Meet The Anti-Gay GOP Congressman Who Just Scuttled The Equality Act
One Minnesota Congressman opted to make sure the Equality Act did not even get a vote in committee.
The Equality Act is a bill introduced in the House and Senate that would expand the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to include the words “sexual orientation” and “gender identity.” It would also expand the scope of the iconic civil rights law to include areas like housing and credit and education.Â
Naturally, Republicans are opposed.
Congressman Jared Polis (D-CO) on Wednesday made the first attempt to get a House committee to vote on the bill, but was thwarted by Tennessee GOP Congressman David Roe.
Roe claimed the bill was not “germane” to the legislation under consideration, the Protecting Local Business Act, which the Washington Blade’s Chief Political & White House Reporter describes as “Republican-crafted” and “anti-union legislation for small businesses.”
Polis, as seen in the video below, defended the Equality Act and explained why it should be attached to the legislation under consideration.
“My amendment addresses a pervasive problem in the American workforce that makes it harder for hundreds of thousands of American families to live their lives,” Polis told his colleagues on the House Committee on Education & The Workforce.Â
In a statement to the Washington Blade, Polis said, “I take extreme exception to the idea that equality for LGBT Americans is somehow non-germane to the work our committee should be doing.”
“The committee’s stated goals in moving the so-called ‘Protecting Local Business Opportunity Act’ were to grow our economy and create jobs,” Polis added. “Unfortunately, that bill wouldn’t do either of those things, so my amendment attempted to substitute it for one that would. Discrimination is an economic inefficiency, and it is in our economy’s best interest that we work to put a stop to it.”
After Rep. Roe made his claim, the committee chairman, Rep. John Kline, made his ruling, agreeing with Roe, scuttling the Equality Act, at least for now.
But after Polis made a strong argument, why not let the bill get a vote?
You may remember Rep. Kline, a Republican of Minnesota, won Bill Maher’s “Flip A District” award last year, with the HBOÂ comedian describing Kline as the “living embodiment of legislation for hire.”
Kline’s record speaks for itself.
He’s voted against ENDA and several times for a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. Kline received a 0% rating from HRC in 2006.
And last year, as NCRM reported, Kline demanded the Department of Labor drop its rules that extend protections to LGBT employees of federal contractors, which were based on President Obama’s executive orders.
Kline also co-sponsored a bill that, as That’s My Congress reported, “would make it a declaration of Congress that ‘it is Religion and Morality alone, which can establish the Principles upon which Freedom can securely stand,’ and would ‘encourage the public display’ of the phrase ‘In God We Trust’ in every public building and in every public school.”
Of course, the Equality Act is far from dead. It can be brought up again and again, until it passes.
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Image: Screenshot via Chris Johnson/YouTube
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