Oklahoma Sets A New Record For Anti-LGBT Discrimination

I’m thinking of moving to Oklahoma, or, as I like to think of it, Oklahomo, after reading this week about a slate of new bills the state legislature is considering.

See, it looks like Oklahomo has no gun violence problem, no environmental issues, no economic concerns, no health troubles; it looks like it’s all good in Oklahomo, which is why I’ve suggested to Carlos that we move …except …

Since they have no other pressing issues in the state, the Oklahomo state legislature is preparing a slew of anti-LGBT measures because, well, it’s The Gays you know. In fact, Oklahomo has bested Texas for the most anti-LGBT measures before its legislature — there were 23 Hate Bills in the Lone Star state last year, but Oklahomo has some 26 pieces of hate pending:

HJR 1059 skips the committee process and doesn’t require the governor’s signature, but if approved by voters, it would amend the state constitution to allow any religious organization, private business, or individual to refuse to recognize any same-sex marriage and to be legally allowed to refuse to provide services and not be sued for discrimination. In addition, it guarantees that child-placing agencies would never be required to place a child with a family if it violated their religious beliefs.

HB 3044, proposed by anti-LGBT loon Sally Kern, bans school counselors, therapists, administrators, or teachers from providing students with guidance or information about “human sexuality” without notifying their parents, thus outing LGBT and LGBTQ students.

SB 1014 makes it illegal for a person to use a gender-specific restroom when that person’s biological gender is contrary to that of the gender-specific restroom.

HB 3049 bans transgender students from using sex-segregated facilities in accordance with their gender identities.

SB 1323 threatens school districts’ state aid if they accommodate a trans student; the only way a district could save its funding would be to reverse the policy and/or force trans students to use single-occupancy facilities.

SB 21 allows students to express religious viewpoints at any school event; the bill runs counter to anti-bullying policies that protect LGBT students if the bully claims that expressing their homophobic views was protected religious speech.

HB 1598 actually makes it illegal to ban ex-gay therapy.

HB 1371 says the state has no compelling interest in forcing anyone to “participate in any marriage ceremony, celebration, or other related activity or to provide items or services for such purposes against the person’s religious beliefs.”

SB 898 updates RFRA with provisions that make it clear that religious businesses can discriminate, even if it means violating local nondiscrimination practices.

SB 440 expands the definition of “religious entity” to include a privately-held business operating with a sincerely held religious belief.

SB 1289 says no municipality can pass a law that goes beyond what is set by state law, including the passage of LGBT anti-discrimination laws.

SB 1328 ensures that no individual would ever have to provide any service “used in a marriage ceremony or celebration of a specific lifestyle or behavior, or to promote, advertise, endorse or advocate for a specific marriage, lifestyle or behavior.”

HB 1597 is another piece of Sally Kern Hate and states that no business shall be required to provide any services, accommodations, advantages, facilities, goods or privileges related to any LGBT person, group or association.

HR 1032 says that “natural marriage” between one man and one woman remains the law, regardless of any court decision — screw you, SCOTUS — to the contrary, and demands that the Attorney General to defend against marriage equality.

SB 973 prevents the government from funding the “licensing or support of same-sex marriage.” So, a county clerk issues a license for a same-sex couple to legally marry, he or she would no longer receive a salary.

SB 805 is another version of the “Preservation of Sovereignty and Marriage Act” that was introduced last year.

HB 1599, another version of the “Preservation of Sovereignty and Marriage Act” cuts off administrative support for same-sex marriage without technically banning it.

SB 811 ensures that ministers can officiate marriages even if they oppose the requirement of a state-issued marriage license.

SB 733 requires marrying couples to undergo a blood test to prove they do not have communicable syphilis or any other communicable disease; if a physician identifies a disease that is communicable — and that includes HIV, HPV and even the flu — the couple cannot obtain a marriage license.

SB 724 establishes covenant marriage — one man and one woman — in which couples undergo premarital counseling and accept limited conditions for divorce.

SB 478 guarantees that no individual or religious entity would ever have to recognize a same-sex couple’s marriage or provide any service related to that union if it violated their religious beliefs.

HB 1663, more Sally Kern Hate, creates a new section of law not to be codified in the state code called the “Marriage Act of Oklahoma.”

Wow, it’s all hate in Oklahoma it seems, though there is one tiny pinprick of light in one bill — yes, just the one — that actually does some good for LGBT people:

HB 1345 would create statewide employment protections on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity, though it does not take up housing or public accommodations.

Really, Oklahomo? There is nothing else going on in your state you’re your elected officials have the time to create twenty-six pieces of proposed legislation, all of to allow discrimination of LGBT citizens? Is this what you want Oklahomo?

I don’t believe you do, and even if you do, are you willing to pay, via your taxes, when the state is sued by LGBT citizens, and the United States of America, for discrimination? That’s what will happen. And if you’re fine with your tax dollars going to pay off your state’s legal debts then sit tight and allow discrimination to become the law of the land.

But remember, those people allowing discrimination today are the very people who might face discrimination tomorrow, and who will stand up for you?

Think Progress

The March Goes On ... Just Don't Hold Your Breath

This is kinda good news, though with a ‘Don’t Hold your Breath’ caveat, but there’s a new bill set to be introduced into Congress today that would explicitly ban anti-LGBT discrimination in all areas of civil rights law.

The bill, the Equality Act, sponsored by Democratic Representatives David Cicilline [above left], of Rhode Island, and Jeff Merkley [above right], of Oregon, would ban  anti-LGBT discrimination in seven areas: credit, education, employment, federal funding, housing, jury service and public accommodations.

The name of the bill is the same as one introduced more than forty years ago by the late Congresswoman Bella Abzug that would have amended the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to include sexual orientation.

Forty years is a long time …

Of course, this bill, as any with regards to the LGBT community, faces an uphill battle in a GOP Congress. As of now there are no Republican co-sponsors, but Cicilline says lawmakers have until Thursday at noon to sign on as original co-sponsors. Even some LGBT-friendly Republicans, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Susan Collins Mark Kirk haven’t come out in support of the bill.

“I think it’s clear where the Democrats stand on this, but I think we’re all hopeful that we’ll be able to bring this effort forward in a bipartisan way. We’re not in a position yet to say that’s the case, but, obviously, I’m going to continue to do outreach, as I know Sen. Merkley is going on the Senate side to try to make this a bipartisan effort. But we won’t know that, obviously until the bill is introduced.” — David Cicilline

Most people say the Equality Act won’t see any movement in Congress, and also say, sadly, that if any LGBT legislation gets passed it just might be the First Amendment Defense Act, a religious freedom bill like that vile one in Indiana, which seems to allow, and celebrate anti-LGBT discrimination.

That hateful bill, introduced by Senator Mike Lee and Representative  Raul Labrador, both Republicans, has 130 co-sponsors in the House and 36 co-sponsors in the Senate.

While we won one battle, we still have a long way to go to achieve full equality, as David Cicilline points out:

“Every day, millions of LGBT Americans face the danger of real discrimination and sometimes even violence because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. In most states, a same-sex couple can get married on Saturday, post pictures on Facebook on Sunday, and then risk being fired from their job or kicked out of their apartment on Monday.”

The march goes on …

Washington Blade

Is George Lucas Really Auntie Mame?

In the film version of Mame — not the fabulous Rosalind Russell version, Auntie Mame, but the disastrous Lucille Ball Mame — the character of Mame visits the Upson Downs, the parents of her nephew, Patrick’s, girlfriend, Gloria, and finds them to be snobbish and anti-Semitic and just hateful. Mame is asked to help pay for a piece of property next door to Upson Downs so that Patrick and Gloria could live there, as opposed to "the wrong kind of people."

At the end of the film, however, a busload of other unwed pregnant women arrives at the property and Mame reveals to the Upson Downs that she bought the property next door so she could build the Beauregarde Burnside Memorial Home For Single Mothers.

Well, in one way, George Lucas is Auntie Mame.

George Lucas has pledged to give away half of his vast fortune when he dies, but this isn’t about that.

He has also, though, already handed over nearly all of the billions of dollars he made when he sold the rights to Star Wars to Disney, but this isn’t about that either.

See, George Lucas spent years unsuccessfully trying to expand his production company’s studio in Marin County, California, but his oh-so-rich neighbors fought back against the idea of a film studio in their backyards. So, he dropped the expansion plans, and came up with a better idea: affordable housing.

Now, a la Mame, Lucas will take the land he owns next door to those rich bitches and build an entire neighborhood of affordable housing and pay for it himself:

“We’ve got enough millionaires here. What we need is some houses for regular working people.”

The Lucas Plan would see hundreds of lower-middle class families living right next door to Marin County’s version of the Upson Downs. The 224-unit affordable housing complex would go on Grady Ranch, where Lucas’ once-planned studio expansion would have been. This new plan would develop some 52-acres including “workforce and senior residences, as well as a community center, pool and an orchard,” and income requirements will be set; future homeowners will need to earn less than 80% of the area’s median income, which in Marin County is less than $90,839.

Lucas is also considering setting aside certain houses for teachers and local employees who are particularly vulnerable to housing costs but vital to any community.

Naturally, the Upson Downs of Marin County have not taken the news well as they seem to suggest that their McMansions and fancy cars entitle them to be separated as far as possible from the lower classes. When Lucas first announced his plan, both he and Marin County officials were inundated with hate mail from residents suggesting allowing poor people to live in the county will ruin it for everyone:

“We got letters saying, ‘You guys are going to get what you deserve. You’re going to bring drug dealers, all this crime and lowlife in here.’” — Carl Fricke, board member of the Lucas Valley Estates Homeowners Association

And there are some neighbors who say this is just George Lucas exacting revenge because they bested him at the plan for expanding his studio property; Lucas denies this, of course, but wouldn’t it just be the sweetest revenge ever?

Now all they need do is to build an R2D2 Memorial Home For Single Mothers.

Addicting Info

George Lucas photo
Lucille Ball 'Mame' photo

Can I Get An Amen! Workplace Discrimination Gets a Beat-Down

In a rather interesting, and gay-friendly, surprise, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission [EEOC] has ruled that existing civil rights law — from the 1964 Civil Rights Act — bars sexual orientation-based employment discrimination.

Yes, it’s been illegal since 1964 to fire someone based on their sexual-orientation … so cue rightwingnut heads exploding.

The ruling — approved by a 3-2 vote of the five-person commission — applies to federal employees’ claims directly, but it also applies to the entire EEOC, which includes its offices across the nation that take and investigate claims of discrimination in private employment.

It’s yet another step forward on the path toward equality, y’all, and appears that the EEOC ruling could … could … mean a win in the battle for Congress to pass the Employment Non-Discrimination Act [ENDA].

The march goes on ….

In Louisiana You Can Be Denied Housing Because You're Gay

I have been saying that, while we can take great gay pride in the advances the LGBT community has made in this country towards becoming fully equal under the law, that sometimes we suffer great anti-gay setbacks.

I mean, we have seen everything from Don’t Serve The Gays, here in this country, to Kill The Gays in Uganda, Gays Are Criminals in India, and finally Stone The Gays in Brunei, depending on where the Sultan stands on stoning today.

And so I am not all that surprised at what’s happened in Louisiana this week when lawmakers rejected a measure that would have made it illegal to refuse to sell or lease property to same-sex couples in the state solely because they are gay.

Let’s say that more queerly; in Louisiana you can be denied housing because you’re gay; if a seller doesn’t like The Homosexuality, well, you don’t get the house; if a landlord has a case of The Homophobia, you don’t get the house.

And there ain’t a damn thing you can do about it.

And sadly, three Democrats — Gene Reynolds, Katrina Jackson, and Stephen Ortego —joined nine Republicans on the House Commerce Committee in rejecting the measure though not one of the cowards would say why they did so. The committee had previously rejected a similar proposal that sought to protect gays from housing discrimination.

This new bill, by Representative Pat Smith, a Democrat, would have added sexual orientation, gender identity, veteran’s status, source of income, domestic abuse victim status and conviction record to the list of characteristics a property owner could not use to deny someone housing.

Opposition to the bill naturally came from one of those conservative wingnut groups — the Louisiana Family Forum — whose representative, Kathleen Benfield said characteristics like race and sex deserve protection, but not sexual orientation because some property owners are religiously opposed to homosexuality.

Look, Kathleen, you dumb f**k, discrimination is discrimination and if you want to discriminate against “anyone, anywhere any time, ever” — shout out to Claire Huxtable for that quote — then why not rid ourselves of every single anti-discrimination law? I mean, maybe I want to run a business where dumb f**ks like Kathleen Benfield and the Louisiana Family Forum should be denied service because, well, I don’t believe in you?

That sound okay, Kath?

Still, there was at least one voice of sanity in the discussion, and that was Democratic Representative Herbert Dixon who reminded folks that it wasn’t all that long ago that people used religion to justify racial discrimination, and that this was no better.

And when Benfield countered that using the Bible to condone racial discrimination was irrational, Dixon asked, “But this is rational?”

No, it’s not; it’s religious based fear and discrimination and, even though I am no Bible thumper, I know that the Bible doesn’t say anything about discrimination. It does say, Judge not lest ye be judged, so maybe we should all use our judgments to deny Kathleen Benfield, the Louisiana Family Forum, and those 12 asshats on the House Commerce Committee any rights.

Sounds good to me; I mean, what’s good for the bigot …

Sidenote; yet another bill seeking to protect gays from discrimination by adding sexual orientation and gender identity to a variety of anti-discrimination statutes across Louisiana law was pulled from consideration in a second House committee.

Like I said, every step forward requires a step back it seems, but the march will go on. 

source