I had many reasons to enjoy a successful and meaningful career as a gay diplomat with the United States government. I traveled widely and enjoyed the company of other diplomats, foreign professionals and international businesspeople. I had intestinal parasites, robberies and anti-American types who pointed guns at me and threatened me with knives. My worst and…
Late GOP U.S. Senator Jesse Helms, popularly known as “Senator No” because he opposed federal spending except for his precious tobacco program for North Carolina growers and manufacturers, was fearless when it came to demagoguing and humiliating the LGBT community over matters like marriage equality, now settled by GOP Associate Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy,…
Politician of the Year: When I started thinking about this award in early December, I couldn’t settle on a winner. Assembly Speaker Toni Atkins, Congressman Scott Peters and Mayor Kevin Faulconer were in the mix, but I didn’t feel like anyone had locked it down. What a difference two weeks, and two votes, can make….
The Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) passed away last week with the close of the 113th Congress. It was 40 years old. ENDA had been surviving on life support in the House of Representatives for slightly over a year, its suffering ending when Speaker John Boehner formally withdrew care by not scheduling a vote. ENDA was…
WASHINGTON – Congresswoman Susan Davis (D-San Diego) pushed for a vote in the House on the bipartisan Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) to prohibit job discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. The House majority has blocked a vote on the ENDA bill passed by the Senate last year. Davis and her colleagues signed a…
A recent media question-and-answer session held by the White House via Tumblr to shed light on President Obama’s executive order requiring federal agencies and contractors to afford the same employment protections enjoyed by racial and other minorities to LGBT employees and applicants shows there is still a universe of work to be done in the…
“Was it the same cat?” That was Trinity’s question in The Matrix, when Neo reported seeing two black cats in rapid succession. In the movie, déjà vu is a glitch that portends a dangerous change in the computer program. Watching multiple advocacy groups again remove their support for the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) has given…
Rea Carey, the executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF) Action Fund, penned the following op-ed for The Advocate. The morning the sun rose after the Supreme Court’s Hobby Lobby ruling, we all woke up in a changed and intensified landscape of religious exemptions being used as an excuse to discriminate. The reality is…
In an important step for LGBT workplace equality, Valerie Bowman Jarrett, senior advisor to the president and assistant to the president for Public Engagement and Intergovernmental Affairs in the Obama administration Tweeted this morning: “Executive action to ban fed contractors from discriminating against #LGBT workers is good for America & for business #WorkplaceEquality“
WASHINGTON – The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) today released new public opinion research that conclusively demonstrates strong public support for federal non-discrimination workplace protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) workers. A national survey of 1,200 registered voters conducted June 6-10, 2014 by TargetPoint Consulting found that 63 percent of those surveyed favor a…
