Florida Agenda

WASHINGTON, DC – During an appearance this Sunday on “Meet the Press”, Vice President Joseph Biden Jr. said that he is “comfortable” with gay marriages, and that marriage equality would simply be extending the same rights to all Americans, regardless of the sexual identity.

Speaking with NBC’s David Gregory, Biden said “I am absolutely comfortable with the fact that men marrying men, women marrying women and heterosexual men and women marrying one another are entitled to the same exact rights, all the civil rights, all the civil liberties.”

“I just think that the good news is that as more and more Americans come to understand what this is all about is a simple proposition. Who do you love? Who do you love?” Biden asked rhetorically. “And will you be loyal to the person you love? And that’s what people are finding out is what, what all marriages, at their root, are about. Whether they’re marriages of lesbians or gay men or heterosexuals.”

WASHINGTON, DC – A new survey from the Pew Research Center finds that an increasing number of Americans favor of gay marriage.

At the same time, a greater number favor gun ownership rights over gun control. The poll’s authors note that both positions represent landmark shifts in public attitudes, reflecting a “small-l” libertarianism taking shape in the culture.

The survey—conducted by telephone between April 4 and 15, and reflecting the opinions of more than 3,000 nationwide respondents, with a margin of error plus or minus three percent—found that 47 percent of Americans favor marriage equality, and 49 percent believe it’s more important to protect the rights of gun owners than to support gun control laws. While not a majority in either case, those who support these positions outnumber their opponents, with 43 percent against same-sex marriage and 45 percent supporting gun control over gun ownership.

According to Pew, strong opposition to gay marriage—which peaked in December 2004 at 38 percent— generally fluctuated around 30 percent until 2010, when it began to decrease, finally reaching its present 22 percent.

Contrarily, strong support—with an all-time modern low of 8 percent, also in 2004—has ticked upwards until it now equals its opposition with 22 percent.

WASHINGTON, DC – The White House announced last week its full support of a pair of measures that would offer federal protections against bullying to LGBT students.

The Student Non-Discrimination Act (SNDA) and the Safe Schools Improvement Act (SSIA) would address anti-gay bullying and harassment and require that school initiate and enforce anti-bullying policies.

On Friday, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan condemned the quiet culture of anti-gay harassment in the public schools. “Bullying can no longer be seen as a normal rite of passage,” Duncan said. “As a country, we must all work together to take action against bullying and improve the safety climates of our schools and communities.”

The April 20 announcement came on the heels of news last week that President Obama has decided against issuing an executive order that would require federal contractors to implement nondiscrimination policies based on gender identity and sexual orientation. The administration has been widely criticized by LGBT advocacy and human rights groups for its inaction on the issue. Senate votes on SNDA and SSIA could take place later this year. The bills’ sponsors, Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) and Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA), have said they will introduce their measures as amendments to the larger Elementary & Secondary Education Act reauthorization when that bill comes to the full Senate for a vote.

Republican U.S. Senate Candidate Compares Anti-Gay Bullying and Violence to “Teasing” ALBUQUERQUE, NM – In a rebuke to the suicides of gay teenagers who were subjected to harassment and violence, a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate from New Mexico has added her voice to the anti-gay bullying chorus, claiming that proposed federal legislation to provide similar civil rights protections to LGBT students in cases of bullying “as those that currently apply to students based on race and gender” would be like criminalizing “teasing.”

The Student Non-Discrimination Act (SNDA) would establish federal protections for children against harassment based upon gender identify and sexual orientation. The measure requires schools to implement policies of nondiscrimination and to take immediate action to investigate and address cases of bullying and harassment.

It has 37 Senate co-sponsors and 157 House co-sponsors.

At a candidates’ debate on April 12, for U.S. congresswoman Heather Wilson said that “With respect to this particular agenda we have to recognize as parents that children tease each other because you’re short or you’re tall or you’re a redhead or because you’re ugly or because you’re smart or because you’re dumb or all kinds of differences and as parents we have to deal with that and strengthen our children to be comfortable with themselves and also to show empathy and acceptance towards others, but that particular act is so broad it would actually punish children and say that it’s prohibited to express an opinion with respect to homosexuality in the schools. I just think that’s wrong and it’s a violation of the First Amendment.”

Wilson said that the logic behind SNDA was “misplaced” because, she claimed, pre-pubescent children don’t know if they’re gay. She was also uncomfortable with legislation that “criminalizes bullying” of gay children.

“It basically makes federal funding dependent on school board policies that will not tolerate bullying of people based on their sexual orientation or, you know, even when kids are below puberty,” Wilson claimed.

WASHINGTON, DC – A senior adviser to President Barack Obama told LGBT rights groups last week that the chief executive will not sign an executive order to ban discrimination by employers holding federal contracts. Currently, federal law does not offer protection from discrimination based upon gender identity or sexual orientation.

Valerie Jarrett, Special Assistant to the President for Public Engagement and Intergovernmental Affairs, met with gay rights activists on April 11 to inform them of the administration’s decision not to sign the executive order, which has the support of the Departments of Justice and Labor. The order would have applied to LGBT persons who are currently employed by or are seeking employment from federal contractors.

Joe Solmonese, the President of the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the nation’s largest LGBT advocacy group, was an attendee of the meeting called by Jarrett. His comments afterward reflected the sentiments of most in attendance. “We are extremely disappointed with this decision and will continue to advocate for an executive order from the president,” said Solmonese. “The unfortunate truth is that hard-working Americans can be fired simply for being gay or transgender.”

The Employment Non- Discrimination Act (ENDA), legislation which would ban workplace discrimination by federal contractors for LGBT individuals, is currently stalled in the Republican-controlled Congress, lacking sufficient votes for passage. The White House supports ENDA, but its decision not to sign the executive order stands in sharp contrast to many of its recent policy positions. Over the past several months, the president has signed executive orders on a number of issues, citing a “we can’t wait” approach to Republicans’ putative intransigence on certain legislation.

The president also risks alienating political supporters who so far have been willing to allow him some leverage because of his decisive action on issues such as Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. These same supporters have been a reliable source of campaign donations.

By CLIFF DUNN

WASHINGTON, DC – A subtle cultural shift may be underway on the part of the highest ranks of the Republican Party and their unofficial but no less powerful greybeards, with GOP Congressional leaders blocking passage of a number of measures that would have strengthened the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), the federal ban on same-sex marriage.

Even cultural conservatives including Rep. Allen West (R-FL), whose district encompasses portions of Fort Lauderdale and Wilton Manors, have made drastic shifts in their on-record statements.

Last week on CNN, West— whose previous statements warned that marriage equality would be a signpost of the decay of society and that homosexuality is a “choice”— said “I want my daughters to have the opportunities that I had, and that’s what concerns me. That’s what keeps me up awake at night, not worrying about who’s sleeping with whom.”

Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX)—who voted “no” in 2007 on federal legislation that would prohibit employment discrimination based on sexual orientation, and was rated 0% by the Human Rights Campaign, indicating opposition to gay-rights—told Politico.com, “That’s not something we’re focused on now.”

During the 2010 House floor debate on Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, Gohmert predicted that permitting openly-gay military servicemembers would sound America’s downfall. The Congressional Record reported the four-term lawmaker as saying that “when militaries throughout history … have adopted the policy [of] ‘fine for homosexuality…’—they’re toward the end of their existence as a great nation.”

Congressional Quarterly quoted an aide to a ranking House Republican who said that GOP lawmakers are concerned that the conservative social agenda that has been driving the Republican presidential primaries will alienate independent and socially moderate voters in their home congressional districts.

“There is a debate in the Republican conference on whether defense of marriage is a winning issue politically,” the unnamed aide said. These concerns have touched the top echelon of GOP leaders, who have been sending mixed signals to social conservatives—to the displeasure of the latter.

In 2011, President Obama instructed the Justice Department to stop defending DOMA in court. At that time, House Speaker John Boehner and the Republican House leadership formed the House Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group (BLAG) to step into the void and defend the law in court. Attorney Paul Clement was hired to defend DOMA, and given a $1.5 million budget by BLAG.

Marriage equality opponents expressed satisfaction with Boehner and BLAG. They have recently begun to sharply criticize what they perceive as lackluster performance on the part of Boehner and the GOP leadership, and accuse them of paying lip service to mollify religious and social conservatives.

“They hired Paul Clement, and they think their job is done,” complained Tom McClusky, senior vice president of the Family Research Council, to Congressional Quarterly. “While the Obama administration ignores DOMA, Speaker Boehner has forgotten that the checks and balances also include Congress,” he added.

The possibility of a social realignment within the GOP echoes an actual shift that occurred during the 1948 presidential election, when the Democratic Party split on the issue of civil rights for African Americans.

Addressing the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia that year, Minneapolis mayor Hubert Humphrey urged party leaders to “get out of the shadow of states’ rights and walk forthrightly into the bright sunshine of human rights.” That call resulted in a walkout by Southern Democrat delegates, who subsequently nominated then-South Carolina Gov. Strom Thurmond as the candidate of the States’ Rights Party, or Dixiecrats.

“Republicans are cognizant of where the public is moving,” said Brian Moulton, the legal director of the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the nation’s largest LGBT rights organization, concerning the mixed signals. “The Speaker’s defense of the law helps us show the harms that the law has caused,” and, he added, “at the end of the day, his action perpetuates the harms.”

WASHINGTON, DC – White House officials are clarifying remarks made last week by Michelle Obama during a New York City fundraiser, explaining that the First Lady was not trying to imply that President Obama’s Supreme Court nominees support same-sex marriage, and that she was not endorsing marriage equality on her own behalf or that of the president.

“For the first time in history, our daughters and our sons watched three women take their seat on our nation’s highest court. And let us not forget what their decisions–the impact those decisions will have on our lives for decades to come–on our privacy and security, on whether we can speak freely, worship openly, and, yes, love whomever we choose. But that’s what’s at stake. That’s the choice that we face,” Obama said on March 19.

“That is a reference to the president’s position on the Defense of Marriage Act [DOMA],” White House press secretary Jay Carney said afterwards, referring to the 1996 law that federally defines marriage as between a man and a woman.

In 2011, the Obama administration announced that part of DOMA was unconstitutional and ordered the Justice Department to stop defending the law in court.

There were those on the political left who were hoping that the First Lady was making reference to marriage equality as well as signaling a White House plan to appoint Supreme Court justices who support gay marriages.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson is the second GOP presidential contender to officially embrace same-sex marriage, making the announcement during a recent town hall hosted by the pro-gay Republican group, GOProud.

According to Think Progress, Johnson said that as a believer in individual freedom and keeping government out of personal lives, he simply cannot find a legitimate justification for federal laws, such as the Defense of Marriage Act, which defines marriage. He said that the definition should be left to religions and individuals

and not government. He feels that government’s role when it comes to marriage is one of granting benefits and rights to couples who choose to enter into a marriage contract. He said that he has examined this issue, consulted with folks on all sides and views it through the lens of individual freedom and equal rights.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The National Gay Lesbian Chamber of Commerce (NGLCC) honored the work of US Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis with the NGLCC/American Airlines Award for her commitment to promoting equal employment laws for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people at the NGLCC National Awards Dinner.

According to The Hill, in addition to the secretary, the NGLCC honors select individuals and organizations for their courage and dedication to the community, honorees include Ernst & Young, Wells Fargo and Office Depot.