LGBTQ news and entertainment
Matt Baume debunks myths being touted about the recently introduced-in-Congress Equality Act:
There’s a Big Gay Loophole in the Civil Rights Act that doesn’t cover LGBTs.
The proposed Equality Act would patch it up, but of course, opponents of equality are making up all kinds of crazy claims about why the Big Gay Loophole should stay open forever.
Fortunately, their reasons are completely absurd, so it shouldn’t be too hard to knock ‘em down.
The Houston Chronicle reports that the Texas Supreme Court has ruled today that Houston City Council must repeal the city’s equal rights ordinance or place it on the November ballot.
The ruling comes three months after a state district judge ruled that opponents of Houston’s contentious non-discrimination ordinance passed last year failed to gather enough valid signatures to force a repeal referendum.
“We agree with the Relators that the City Secretary certified their petition and thereby invoked the City Council’s ministerial duty to reconsider and repeal the ordinance or submit it to popular vote,” the Texas Supreme Court wrote in a per curiam opinion. “The legislative power reserved to the people of Houston is not being honored.”
The city’s equal right ordinance bans discrimination based not just on sexual orientation and gender identity but also, as federal laws do, sex, race, color, ethnicity, national origin, age, religion, disability, pregnancy and genetic information, as well as family, marital or military status.
Houston City Council has 30 days to repeal the ordinance or place it on the November ballot.
More from Project Q Houston:
The state’s highest court also ordered the city to immediately halt enforcement of HERO, which prohibits discrimination against LGBT people in employment, housing, public accommodations, and city contracting.
“But what of the City Council’s complaints of forgery, false oaths, and the like?” the all-Republican court wrote in its 12-page per curiam opinion. “Although these issues were addressed at trial and are now pending before the court of appeals, we note that the City Secretary never claimed the referendum petition was plagued by forgery or perjury. Yet the City Council decided, of its own accord, not to act, disregarding the City Secretary’s certification that the petition had enough signatures.”
Somehow, these folks twist the truth about an ordinance protecting LGBTs into an attack on religious folks.
Which, I guess, could be true if the concern was really about losing your ability to discriminate.
At a campaign event in San Francisco, GOP presidential hopeful Jeb Bush said he supported workplace protections for LGBT folks, but only on a state-by-state level.
“I don’t think you should be discriminated [against] because of your sexual orientation. Period. Over and out,” he told the worker. “I think this should be done state-by-state. I totally agree with that.”
Moving on to the topic of same-sex marriage, Bush tried to walk a fine line between appeasing conservatives who support “religious freedom” laws that would allow business to refuse to serve LGBT customers by citing their religious beliefs and opponents who see it as legalized discrimination. Bush has previously said that following the Supreme Court’s ruling in June that legalized same-sex marriage in the United States, the matter is settled and Republicans should move on from the issue.
Bush thinks the nation should find a way to “balance the rights of those seeking to marry and the religious beliefs of those who oppose those unions,” according to a Time magazine report on the campaign event.
But the candidate also gave himself some wiggle room when discussing the proposed laws. Using the example of a florist asked to provide flowers for a same-sex wedding, clearly expressed his opinion that they should not be used to blatantly discriminate, saying “You should be obligated to sell them flowers. Doing otherwise would be discriminatory.”
Later, Bush pulled back a bit on that statement saying that a florist shouldn’t have to “participate” in a same-sex wedding if they didn’t want to. He didn’t clarify what he considered “participating.”
Chris Johnson at the Washington Blade writes:
The Pentagon is preparing to update its Military Equal Opportunity Policy to include sexual orientation as a protected class and the change could be made final as soon as the end of next month, the Washington Blade has learned.
A senior defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, confirmed late Friday the Defense Department is planning to update the Military Equal Opportunity Policy to add the words “sexual orientation” as part of the non-discrimination policy.
The proposed change is set to be delivered as early as the middle of next week to Defense Secretary Ashton Carter for his review and final approval, the official said. Each of the military services has already agreed to the change, the official said.
Transgender people are still barred from open service in the U.S. Military.
Seventeen years after the murder of Matthew Shepard, the Laramie City Council has approved, by a vote of 7-2, an anti-discrimination ordinance that prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in housing, employment and access to public facilities such as restaurants.
Local organizers focused their efforts on Laramie after the Legislature repeatedly rejected anti-discrimination bills, most recently early this year. The Laramie Nondiscrimination Task Force presented a draft ordinance to the City Council last summer. Jeran Artery, head of the group Wyoming Equality which has lobbied for the anti-discrimination measures at the state Legislature, said he was thrilled with the council vote.
Judy Shepard, Matt Shepard’s mother, is active in a Denver-based foundation that bears her son’s name and focuses on equality issues. “I’m thrilled that Laramie’s doing it, at the same time sort of saddened that the state of Wyoming can’t see fit to do that as well,” Shepard told The Associated Press in a telephone interview Wednesday before the council vote from Washington, D.C. “Maybe the rest of Wyoming will understand this is about fellow human beings and not something that’s other than what they are.”
The state legislature has repeatedly failed to pass similar state-wide protections for LGBTs.
From the Human Rights Campaign:
Despite the efforts of anti-LGBT activists in Arkansas, equality continues to prevail in Eureka Springs, Arkansas. Residents voted (579-231) to uphold a comprehensive, city-wide non-discrimination ordinance that was originally passed by the Eureka Springs city council in February.
The new legislation will ban discrimination in employment, housing and public accommodations against people based on their race, ethnicity, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, socioeconomic background, and a number of other important categories.
While other ordinances that have recently passed in Arkansas cities like Little Rock and Hot Springs only protect city employees and city contractors, the ordinance in Eureka Springs applies to all citizens.
By a vote of 7-2, the Little Rock City Board approved an ordinance that bans LGBT discrimination in hiring and city services, including those offered through outside vendors.
This comes after Arkansas state lawmakers recently passed legislation that bars cities and municipalities from expanding anti-discrimination laws to include sexual orientation and gender identity.
“I think we’re sending a message that we’re a welcoming community, that we’re diverse, that we realize that’s good for business, that we value all of our citizens,” said City Director Kathy Webb, the sponsor of the proposal. “I think that’s very important to make that kind of statement for Little Rock.”
No word yet from Attorney General Leslie Rutledge on Little Rock’s proposal and whether it would conflict with the state law.
Back story: Last May, Mayor Annise Parker and the Houston City Council approved Houston’s Equal Rights Ordinance (HERO) providing for LGBT protections in the areas of public and private employment, housing and city contracting.
Anti-gay foes hated that. They began a drive to put the ordinance to a vote hoping to repeal the protections. They needed 17,269 signatures, or 10 percent of the ballots cast in the last mayoral election.
After turning in what seemed to be more than enough signatures, it turns out the opponents were 585 signatures short.
The Houston Chronicle reports:
Opponents of Houston’s non-discrimination ordinance failed to gather enough valid signatures to force a repeal referendum, a state district judge ruled Friday, validating city officials’ decision to toss out the petition foes submitted last summer.
After separate rulings from both a jury and state District Judge Robert Schaffer, attorneys for both sides entered dueling counts of the valid signatures, adding and subtracting voters as Schaffer responded to motions. By early this week, the counts were closer together than ever before, fewer than 1,000 signatures apart.
Ultimately, Schaffer on Friday ruled the final count of valid signatures was 16,684, leaving opponents short of the threshold required in the city charter of 17,269 signatures, or 10 percent of the ballots cast in the last mayoral election.
“The jury’s verdict and the judge’s ruling are a powerful smack-down against the forces of discrimination and intolerance,” said Geoffrey Harrison, lead attorney for the city, in a statement. “And maybe, just maybe, they’ll reconsider their misguided ways.”
Opponents, largely conservative activists and pastors whose objections center on the protections the law extends to gay and transgender residents, are expected to appeal the ruling.
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| (photo: Pete Souza) |
Announced last year, President Obama’s executive order regarding workplace discrimination for LGBT workers in the federal workplace goes into effect today.
The executive order prohibits federal contractors and subcontractors from discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.
From the Department of Labor blog:
Each year, federal contractors and subcontractors receive billions of taxpayer dollars to supply goods, provide services and perform construction work for government agencies.
In return, they are held to a reasonable standard that they may not discriminate in hiring, firing, pay, promotion and other employment practices.
Until today, it was discrimination based on sex, race, color, religion, national origin, disability and status as a protected veteran that was prohibited.
Now, in the first expansion since 1974, LGBT Americans enjoy these same protections.
Read the full announcement here.
Springfield voters repeal protections for gay, transgender people: http://t.co/UulYJOrGOa
— KY3 News (@kytv) April 8, 2015
It was very close, but last night voters of Springfield, Missouri, decided to repeal an anti-discrimination law passed last October by the Springfield City Council. The vote came down to 51.43% – 48.57%.
The measure was meant to protect LGBT folks from discrimination in the areas of housing, jobs and public accommodations. The same protections are afforded women and people of color, but for LGBT folks it seems these were considered “special rights.”
A petition drive called on the City Council to either repeal the ordinance immediately or take it to the polls. The City Council sent the issue to the voters. And they have spoken.
Sad to see these things happen as progress is made in so many areas.
But Missouri is Missouri.