Executive Orders and ENDA

InevitableButterfly

President Obama's EO amending previous EOs to include protection from discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity is a huge deal. Approximately 1:5 US workers are employed by a company with one or more contracts with the federal government. These companies can no longer discriminate against the LGBT community in hiring and cannot fire us simply because we're LGBT. My company already had these protections written into their own non-discrimination policies--but really a company can choose to not honour their own policy, so having this added layer of protection because my company is a federal contractor really does make me feel safer. The big problem is that 4:5 US workers are not protected by this. We need ENDA to be amended and progressed through Congress now. The amendments should strengthen our protections by removing the very broad religious exemption put into the bill to appease the conservatives. If you want to run a church that discriminates, fine. If you want to run a public business that receives any kind of federal or state level benefit for being a business then you cannot run your business as a church and you cannot discriminate against us and fire us because we're LGBT. It's pretty simple. So, call or write your reps and lets get ENDA fixed and passed and get every LGBT worker in this country protected from employment discrimination. ♥

Forty6and2

Love this post! People need to realize that the Free Exercise clause is not a one-way street.

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof..."

It's really not that hard, it doesn't matter what your religion is, you can practice it but you cannot inhibit the practice of somebody else's religion. This is not to say that LGBT people cannot be religious, but even if your religion says that being LGBT is bad, it doesn't mean you can impose on others.