Fired For Being LGBT

[William769]

Sixty years ago, the federal government spearheaded a massive purge of gay employees, no matter how qualified or essential they were to their department's operations. The firings were the result of an executive order by President Dwight D. Eisenhower on April 27, 1953. As told in the documentary Lavender Scare, even LGBT private sector workers who were under contract with the federal government were also fired or forced to resign.

Why? Because gay people were viewed as a godless, immoral group likely to work with communists to spill government secrets.

After decades of activism, policy changes at federal agencies, and state laws protecting LGBT citizens, 94 percent of the top 100 companies in the U.S. — the top 50 federal contractors and the top 50 Fortune 500 companies — have policies prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation, and 78 percent of the companies have policies prohibiting discrimination based on gender identity.

Nine in every 10 American voters believe that there are already laws to protect LGBT employees in the workplace, just like policies for women, people with disabilities, racial minorities, or people with particular religious affiliations. But that's not the case. An employee could still be fired in 29 states for being gay, and in 34 states for being transgender or gender non-conforming.

So as we mark 60 years since the federal government's mass firings, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act is finally set for a vote in the Senate on Monday (the 19th time Congress has considered it). With a Republican-dominated House of Representatives, ENDA might be tough to gain momentum even though, according to the Center for American Progress, 73 percent of voters support protections for LGBT workers (even 66 percent among Republicans voters).

http://www.advocate.com/politics/2013/05/08/fired-being-lgbt

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. Those mass firings just make me feel so angry.

How shortsighted and criminal were all of those.

ENDA needs to be voted in, and pronto.

[William769]

2. Agreed.

CaliforniaPeggy for U.S. House of Representatives 2016!

[CaliforniaPeggy]

7. Aw, thanks!

But no thanks!

I am waaaaaaay too thin-skinned to run for public office!

[Bluenorthwest]

3. I was just told here on DU that GLBT rights are not an economic issue, but rather they are just a

'wedge' used by Republicans. Americans don't even seem to understand the laws they have allowed to destroy so many people for so long.

[William769]

4. Unfortunately the voting right doesn't have a lock on stupidity.

Let's just hope it was out of ignorance and not deep seeded homophobia (sometimes the two go hand in hand).

[Bluenorthwest]

6. As I said in my post I don't think people reallly understand the laws. They think equality is all

about being able to have a ceremony and call it a wedding. They really don't get the fact that we can be fired, evicted and all of that. It sure makes me sad to see.

[Pab Sungenis]

5. We get that a lot.

Some people just can't get through their heads that other peoples' rights matter as much as their own.

[Starry Messenger]

8. k&r