Like The State Department, DoJ Policies Discriminate Against Gay And Lesbian Employees

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/12/05/doj-discriminate-gays/

Like The State Department, DoJ Policies Discriminate Against Gay And Lesbian Employees

As ThinkProgress noted yesterday, Michael Guest — the first openly gay man to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate to serve as a U.S. Ambassador — resigned from the State Department last month, “in order to protest rules and regulations that he believes are unfair to the same-sex partners of Foreign Service officers.” Guest said he chose to resign after “absolutely nothing…resulted from” his direct appeals to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice for policy changes.

The State Department is not the only branch of the Bush administration that explicitly discriminates against gay and lesbian employees. In 2003, then-Attorney General John Ashcroft barred DOJ Pride, an organization of almost 200 gay and lesbian employees of the Justice Department, from holding “an annual event celebrating ‘gay pride month’ at the agency’s headquarters” while allowing other employee groups to do so.

Though the decision was eventually reversed after pressure from gay rights groups and members of Congress, the Department has continued other discriminatory policies. During his confirmation hearing, Sen. Russell Feingold (D-WI) asked Attorney General Michael Mukasey if he would “stop the disparate treatment of gay and lesbian employees” at DOJ:

The department sponsors commemorative events to recognize the contributions of various minority groups, but under Attorney General Ashcroft and Gonzales, in contrast to Attorney General Reno, it has refused to do so for the GLBT Americans.

In addition, while DOJ Pride, an organization of GLBT employees, is permitted to use department space to hold events, it is prohibited from advertising those events on public billboards, in department buildings, again, unlike organizations for minority employees at the department.

Similarly, the department refuses to recruit at job fairs aimed at GLBT attorneys but sends recruiters to job fairs aimed at other minority groups.

Responding to Feingold, Mukasey said that he couldn’t “understand the reason for that treatment” and that he was “going to” do something about it. But Mukasey is unlikely to feel pressure from the President to follow through on his promise.

Not only has the administration threatened to veto legislation barring employment discrimination based on sexual identity, but President Bush has refused throughout his tenure to even observe June as Gay Pride Month.

Scott Bloch, WH Special Counsel Says He Won't Provide Files to WH OPM. Showdown time!
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x2378221

Bloch was "Counsel to the Task Force for Faith-based and Community Initiatives at the DoJ"

Bill Berkowitz, "Bloch-ing Justice. When Scott Bloch became head of the Office of Special Counsel he declared war on equal protection for gays in federal workplaces," Dissident Voice, October 12, 2004. http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Oct04/Berkowitz1012.htm

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Attorney: New claims against special counsel are firing offense
By TIM KAUFFMAN - Nov 28, 2007 - http://federaltimes.com/index.php?S=3214329


President Bush should fire Special Counsel Scott Bloch in the wake of revelations that he had computer hard drives at the agency erased ....

....

Bloch has been under investigation by the Office of Personnel Management inspector general since 2005 based on claims that he retaliated against employees who spoke out against his policies and that he threw out whistleblower cases without evaluating their merits. Earlier this year, he announced a sweeping investigation into the legality of briefings on Republican electoral strategy given by White House officials to political appointees at most agencies.
Debra Katz, the attorney representing employees who made the charges against Bloch, said the report confirms what her clients and others inside OSC have been saying since the OPM investigation began: “that Mr. Bloch and his political henchmen have continuously obstructed the investigators’ efforts to get at the truth.”

Bloch, who was appointed by Bush to a five-year term, can only be removed for neglect, inefficiency or malfeasance in office. Katz said there’s more than enough evidence to warrant his dismissal.