A report from the left-wing Center for American Progress says gays, lesbians, and transsexuals will not fully realize the promise of America unless and until the Federal government extends to them widespread protection from all kinds of discrimination.
The 76-page report calls for all levels of government to make every kind of discrimination illegal and to expend taxpayer money to enforce the new laws. The report also calls for private businesses to reeducate their employees about LGBT persons.
The report purports to show LGBTs face discrimination in virtually all aspects of American society including education, housing, the workplace, access to credit, and participation in the public square.
According to the report, “A study conducted in Texas found an 11 percent drop in callbacks when applicants applying at a booth in an urban Texas mall wore a ‘Gay and Proud’ hat versus a ‘Texas and Proud’ hat.” Another study “conducted in New York City found that high-end retail sectors were two times more likely to hire non-transgender applicants than transgender applicants.”
The report claims LGBTs face a “wage penalty” when compared to their non-LGBT, white male colleagues. While lesbians tend to fare better in wages than their straight female counterparts “they still make less than straight men due to the gender pay gap.” What’s more, “Gay and bisexual men make 10 to 32 percent less than straight men.”
The report is not all bad news. Besides the fact that lesbians make more than straight women, one study showed that “transgender men [women who identify as men] experienced a slight increase in their wages after transitions from female to male…”
The report cites widespread workplace hostility, exclusion from health plans and insurance, discrimination in public accommodations, and transsexuals not being allowed to use the restroom and shower facilities of their choosing.
Current federal law protects people based on race, color, sex, national origin, religion, age, genetic information, and disability. Many states already cover LGBT persons, 18 states protect against discrimination based on “gender identity” while 21 protect from discrimination based on sexual orientation.
Where such protections have been implemented, Christians are crying foul.
A police report from Washington state describes how a male pre-op transsexual entered a woman’s locker room at Evergreen State College and sat “with her legs open with her male genitalia showing.” What this person did was perfectly legal and nothing was done, because in Washington state “sexual orientaion and gender identity” are protected categories of non-discrimination.
In his book The Excuse Factory: How Employment Law is Paralyzing America, gay libertarian Walter Olson tells how Brian Griggs was bought up on charges by the Seattle Human Rights Commission for playing a Christian radio station in a business he owned and also for posting a letter from his Congresswoman questioning open gays in the military. The charges were eventually dropped, but only after Griggs spent thousands in legal fees defending himself.
California has a law similar to the one called for in the new report from the Center for American Progress. After some city employees of Oakland, California started a gay and lesbian association, two employees tried to start one for Christians and were ordered by their employer to cease and desist under threat of firing.
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