I don’t understand what’s wrong with the ENDA bill from your perspective. I mean, the scope of the government…aren’t protections already provided to everyone else besides gay and bisexual people and the transgendered community?

You have answered your own question. Women, blacks, and non property owners have all been clearly identified as “people” and they get all the privileges and immunities promised in the 14th amendment.

Gays, bisexual and transgendered individuals are recognized as people and the 14th amendment is applied to them as well.

The question is whether the status of being gay, bisexual or transgendered should carry a civil right that is exclusive to members of those groups. (For reasons I can not quite fathom, disbled people were given a special class civil right status.)

Any gay is free to marry under current laws of all 50 states. The hitch is that those laws are restrictive in ways that conflict with the “special status” of gays who often wish to marry someone of the same sex.

We have some problems in our hospital with “next of kin” documentation when a patient’s brother says one thing and the patient’s life partner says another. That problem needs fixing if for no other selfish reason than it ties up a lot of our time and resources over matters that have little to do with medicine. But we are all very aware the woods are full of John Edwards and his slip and fall partners in legal blackmail.

Not being gay, I have not personally suffered from discrimination aimed at gays. But our hospital has many gays on the staff and we value them as much and more as anyone else. However, we sometimes unwittingly hire a gay “activist” who can find a personal slight in every corner. Being the guy who finally deals with employee problems that work their way up the chain, I have fired gays for bringing their crusades to the workplace in ways that disrupt the order of the workplace. Were they fired for being gay? They would say they were, but I have never lost in court.

I equate ENDA to the concept of a hate crime. We will have as endless backlog of complaints under ENDA over “discrimination” when not a soul on earth can write a definition of “discrimination” that will give any employer necessary guidance. I liken it to hate crime, because every patient we see who has been abused is the victim of hate. I don’t relish the thought of having to assign affirmative action triage points because some law says they are in a “select group.”

#77. “I’m honestly interested in knowing why this is important to gay Republicans.”

#81. The issue is (or should be) of interest to any freedom-loving person, gay or straight, of whatever party affiliation…

Exactly. I’m gay, I’m out, I’ve fought for gay equality… but what I’m “about”, is human freedom. I don’t see everything through the prism of my gayness. Rather, I see things through the prism of how our, year by year, our society slowly becomes more like George Orwell’s_1984_.

The issue is (or should be) of interest to any freedom-loving person, gay or straight, of whatever party affiliation, who feels that government should not make our personal decisions for us. That is our job, our responsibility, and our right.

As an aside, I witnessed the following after a gay-pride march a couple of years ago: As the crowd was dispersing, a young “gay guy” (hate that term, shoulda used queen) was crossing the road against traffic, and yelled at a cab driver he cut off “You better not hit me, I’m a homo!” (or similar). This is the mentality that legislation like this engenders, the creation of a “protected class” worldview, where we poor gay people have to be sheltered in the arms of the [Democratic] Party, who provides for us and keeps “the bad people” away. This is not “Nerf World” (couldn’t find a link to the SNL skit).

Businesses don’t have a “duty” to provide employment any more than individuals have a “duty” to work for them (nor, incidentally, do consumers have a “duty” to purchase their goods and services.

Quote of the day, for me.

Off-Topic: Hillary Clinton: Queen of Pork. And for once this isn’t about her thighs, it’s about the half-a-billion in earmarks she’s larded up in the budget. Will she be campaigning on fiscal responsibility?

I’m honestly interested in knowing why this is important to gay Republicans. I thought that you’d talk about the trans-exclusion from the bill…maybe you already did. Sorry if you did, I just found out this blog! Glad that you write it. It would actually be nice to understand the whole picture.

I do understand your argument, and if that’s the one you want to make then you should make that a party issue. It’s a loser of an issue which is why Republicans didn’t do anything to repeal nondiscrimination laws while they had control of Congress and the White House.

Overall we like to think that people get hired based on their qualifications and promoted based on the quality of their work. We all know that isn’t always the case, but we like to think that. It’s an ideal that Americans treasure and running against that as a politician would be suicidal. But please, feel free to encourage Republican candidates to promise to repeal laws barring workplace discrimination.

I’ve been refused service at a Louisiana restaraunt because I was dressed as a Union infantryman (Regulars by God!).

Damn the law, I’da kicked you out myself! Damnyankees…

What’s that quote about giving up freedom for security?

If ENDA passes, could I make him hire me since I am streight?

He has all gay bar tenders. If I’m not mistaken, the go-go boys make more money.

Hell, my dad was fired from a job and was told that he was a doddering old man when the let him go. I was denied a job with a major city fire department because I’m a white male. I’ve been refused service at a Louisiana restaraunt because I was dressed as a Union infantryman (Regulars by God!). My mom’s been fired twice after suffering OJI.

You grab your balls and move on. You don’t wallow in the mud pissing and moaning that they owe you your job.

To the millions of men and women who came from every country of the world and who — with their own hands, their intelligence, and their hearts — built the greatest nation in the world, America did not say, “Come, and everything will be given to you.” Rather, she said, “Come, and the only limits to what you will be able to achieve will be those of your own courage, your boldness, and your talent.” –French President Nicolas Sarkozy

A) It’s not about “should be on their own,” it’s about “it’s their right to be”. Like individuals, in a free society businesses must be able to make their own decisions, and, yes, even mistakes.

B) Employment decisions are just like any other economic decision, and should not be treated differently. If Bill Gates decided not to buy a Slurpy from a 7-Eleven because he didn’t like the person behind the counter, would you consider that immoral or illegal? How about a year’s supply of Slurpies?

C) Businesses don’t have a “duty” to provide employment any more than individuals have a “duty” to work for them (nor, incidentally, do consumers have a “duty” to purchase their goods and services, especially if they find their behavior morally lacking). While we may feel morally obligated to behave in a certain way, that is very different than a legal obligation.

To choose is to discriminate, on whatever basis. It’s not the government’s job to tell us what is the valid basis of our choices. That is the economist’s and the moralist’s.

I understand that. What I don’t understand is the “to my discredit” part.

#13: TGC, I do regret having to “filter” my life in conversation with people I don’t know well. I suspect that those I work with every day have a pretty good clue – it just doesn’t come up. Nevertheless, it weighs on my mind.

My partner is a lot like me on this: work is just a lot less complicated if the domestic situation is off the table (and he lived for years in LA – much more “out” than I am).

ENDA won’t make a lot of difference: Lawyers will make more money and employers who desire to get rid of someone because of [fill in the blank] will always find a way to do it.

Slackers and ne’er-do-wells who clog the courts everytime they get canned will get yet another chance at winning the lottery.

What makes you think they want or need your protection? Do you think they’re completely incapable without your benevolence?

#49
The 1964 Civil Rights Act is the most celebrated and famous piece of legislation ever passed in the United States Congress.

Well, the left pissed on that a long time ago. The only thing left to “repeal” is the actual text. Further, replace “most celebrated” with “most meaningless” and you’d be spot on.

…while I believe we should leave the private sector free to set its own hiring policies, that should not be the case when government itself is the employer.

Same here. Same for government contracts. Congress can make whatever laws it wants, for spending the government’s budget.

Why would a gay person even want to work for a company that would fire them?

Because it pays the bills and might even help further their career, or perhaps it’s something they get stuck in and they have to make do until they are able to move on to something better. Not that I know anything about this of course…