, for ALLEGEDLY being “AWOL” from work. But he says he had to take medical leave because, since being hired in 2008, he’s been subjected to antigay harassment from his boss, John Mech. TerVeer says that after Mech found out he was gay, he began quoting Bible passages to him and giving him poor performance reviews.
• Milton Stroder was fired from his job at the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services for referring to other gay men as "queen" and "princess" in personal emails to his partner. However, coworker Shannon Duncan was not fired for sending her own personal emails, including a chain email to co-workers titled, "Pampered Chef," showing naked men with pots and pans placed over private areas of their bodies. A federal judge ruled that Kentucky was guilty of anti-LGBT discrimination in that case.
• Vic Gardner says the Texas attorney general's office began mistreating him after he dressed as a geisha for an office Halloween party. His former supervisor is accused of admitting he had a "religious objection" to Gardner being gay, and reportedly said to him, "You know who you are, but try not to be so out." 

And that's just a drop in the bucket; thousands of LGBT workers have been fired ion this country simply for being LGBT. 

So, do you still think we don’t need ENDA? Still think we have laws in place already to protect LGBT workers?

Think again.

source