President Obama: Protect LGBT workers through executive order

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/03/2013351118285958.html

US President has got a rare and momentous opportunity to promote equality in America, writes Sethi.



The Boy Scouts of America is yet to revisit its ban on gay membership [Getty Images]


The very nature of love compels us to express it. Rings decorate our fingers, photos adorn our offices and the names of significant others sprinkle our conversation. For millions of Americans, however, love can cost them their job. There is still no federal law that comprehensively bans employment discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.

Advocates have long sought to end such prejudice through the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), landmark civil rights legislation that draws upon Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Americans with Disabilities Act. ENDA would make sexual orientation and gender identity a protected class in nearly every workplace in America, and ensure that lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender workers are protected from bias and abuse.

Their efforts, however, have been too little avail. ENDA has been introduced in nearly every Congress for the past two decades and always been defeated. A majority of Americans favour its passage yet Congress refuses to act.

In the face of this inertia, others have stood up. President Clinton signed an executive order in 1998 protecting federal civilian employees from sexual orientation discrimination, and President Obama later extended this protection to transgender workers. Moreover, some states, localities and businesses have adopted their own anti-discrimination measures. Countless others, however, remain vulnerable.

FULL story at link.