WGLB is a weekly diary addressing issues of importance to the GLBT community.  This week, there are two posters: KentuckyKat and KKats Love.  The topic du jour is workplace discrimination.  Join us over the jump for a quick intro regarding why we chose this topic and our take on the issues at hand.

Cross-posted on BlueMassGroup.

I had hoped this was a one time anomaly of clouded judgment brought on by strong emotion, but unfortunately I've begun to notice a pattern.  

Let me start from the beginning:  It began last year over the ENDA (Employment Non Discrimination Act) debate.  Congressman Barney Frank introduced a GLBT version of ENDA, but it was realized that the votes were not there to pass it with the T's included.  So a GLB bill was introduced and Tammy Baldwin submitted a Trans-bill amendment which was later pulled because of the lack of support.

(cross-posted in a slightly different format at MichiganLiberal.)

I'm sitting in the Café of the Barnes and Noble on 28th St. in Grand Rapids, MI recovering and recaffeinating my body after surviving a hectic and wonderful day yesterday.

I have to be honest: I'm a homosexual, but I'm a fairly conservative homosexual. I didn't acknowledge my sexuality publicly until I was 22. My friends and I were planning a trip to see a Stephen Lynch concert in Pontiac, and we were discussing the merits of Lynch's act. We acknowledged that he's a good singer and that he's hilarious, and then I just blurted out, "He's hot, too!" In any event, I've only been to the gay bar in Muskegon 4-5 times, and drag queens still make me nervous. I only came out at work about six months ago. I've never had a boyfriend. I'm 26, and yesterday was my first Pride.

I learned a lot yesterday. I learned a lot about life, about people, and about the Gay Agenda. I initially tagged along expecting fun and games, but yesterday turned out to be an educational experience.

Join me over the flip and find out what I learned.

Much has been said about Barack Obama's "failure" to reach out to the GLBT community.  I even inadvertently touched off a mini-firestorm last week with what I intended as a minor element in one of my other diaries.  (You can read it here if you are interested.)  But today's Advocate carries a full interview with the Illinois senator that touches on many issues that are very important to that community, and it is worth reading.

Among other things, Obama states that he will fight to repeal DOMA in its entirety if that is possible, that he will repeal Don't Ask, Don't Tell, but will not make acceptance of gays (or anything else) a litmus test for Joint Chiefs appointments, that he believes that the federal government should offer the same rights to those in civil unions as to those in marriages, and that he believes that it is LGBT people themselves, not politicians, who should be leading the fight for full "marriage" rights.  (He equates it to the elimination of anti-miscegenation laws, which, though heinous, were not an immediate concern of those pushing for civil rights in the 60's.)

I was looking back over the report by Professor Ken Sherrill of Hunter College, "Same-Sex Marriage Initiatives and Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Voters in the 2006 Elections," and wondered just what LGB voters represented, potentially, as a demographic potentially providing a margin of victory in an election.

Rep. John Lewis (D) on ENDA
http://youtube.com/...

Now this diary is not about ENDA or John Lewis, but it's about the place of the homosexual within the Progressive community.

Within Left and Center-left movements the push has been about breaking down barriers, or structures, or signs (as John Lewis alludes to in this video) within a community or nation.  

We've been trying to break down age-old structures that are inherently racist, or sexist.  Many have tried to break barriers within the economy, to help the working man.  Fewer have tried to break the economic structure itself, viewing it as inherently oppressive.  

Obama's gonna be the nominee.

There is a sweetness in that beyond words. There is the solidifcation of the "vague nimbus of hope."

I hope he does not throw LGBT Americans under the bus.

Once again Barney Frank plans to betray Transgender people with ENDA. So here is a big SCREW YOU to Barney Franks and people who support throwing Transgenders out of ENDA. Barney Franks is trying to make it easier to hate Transgender people then he is helping them.

http://www.bilerico.com/...

No trans-inclusive ENDA, even with a Democrat in the White House. The rights of the poor and disenfrancised minorities sold out once again by Congressional Democrats on the altar of political convenience, this time two years in advance. They're not going to bother to even try to do the right thing by gender-variant Americans anymore.

Last week's "Top 10 Moments in Mike Huckabee's Extremism" provided a snapshot of the dangerously radical zealot who now also happens to be a frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination.  But as more skeletons emerge from Governor Huckabee's closet, Americans are getting a fuller picture of a man who seeks to render the wall separating church and state, to paraphrase Alberto Gonzales, quaint.  As it turns out, Mike Huckabee isn't merely a religious extremist who threatens mainstream America values, but an ethically-challenged operator with a track record of gorging at the public trough.

Here, then, are 10 More Moments in Mike Huckabee's Extremism:

This diary is a response to Kagro X's front-page post, What's up with Congress, anyway?, about the Bush administrations anti-democratic abuse of veto power. Kagro examined the issue from a separation of powers stance on the FISA bill.

I want to take it one step further and examine the problem from the spirit of representative democracy (i.e., are We the People getting what We want?) and focus on the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which has been issued a veto threat by the president. It's a less sticky issue that's easier to poll than FISA legislation and one that I've followed closely this year.

And I'm using it as an example because I'm one of those Radical Homosexual Activists you hear so much about. But even us confirmed RHA's want democracy to work.

First, to understand the abuse on our democracy of Bush's peculiar veto, let's talk about why we even have a veto in the first place and a 2/3 requirement for overturning it.

Alexander Hamilton explains the need for a veto in the Federalist Papers:

http://www.washblade.com/...

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) Thursday morning acquiesced to requests by House Democratic leaders to drop a gay and transgender inclusive hate crimes bill from the National Defense Authorization Act, a knowledgeable Capitol Hill source said.

Wait weren't we told on ENDA if we just attach ENDA to a bill the Republicans must sign it would be passed in the Senate and Bush couldn't veto it? Apparently that doesn't work and now we have NOTHING. No hate-crime bill and a community that is divided. What did we truly gain in this?

The Senate acted at the request of Kennedy and Sen. Gordon Smith (R-Ore.), who said they chose to combine the hate crimes bill with the Department of Defense bill as a strategy aimed at discouraging President Bush from vetoing the hate crimes bill.

This is why as a community we can not be divided in our efforts. You see the Republicans won't play by that game and we lose in everything.

Now that the shoe is on the other foot he is mad at the Democrats in the Senate over the hate crime bill.

http://www.americablog.com/...

And a final PS. The bill is already passed in the House as a free-standing bill, and it's already been passed as part of the defense bill in the Senate. That means that the real issue here is whether the Dems have the courage to keep the hate crimes provisions in the House-Senate conference report (i.e., after they reconcile the House and Senate versions of the defense bill). The Dems run the House and Senate, so if it drops from the conference report, it means that senior Dems agreed to drop it. Just remember that.

What happen to we just do not have the votes? This is the very same person who on ENDA tried to throw the Transgenders out of a community we have been part of because the votes just weren't there.

http://www.americablog.com/...

What happen to this is just political reality?

http://www.southernvoice.com/...

At the same time, as many as 180 House Republicans and conservative Democrats who voted against a freestanding version of the hate crimes bill in May threatened to vote against the Department of Defense authorization measure this week unless the hate crimes provision were taken out,

The votes just aren't there people. The hate crime bill can not pass because of the gay part in it.

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said this week that Reid favors Senate action on the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) but he doesn’t believe the Senate will have time to take up the gay rights measure this year.

"There isn’t a lot of floor time left," said Jim Manley, Reid’s press secretary.

No ENDA either.

At the same time, as many as 180 House Republicans and conservative Democrats who voted against a freestanding version of the hate crimes bill in May threatened to vote against the Department of Defense authorization measure this week unless the hate crimes provision were taken out,

Foxnews.com, cq politics.com and cbsnews.com reported that Bush on Air Force One signed into law the Defense Authorization Bill but vetoed the Health and Education Bill for 2008.  Does this mean the hate crimes legislation or the Matthew Shepard Act became law? Did they include the Enda--employment discrimination-- bill on the vetoed Health Education and Labor bill?

In Washington, House Minority Leader John Boehner is struggling to rebrand a downtrodden and disheartened Republican Party in time for the 2008 elections.  It's no wonder.  Its agenda stymied and burdened by an unpopular war and an even less popular President, the GOP is being pulverized in the polls.  And with its evangelical base splintered and big business supporters jumping ship, the only message seemingly uniting Republicans is disdain - of immigrants, of blacks, of gay Americans and above all, Muslims.  The GOP is now the Party of Hate.

As an assistant Cook County State's Attorney, I have spent the last 10 years ensuring that people are equally protected under the law.

I believe it is one of the bedrock principles of our country that every American is entitled to be treated fairly regardless of their age, gender, race, national origin or religion. The Employee Non-Discrimination Act (HR 3685), or ENDA, simply makes it illegal to discriminate against any American in the workplace because of his or her sexual orientation.

No American should be subject to employment discrimination or have their right to work revoked because of sexual orientation.

Congress has a responsibility to ban any form of discrimination in the workplace in order to protect the rights of all workers against the biases of their employers.

, most of it entirely misplaced, over the passage of ENDA, 235-184, in the House Wednesday evening.  ENDA is an employment non-discrimination act regarding sexual orientation.  This particular bill did not also include "perceived gender identity", as a result of which there has been near civil war in the LGBT community for the past two months.  Basically, the back of the LGBT bus not being sufficiently demeaning, the T finally got thrown under it altogether, courtesy of Barney Frank and HRC.
The good guys are here:  http://unitedenda.org/
Other diaries addressing the battle here at DailyKos include:
http://www.dailykos.com/...
http://www.dailykos.com/...
http://www.dailykos.com/...
http://www.dailykos.com/...

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