Wednesday, July 10, 2013

'ENDA moves out of Senate committee and onto the floor' & other Wednesday midday news briefs

ENDA advances with bipartisan backing - ENDA moves out of a Senate committee by a vote of 15-7 with Republican backing. A tremendous victory but also only the first round.  

Why Three Republicans Just Voted For A Pro-LGBT Bill - Think Progress provides excellent context to this morning's vote. 

Why The Media Should Stop Taking ENDA’s Opponents Seriously - And Equality Matters brings up an excellent point about our opponents.

 The First Out Gay Miss South Carolina Contestant Is Incredible - Now about all of those comments about MY STATE of South Carolina being backwards . . .

 GOP Bigshot and NOM Attorney James Bopp Accused of Illegal “Personal Enrichment” - Oh that is terrible! For shame! (hehehehehe!)  

Another Study Confirms Same-Sex Couples Make Great Parents - Look at it this way, Mark Regnerus. You still get to keep your grant money.

1 comment:

Matthew Martin said...

Will be interesting to see how far ENDA goes. The US has always been extraordinarily reluctant to enact workplace protections, mostly because most people don't realize that, by and large, the US doesn't have any legal protections for workers (most "protections" americans do get are actually voluntary contractual agreements between the workers and their employer, not the law).

To offer an example, 9 out of 10 voters believe that ENDA is already federal law: http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/lgbt/news/2011/06/02/9716/polls-show-huge-public-support-for-gay-and-transgender-workplace-protections/

It's a similar story for most other workplace protections. They think it is against the law to fire someone for their religion (FALSE!), that it is against the law to fire someone because of who they voted for (FALSE!), that it is against the law to fire someone for things they do in their own time outside of work (FALSE!). The list goes on and on. You can be fired for: engaging in "free speech" of any kind, going on strike, negotiating for better pay or better workplace conditions, even for just getting sick.

Historically, the US got away with not having any workplace protections because we had very strong labor unions that could bully big corporations into contracts obligating workplace protections. But those unions are now mostly gone, destroyed by a series of legislative changes that gradually eroded the bargaining strength of unions, starting with the "right-to-work" laws in the late 1940s, allowing employers to breach key aspects of their contracts with the unions. Personally, I don't much care about the unions themselves. But if we are going to move to an economy with no labor unions, we'd better start enacting laws protecting workers in a big way.