Obama Administration Announces Executive Order Protecting LGBT Employees Of Federal Contractors
By Zack Ford
The White House is expected to announce Monday that President Obama will issue an executive order requiring that all companies who contract with the federal government must not discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. The order, expected to be finalized in the coming weeks, is an extension of orders previously issued by past presidents — most recently Johnson — similarly banning employment discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin among all contractors and subcontractors who do over $10,000 in business with the government in any one year.
The protections will reach over one million LGBT workers across the country, making it the single largest expansion of LGBT workplace protections in our country’s history. There continue to be 29 states that offer no employment protections on the basis of sexual orientation and 32 with no protections based on gender identity, but many LGBT workers in those states will now have workplace protections for the first time ever. As many as 43 percent of lesbian, gay, and bisexual people and 90 percent of transgender people have experienced some form of harassment or discrimination in the workplace.
One of the largest companies that could be impacted by the executive order is Exxon Mobil, which last month voted down LGBT employment protections for the 17th time. The company claims to have a “zero tolerance” policy on the books for mistreatment, but that does not have the same legal force or consistency as the protections shareholders have voted down each year. Exxon is also facing an anti-gay discrimination lawsuit, although that suit might be terminated for jurisdictional reasons.
As many as 9 out of 10 voters believe federal law already protects LGBT workers from discrimination. Though this isn’t true, many of the country’s biggest companies do already have corporate policies prohibiting such discrimination. Businesses of all sizes have found that nondiscrimination protections are good for their bottom line, improving the recruitment, retention, and productivity of talented employees and appealing to a wider customer base. A new Human Rights Campaign poll finds that 63 percent of voters support federal LGBT employment protections.
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http://thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2014/06/16/3449270/obama-lgbt-executive-order/
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Thank you Obama for moving us forward despite the do nothing Congress.
Excellent news for LGBT employment protections!
Thanks PS.
That's my President!piece, ProSense. Always nice to read his take..
from your link.. Aha this is there own special way of reaching out.. lol
"Rather, the point is that the political winds have changed to such an extent that Republicans no longer see this issue as an electoral winner. In 2004, GOP officials, from George W. Bush to U.S. House candidates, still saw gay rights as such an effective wedge issue, they spent much of the year touting an anti-gay amendment to the Constitution.
A decade later, Republicans can read a poll just as well as anyone else, and it’s become obvious to them that gay bashing simply doesn’t help the party the way it used to.
Update: Both Boehner’s office and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s office specifically turned down a chance to comment on the president’s executive order."
Thanks!
