Is Louisiana trying to drive away all its LGBT citizens? After voting just one week ago to keep an unconstitutional law on the books, one that makes sodomy — and thus all non-male-female penile-vaginal sex — illegal, Louisiana lawmakers today elected to not move forward with an LGBT employment non-discrimination bill. Actually, one lawmaker.
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Democratic Rep. Karen St. Germain was forced to pull her bill that would have extended workplace protections to Louisiana’s LGBT citizens, after finding she just could not muster up enough votes to even move the legislation out of committee. But she’s still determined to get her bill passed — at some point.
“I have sadness, disappointment that we have let it get this far, where there are still some issues about people’s right to work,” Rep. St. Germain told the Times-Picayune. “I will be back with this bill next year.”
“More than half of Fortune 500 companies have policies that mirror this legislation,” Democratic Rep. Walt Leger added. “Every person must be in the workforce and every person must be protected in the workforce.”
The Times-Picayune reports that “the conservative Christian Louisiana Family Forum had campaigned aggressively against the bill, causing some lawmakers to switch their votes at the last minute.” The Christian Louisiana Family Forum, a state affiliate of the anti-gay Focus On The Family, also successfully blocked the removal of the anti-sodomy laws from the books, despite them being technically unenforceable.
“Technically,” because at least 12 men were arrested for breaking Louisiana’s “unenforceable” anti-sodomy laws just last year.
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