Many have a mental picture of LGBT couples with children being predominately white and affluent. A study of 26,000 gay and lesbian couples across California, raising an estimated 70,000 children, reveals that’s just not the case. The San Francisco Chronicle reported:

A study released Tuesday by a group of Bay Area organizations serving lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender families found that same-sex couples raising children in California are more likely to be people of color and that their median household income is 17 percent lower than the income of married couples with children.

“There is an idea of LGBT families, when people think about it at all, there’s this perception that it’s affluent white folks, and the data show that’s based on our own misperceptions,” said Judy Appel, director of the Our Family Coalition in San Francisco. “We’re in every neighborhood, every race, ethnicity and economic group. Our kids are playing in the playgrounds and parks with all other kids.”

Some interesting findings:

The Our Family Coalition - along with the San Francisco Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Community Center and Children of Lesbians and Gays Everywhere - produced the report to paint a more accurate picture of gay and lesbian parents and their children. They drew on data from the U.S. census of 2000, the first year in which the government asked people to report whether they were living with a same-sex partner, as well as on several other studies, including two by the Williams Project at the UCLA School of Law.

The Williams Project found 1,400 same-sex couples raising children in Alameda County and close to 700 in San Francisco. The Our Families report notes that the numbers are probably on the low side because the census tracked only same-gender couples raising children, not gay and lesbian individuals with children.

…In Alameda and San Francisco counties, the report found, a large proportion of gay and lesbian couples raising children were nonwhite. In addition, 69 percent of same-sex parents were women. Those two factors could help explain why same-sex families have lower incomes, [Judy Appel, director of the Our Family Coalition in San Francisco] said, because women and people of color earn less on average.

The full report is located here.

That the LGBT community needs to be thinking in more diverse terms when thinking about ourselves, our families, and our socioeconomic situations goes without saying. 

But, what we also need to be thinking about is what our spokespeople on issues look like — in other words, when I’ve seen same sex families highlighted on television, or when I’ve seen written and photographic profiles of same sex families, I don’t recall having seen families that weren’t white and at least middle class.

Those of us who have media members contact us about profiling LGBT people in general, and families in particular, need to remember what our LGBT families’ demographics actually are.  And then, we need to work to ensure that our whole community is represented and visible. 

Perhaps a person can be transgender and Christian, at least per the United Methodists … at least this week. Per the United Methodist Church’s Judicial Council, the highest judicial body of the denomination whose motto is Open hearts, open minds, open doors, ruled that Rev. Drew Phoenix may remain as pastor of the St. John’s United Methodist Church:

The highest judicial body of the United Methodist Church announced Tuesday that a transgender man can remain pastor of a congregation in Charles Village.

The ruling by the Judicial Council affirms last spring’s decision by Bishop John R. Schol to reappoint the Rev. Drew Phoenix — formerly the Rev. Ann Gordon — to St. John’s United Methodist Church.

…Tuesday’s ruling concluded that “a clergyperson’s good standing cannot be terminated without administrative or judicial action having occurred and all fair process being accorded.”

The Methodists’ Book of Discipline bars noncelibate gays and lesbians from serving as clergy but does not include any commentary about transgender people. In addition, Tuesday’s decision by the nine-member council, made up of laypeople and clergy, did not specifically address “whether gender change is a chargeable offense or violates minimum standards” of United Methodism.

The Judicial Council “ruled that the Baltimore-Washington Conference is operating within the laws of the church,” Schol said. “I’m pleased that the conference continues to abide by the discipline.”

National Public Radio’s article Methodists Vote to Keep Transgender Pastor added:

The United Methodist Church, or UMC, bans gay people from serving as clergy, but its Book of Discipline makes no mention of transsexual people. “Essentially, they said that I’m a pastor in good standing and therefore I’m appointable,” says Phoenix, who leads St. John’s in Baltimore.

Of course, there are those who won’t abide by the decision:

Conservatives have already promised to pass a ban on transgendered pastors at the Methodists’ next General Conference in 2008.

“Most church people instinctively recognize there are problems with the church affirming a gender change but haven’t really thought through all the implications,” said Mark Tooley of UMAction, a branch of the conservative Institute on Religion and Democracy.

…Emory’s Jordan said it’s not surprising many churches haven’t drawn up rules to deal with transgender pastors.

“Why did it take so long to get explicit rules against ordaining lesbian and gay people?” he said. “Churches expected these kinds of people just to disappear and go away. They expected the same with transsexuals — that if you went that way you were going to leave the ministry or leave the church.”

Conservatives tried unsuccessfully to pass a resolution banning transgender pastors at the church’s last General Conference in 2004, said Diane DeLapp, a transsexual from Massachusetts who heads Affirmation, an advocacy group for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Methodists.

“We seem to be the target now,” DeLapp said.

But, apparently a person can be transgender and Christian … at least per the United Methodists … at least this week.  We have the United Methodist Church’s General Conference in 2008 that may change things yet again.

~~~~~
Further reading:
* Judicial Council Decisions: Decision No. 1074

~~~~~
Related:
* Does Everyone Get A God-Given Male Or Female Sex? — United Methodists To Decide
* Surgeon General Nominee And FTM Transgender Minister Stories Collide
* Playing It Safe Or Being A Chicken?

Birch might be more to the liking of Hilary White (and fellow travelers) writing in LifeSite today …

On October 25, the School of Law at Santa Clara University, a self-described “Jesuit, Catholic university,” honoured one of the US’ most famous homosexual legal activists at its fourth annual “Celebration of Diversity” gala.

A news release said Birch, a graduate of the school, was president and executive director of the Human Rights Campaign, “the nation’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) advocacy organization,” from 1994 to 2004. Californian Catholic reports that under her tenure, Human Rights Campaign increased its membership from 100,000 to 1.1 million supporters, and its revenues from US $6.5 million to almost $30 million.

Santa Clara University is a well known problem spot to campaigners seeking to reform Catholic higher education. The Cardinal Newman Society, a Washington-based Catholic advocacy group that seeks to restore an authentic Catholic character to such schools, included Santa Clara in its 2006 list of US colleges claiming a Catholic name that opposed Catholic teaching in areas like promoting homosexuality or abortion.

In 2005, the school hosted the first “Out There” conference, the purpose of which was to “promote opportunities for gays and lesbians at Catholic colleges.” Officials of the University defended the conference saying it was “the Catholic way to act.” The 2005 conference attracted 150 students and faculty from 40 different Catholic colleges and universities and was praised by gay activists as opening a new door between the homosexual activist community and the world of Catholic education.

However some folks (for example) may feel about Ms. Birch and her tenure at HRC, or about the Society of Jesus (who liberally educated me a long time ago), kudos to SCU for … bestowing … well, never mind any of that … for irritating these folks. Go Broncos!

Let me begin by saying that I believe it’s unlikely that ex-gay, Christian right, City Council candidate James Hartline is really a pedophile. But, it certainly is strange that Hartline, in slamming an LGBT friendly teacher I know, pulled out the pedophilia card in the process of railing against the “radicalized pro-homosexual teacher”. Here’s what Hartline wrote:

For pedophiles who are looking to improve their dark techniques for accessing the minds of small children, [Voice of San Diego reporter Emily] Alpert’s article and [the third grade teacher]’s classroom propaganda will certainly add to the arsenals of every child molester’s instructional manual. Take for example, the twisted response that [the teacher] gives to another question by Emily Alpert in her Voice of San Diego article:

Q: How do you see those issues playing out in the classroom? Do you see them on a daily basis?

[Teacher]: “They come up often, even in third grade. It takes innocent forms … Like, ‘How can you be using a pink crayon?’ Something stupid like that. I always use that opportunity to tell them my favorite color is pink. It’s not. It’s blue. But the eyebrows go up. … If you do like pink, what does that say about you? I bring up gay and lesbian. I’ll mention those words in the third grade.”

Pardon me, but Hartline lived a gay man for most of his life.   Since he lived the majority of his life as a gay man, should we now consider him a potential danger to children? He’s tied pedophilia to being gay … does that mean he molested kids when he lived the “homosexual lifestyle?”

No, it doesn’t. Being gay doesn’t equate to being a child molester. In his heart, I’m about sure he knows that gay doesn’t equate to pedophilia, otherwise he would have had to previously say that he shouldn’t considered safe to be left alone around children.

So, this all said, I’m irritated.  Pious hypocrites irritate me, and James Hartline is as self-righteous and irritating as a pious hypocrite can come.

PageOneQ is reporting that ENDA isn’t on next week’s congressional legislative program:

The house will consider, among other business, designating October 2007 as Country Music Month and naming a Miami courthouse, a United States Border Patrol station in California, and Post Offices in New Jersey and Michigan.

Issued by Democratic Leader, Rep. Stenny Hoyer (D-MD), the Weekly Leader is a schedule of bills to be considered before the House and activity on the House floor. The schedule for the upcoming week may be seen here.

However, on Wednesday, when asked on the House floor if there was a possibility of the bill being added to the calendar, Hoyer left room for the bill’s consideration.

“Two bills we thought we might deal with this week I notice are still not on the schedule: the Employment Non-Discrimination Act and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. I wonder if my friend has any information about either of those bills?” inquired Rep,. Roy Blunt (R-MO), the House Minority Whip asked Hoyer.

Hoyer reploed that “both of those bills are under consideration for addition to the calendar. They have not been added at this point in time, but they are both possibilities.”

How long — and how much – do we LGBT folk get to stress over ENDA?  It’s almost as if the Congressional Democratic Leadership enjoys watching the divided LGBT community implode over transgender/”perceived gender” inclusion.

No one had any hard questions for the deputy administrator [Vice Adm. Harvey Johnson] of FEMA, an agency deeply tarnished by its delayed action after Hurricane Katrina, when he held a news conference Tuesday to talk about the California wildfires.

“Are you happy with FEMA’s response so far?” someone asked.

Indeed, the deputy administrator was. “I am very happy with FEMA’s response so far,” responded Vice Adm. Harvey E. Johnson Jr.

The news conference looked like a success in the Bush administration’s effort this week to demonstrate it could respond competently to a disaster.On Friday, however, the agency admitted that the softball questions were posed by FEMA employees, not reporters.

So begins an L.A. Tmes story on the fake FEMA news conference held last Tuesday. The Washington Post apparently was the news organization that figured out the news conference was staged:

…[The news conference was v]ery smooth, very professional. But something didn’t seem right. The reporters were lobbing too many softballs. No one asked about trailers with formaldehyde for those made homeless by the fires. And the media seemed to be giving Johnson all day to wax on and on about FEMA’s greatness.

Of course, that could be because the questions were asked by FEMA staffers playing reporters. We’re told the questions were asked by Cindy Taylor, FEMA’s deputy director of external affairs, and by “Mike” Widomski, the deputy director of public affairs. Director of External Affairs John “Pat” Philbin asked a question, and another came, we understand, from someone who sounds like press aide Ali Kirin.

Asked about this, Widomski said: “We had been getting mobbed with phone calls from reporters, and this was thrown together at the last minute.”

But the staff did not make up the questions, he said, and Johnson did not know what was going to be asked. “We pulled questions from those we had been getting from reporters earlier in the day.” Despite the very short notice, “we were expecting the press to come,” he said, but they didn’t. So the staff played reporters for what on TV looked just like the real thing.

Nice.

Quoting the Washington Post again:

Heck of a job, Harvey.

~~~~~
Further Reading:
* White House condemns FEMA’s fake presser

* FEMA apologizes after sham news conference
* FEMA Official Involved In Staged News Conference Leaving The Agency

The Hill is reporting that Freshman Democrats kill transgender amendment. I’ve been looking for confirming articles indicating Speaker Pelosi is signaling that the Baldwin Amendment is dead before House arrival, but haven’t seen any other report as yet that hasn’t cited The Hill’s article as the source. 

Reps. Tim Walz (Minn.) and Ron Klein (Fla.), leaders of the class of freshman Democrats, carried a message to Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Tuesday that their fellow first-term lawmakers did not want to vote on an amendment extending civil rights to transgender employees.

House Education and Labor panel Chairman George Miller (D-Calif.), whose committee passed the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, said he told the freshman lawmakers at their Wednesday breakfast with Pelosi that the amendment did not have the votes to pass and would not be brought to the House floor.

In addition, Miller told the freshmen he recognized that the amendment exposed the first-term lawmakers to political attacks from conservatives and liberals alike, said two sources who attended the breakfast…

So, even if the Baldwin Amendment isn’t officially dead as yet, a transgender inclusive ENDA appears to be in cridical condition and on life support.

–
H/t: Victory Fund’s Gay & Lesbian Smart Brief

Here’s a round-up of some interesting news items from the west.

~~~~~

The San Francisco Chronicle has a piece up on Fires provide no break from GOP fundraisers. Apparently, it took four days for any of the Republican candidates for president to issue any formal public condolences or expressions of concern for victims of the California firestorms, event though two of the candidates planned major fund-raising events in the Golden State.

Arizona Sen. John McCain has scheduled a $500-a-head and up fundraiser Friday at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel.

Former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson has a California trip on the books beginning with a fundraiser scheduled Monday in Rancho Bernardo - a fire-ravaged area in San Diego County - followed by fundraisers in the Orange County cities of San Juan Capistrano and Newport Beach. He is also planning events in the Bay Area.

Even the state leaders of the GOP noticed the apparent callousness:

“I find it very distasteful that while neighbors are dealing with these fires in their own way, whether directly impacted, or trying to empathize with those who have been - that they are being hounded by presidential campaigns - Republicans no less,” wrote Jon Fleischman, the Irvine-based publisher of the Flashreport, a leading GOP Web site.

“How candidates and officeholders react in the midst of a tragedy tells you a lot about whether they are focused on themselves, or on the people around them,” he wrote.

Also, some Democrats appear to be making this about politics rather than spending their own cash and volunteer resources aiding fire victims.

Karen Finney, spokeswoman for the Democratic National Committee, said of the Republicans’ glaring lag in recognizing California’s woes: “Haven’t we already had enough of a president who is slow to respond to a crisis?”

And, a nice statement about being concerned about the fire victims doesn’t have to be followed up with Democratic candidates actually taking a break from California fundraising…

New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton was one of the first to send out a statement of concern about the fires - and was joined by all the leading Democratic presidential candidates in doing so. But she kept to her schedule on Sunday as the fires began raging, attending a fundraiser in Hollywood.

One can easily tell who the local politician is, who apparently is at least on some level actually concerned about the fire victims:

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger - who had planned a fundraiser for Thursday in Sacramento - delayed his event until mid-November.

[After the break: rich Californians receive ‘concierge-level’ fire protection; Katrina comparisons being a different class of wrong; Marines become Ramadi sanitation workers; and dressing like hookers on Halloween]

Read the rest of this entry »

Egads.  Ex-Gay City Council Candidate James Hartline is at it again on why the San Diego / Southern California firestorm is due to teh homos:

Believe what you want. The Bible never, ever lies.

Sinners will do what sinners will do. But Christians are responsible for conveying right and wrong in this nation.

Thus, that is why the Bible says that judgment begins at the House of the Lord. The fires are striking at places where Christians are claiming Christ, but refuse to do anything about the plagues of sin in this nation. But do not think that the judgment stays in the House of the Lord. It is coming, surely it is coming after the rebel, the one who shakes the fist at God and rejects His pure offer of grace and salvation.

However, regardless of the acts of Christians, What is the excuse of any of you when you rebel against God?

Don’t blame your rebellion on me or what I say. Blame it on your own shaking of the fist at God!

The time is short. What will you do in the hour of your own judgment? Who will you blame? The Bible is truth. Yet, have you accepted it? What will you say to God? What will be your excuse? It won’t be me.

Well, if God is involved in this, I’m going to blame Christian Republicans for their idolatry.  On September 9th, we here in San Diego put up an idol of Pete Wilson at Horton Plaza!  Heavens!

Therefore watch yourselves very carefully, so that you do not become corrupt and make for yourselves an idol, an image of any shape, whether formed like a man or a woman, or like any animal on earth or any bird that flies in the air, or like any creature that moves along the ground or any fish in the waters below.
Deuteronomy 4:15b-18

The Christian Republicans have sinned.  That’s why we have the fire and brimstone here in San Diego.

…Right?

Well, of course I’m not being serious.    Just making the point that if one states “Believe what you want. The Bible never, ever lies,” then one could also make the case that there may be other Biblical reasons God might be striking San Diego / Southern California with fire and brimstone.

And really, if God were really involved in creating the San Diego Firestorm and it was God’s rebuke of LGBT folk that were the reason why, wouldn’t it have been more likely that Hillcrest — the area of San Diego with the highest concentration of LGBT citizens, as well as being the home to San Diego’s LGBT Community Center — would have been where God would have made sure that the fire raged the hardest? 

Not a lick of firestorm flaming was in Hillcrest, by the way.

~~~~~ 
Further Reading:
* James Hartline Needs to Get A Clue

~~~~~
Related:
* James Hartline Says San Diego Is Burning Because…
* Firestorm 2007 In San Diego
* Category: Ex-Gay James Hartline

Surgeon General Nominee Holsinger Chooses Not To Participate In Methodist Court Meeting

The Worldwide Faith News and the Washington Blade are reporting that…

James W. Holsinger Jr., president of the United Methodist Judicial Council and President George W. Bush’s nominee for U.S. Surgeon General, has decided to not participate in the council’s Oct. 24-27 meeting.

What? Did he have the feeling that all eyes were going to be upon him if he went to this meeting?

The Judicial Council, the denomination’s top court, will be meeting in San Francisco. Among issues to be addressed will be the case of a pastor who switched gender from female to male.

“As is always the case, members of the Council will travel thousands of miles to attend this meeting and have spent untold hours studying and praying in preparation,” the statement said. “In order to maintain the integrity of the proceedings of the Judicial Council and in order for Council members to focus solely on the cases in front of them, I have chosen not to participate in the meeting.”

…”While I remain dedicated to fulfilling the role to which I was elected, I believe this is a time in which my service to the Council can best be demonstrated by my absence.”

Well, why would that be?

Bush nominated Holsinger to serve as the 18th surgeon general on May 24. He testified before a Senate committee in July and came under fire for a 1991 paper he wrote on homosexuality. He has said the paper was written for a denominational committee and does not reflect his position today.

Holsinger, 68, a professor of preventative medicine at the University of Kentucky and a former leader of that state’s health care system, has been active at all levels of The United Methodist Church. Gay and lesbian groups and others have criticized the council’s homosexuality-related decisions as well as his 1991 paper.

Could it be that he now doesn’t want to touch an LGBT issue because that homosexuality paper — and how that’s affecting his Surgeon General nominination? Would a new decision on an LGBT issue could cause new LGBT problems? Could it be Dr. Holsinger is taking the chicken way out? 

Mmm…Could be.

Seriously, no wonder his nomination is reported to be on life support.

~~~~~
Related:
* Does Everyone Get A God-Given Male Or Female Sex? — United Methodists To Decide
* Surgeon General Nominee And FTM Transgender Minister Stories Collide
* Pam’s House Blend’s “Holsinger” posts

Is it just fire, or is it fire and brimstone? If you’re James Hartline, you know why San Diego County is on fire…

They shook their fists at God and said, “We don’t care what God says, we will issue our legal brief to support gay marriage in San Diego!” Then Mayor Jerry Sanders mocked the Christian vote and signed off on this rebellious legal document to support same-sex marriage.

And then the streets of La Jolla under the Mt. Soledad Cross began to cave in.

They shook their fists at God and said, “We don’t care what the Bible says, We want the California school children indoctrinated into homosexuality!” And then Governor Schwarzenegger signed into law the heinous SB777 which bans the use of “mom” and “dad” in the text books and promotes homosexuality to all school children in California.

And then the wildfires of Southern California engulfed the land like a raging judgment against the radicalized anti-christian California rebels.

And incredibly, James Hartline literally wants to be *my* city councilman. Egads.

This bizarre man is noticeably delusional — his belief that he speaks for God is just beyond belief.

~~~~~
Related:
* Firestorm 2007 In San Diego
* James Hartline Filled Out A Form All By Himself
* Category: Ex-Gay James Hartline

My county’s canyons and suburbs are on fire.

San Diego’s TASC (which included me as a representative) had a meeting scheduled Monday with Rep. Brian Bilbray’s staff to Discuss ENDA; however, San Diego County’s Witch Fire (one of the over a dozen Southern California fires) eclipsed everything in his district. Suddenly, basic survival and San Diego community has become preeminent. To give folk an idea of how all-encompassing the fires just in San Diego have become, here’s some stats:

- During the 2003 Cedar fire in San Diego County, 50,000 people were evacuated. The 2007 firestorms have seen more than 580,000 people evacuated in San Diego County — evacuations multiplied by over a factor of 10.

- 500 plus homes have been destroyed by the Witch (sometimes called Witch Creek) fire.

- Almost 200,000 acres have been burned just by the Witch Fire.

And, San Diego wasn’t truly prepared for this firestorm, even after having nearly five years to prepare. The Los Angeles Times reported:

San Diego officials say fire conditions Monday would have overwhelmed even a larger, better equipped firefighting force. They point to progress made in the four years since the devastating Cedar and Paradise fires, including a better communications system, more air support and an automated evacuation call system.

But little else has changed. Just one new city fire station has been built since 2003, and many of the area’s chronically underfunded fire departments still fall short of national standards.

Once again, firefighters here found themselves outrun by fast-moving fires that hopscotched the county.

…A county emergency services plan completed in April optimistically called for 70,000 people to be sheltered at 670 locations. But by the end of the day Monday, the Red Cross had opened five shelters. Local governments and military authorities provided another 10.

By late afternoon, only 1,500 cots were available at the Red Cross shelters. Officials at the city of San Diego’s shelter at Qualcomm Stadium said they had some cots on hand, far short of what they needed to aid more than 500 elderly and infirm evacuees transported there — much less the 4,500 others who had converged at the stadium by Monday evening. At

…Bowman had told San Diego city officials it would cost at least $100 million to add needed new stations and equipment and $40 million a year more to increase staff. That investment, he said, is what it would take to bring San Diego into compliance with national standards. Those guidelines call for a city of San Diego’s size to have at least 22 more stations than the current 46, and 1,300 firefighters, up from the 980 now on staff.

But his appeal had no effect. Four months after the Cedar fire, a ballot proposal to boost hotel-motel taxes to pay for better fire protection failed to win voter approval. The City Council, mindful of the anti-tax mood of residents, has opted not to try again.

San Diego was recently denied full accreditation by the Commission on Fire Accreditation International, now called the Center for Public Safety Excellence, because many of its stations fail to meet the five-minute standard for arriving at major fires or calls for paramedic service.

Coordination though, has been reported as a lot better this fire season that 2003 because of improved communication equipment. The Marines have been of much help with water dropping helicopters — because the air-firefighting coordinators now can talk to Marine aircraft, we have more firefighting aircraft available.  Better communication equipment is one of the best things out of the push for Homeland Security.

The other thing that’s gone particularly well is the shelter at Qualcomm Stadium.  It stands in stark contrast to the SuperDome mess with the Katrina disaster — San Diego learned a lot of lessons from the Katrina mess in New Orleans.

For San Diego’s LGBT community, working on ENDA is pretty much on hold.  I’m safe at home in (Ab)Normal Heights, but so many in San Diego’s community are not. I’m keeping my San Diego and Southern California communities in my thoughts.

One thing [the transgender community around the late 80’s] didn’t take into account was how deeply entrenched the anti-transgender attitudes and doctrines were amongst gay and lesbian leaders. Barney Frank (D-MA) is a prominent example of it. They still persisted in holding the view that transgender people were ‘crazy queens’ who would cost them their rights. Gay leaders were still trying to use the 70’s assimilationist strategy to counter the Religious Right campaign against gay civil rights fueled by fear of the HIV/AIDS pandemic.
–Monica Roberts, discussing attitudes and advocacy on the pre-2004 versions of ENDA in Why The Transgender Community Hates HRC

On October 19th, Representative Barney Frank publicly came out in support of the Baldwin amendment. In his released statement, he said:

“The decision to offer such an amendment came out of a Caucus which Chairman George Miller held of the Democratic Members of the Education and Labor Committee. After some discussion, it became clear that offering such an amendment would offer us the best chance to achieve Speaker Pelosi’s goal of adopting in the House the most inclusive ENDA bill for which majority support existed.

“I argued in favor of transgender inclusion when I testified on the original legislation on September 5, but many of us believed that sending the full inclusive bill to the floor would open the door to a series of demagogic procedural moves that would have endangered our chances of a passing any bill at all. The discussion held by the Democratic Members of the Education and Labor Committee, Congresswoman Baldwin and myself resulted in this approach and I believe it meets the goal of giving people the opportunity to support a fully inclusive bill while avoiding the potential parliamentary death traps that would otherwise have resulted. I will on the floor of the House be repeating essentially the arguments in favor of transgender inclusion which I made in the September 5 hearing, because we will now be able to do that in a procedural setting that allows us to maximize support for an inclusive bill without endangering our chances of getting any bill at all.”

Privately, Representative Barney Frank’s message to his congressional peers has been much, much different.

Behind the public view, several congresspeople, congresspeople’s staffs, and other government sources have reported to ENDA activists that Representative Frank is strongly advocating in private for congresspeople to vote against the Baldwin Amendment because, in his opinion, it would cause the bill itself to fail.

The debate over whether or not ENDA should or shouldn’t be fully inclusive shouldn’t be about individuals or organizations, but on the facts and merits of the issue. However, on the subject of how inclusive ENDA should be, the blatant duplicity found between Representative Frank’s public and private statements is utterly reprehensible…it’s utterly unacceptable.

Representative Frank may be my ally on transgender inclusion in years to come, but I will never again consider what he says publicly to be even marginally truthful.

~~~~~
Related:
* Vote on Barney’s ENDA Delayed
* The Frank Rebuttal

… ye fundies of little faith.

In its first statement on the Employment Non-Discrimination Act which would protect gays and lesbians in the workforce the White House said Tuesday the bill is likely unconstitutional and that if it passes in Congress the president’s senior aides would recommend vetoing it.

“[The bill] is inconsistent with the right to the free exercise of religion as codified by Congress in the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA),” the White House said in a statement.

…

White House Warns Of ENDA Veto

Good thing it’s not being “trans-jacked” as well …

“In recent years there has been a strange reversal of things,” Bishop Harry R. Jackson, Jr., founder and chairman of the High Impact Leadership Coalition, said Friday.

“[A]ggressive activists who are involved in gay rights have made an odd role reversal,” he continued. “In the name of liberty this group has begun to infringe upon the liberty and rights of others.”

Jackson was speaking in reference to the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), HR 3685, which seeks to make it illegal for employers to make decisions on hiring, firing, promoting or paying an employee based on sexual orientation.

The bill, if passed, would add “sexual orientation” to a list of federally protected classes under a 1964 act that prohibits job discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin.

Jackson, who represents thousands of black ministers, said the black civil rights movement is being “hijacked” by gay activists who claim the gay employment issue is similar to the black civil rights issue.

…

Evangelicals Lambaste Homosexual Employment Bill

~~~~~

“I would like to be remembered as a person who wanted to be free… so other people would be also free.” — Rosa Parks