Hearing on Anti-Gay Bill Set for 1-Month Anniversary of Pulse Nightclub Attack
House GOP leaders are set to debate a horrific anti-gay bill on the one-month anniversary of the Orlando terror attack, despite a plea from more than 70 groups to cancel the hearing.Â
Last month, we told you how Utah Republican Congressman Jason Chaffetz, chair of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, had scheduled a hearing on the so-called First Amendment Defense Act (FADA) for July 12.Â
As of Saturday afternoon, the hearing remained on the committee’s schedule for 10 a.m. Eastern time Tuesday, and Chaffetz had not responded to the letter from the ACLU, the Human Rights Campaign and dozens of otters local, state and national groups.Â
“It’s outrageous that Congress would hold a hearing on legislation that would make it legal to discriminate against LGBT people with taxpayer dollars one month after the mass shooting that killed 49 people and injured 53 others at a gay club in Orlando,†said James Esseks, director of the ACLU’s Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender & HIV Project. “Congress should instead focus its efforts on protecting people against violence or discrimination, regardless of who they are or whom they love.â€
The groups’ letter states that FADA,or H.R. 2802, “would permit unprecedented taxpayer-funded discrimination against LGBT people.”
“Among the legislation’s many harms, it could even allow any privately owned business to refuse to let a gay or lesbian employee take time off to care for their sick spouse, in violation of family and medical leave laws – a particularly appalling aspect given the many families currently caring for those who were injured in the Orlando shooting,” the letter states.Â
The groups also note that similar legislation was recently blocked by a federal judge in Mississippi who said it violates both the First and Fourteenth amendments.Â
“The misleadingly named First Amendment Defense Act has nothing to do with the First Amendment and everything to do with sanctioning taxpayer-funded discrimination against LGBTQ people,” said David Stacy, HRC’s government affairs director. “Enough is enough. It’s far past time to stop the legislative attacks on LGBTQ people and their families.â€
In addition to scheduling the hearing on FADA, House GOP leaders have refused to hold votes on two gun control measures pushed by Democrats in response to the Orlando attack — which was the deadliest mass shooting in modern American history.Â
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