A House committee is receiving significant attention for approving an amendment requiring women to register for the draft, but the same Republican-controlled panel incorporated early Thursday morning into a major defense spending bill a measure that would undermine President Obama’s executive order prohibiting anti-LGBT workplace discrimination among federal contractors.
The amendment, introduced by freshman Rep. Steve Russell (R-Okla.), would require the federal government when contracting with religious organizations to afford them exemptions consistent with the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the American with Disabilities Act. Since neither of those laws prohibit anti-LGBT bias, the amendment would enable religious organizations doing business with the U.S. government to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.
The amendment provides an exemption for “any religious corporation, religious association, religious educational institution or religious society” contracting with the U.S. government. All of those terms are undefined in the amendment, but the lack of definition for “religious corporation” could allow courts to construe the term broadly to any federal contractor — not just religious organizations — in the aftermath of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2014 decision in the Hobby Lobby case.
The House Armed Services Committee approved the measure by a largely party-line 33-29 vote, including it as part of the House version of the fiscal year 2017 defense authorization bill. Reps. Joe Heck (R-Nev.) and Frank LoBiondo (R-N.J.) joined Democrats in voting against the amendment.
The committee also reported out the full legislation to the House floor, but when the Republican leadership will take it up is unknown. The next opportunity to remove the amendment will be through a floor amendment when the full House considers the measure, but the House Rules Committee would first have to approve the measure, which would be challenging because the panel is stacked heavily in favor of Republicans. If not a House floor vote, the next opportunity to remove the measure will be the conference committee when the House and Senate lawmakers hammer out the different versions of their legislation.
David Stacy, government affairs director for the Human Rights Campaign, condemned the measure in the aftermath of the committee vote.
Jeff Tiller, a White House spokesperson, said the administration opposes “attempts to roll back non-discrimination protections for LGBT workers” in response to an inquiry over whether President Obama would veto the defense bill over the language.
But the Russell amendment wasn’t the only measure approved the committee approved as part of the defense spending bill relevant to LGBT people. The panel approved by unanimous vote in an en bloc package another measure introduced by Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.) enabling transgender veterans to change their name on discharge documents.
Under current policy, transgender veterans who change their name to reflect their gender identity after leaving the service cannot receive amended discharge documents, or what the Pentagon calls the DD-214, to reflect that name change (although the U.S. military has broken this policy in a handful of cases). Every time they use this paperwork to prove their military service, the inconsistency in names forces the veteran to disclose they’re transgender.
Speier’s amendment would allow a trans veteran to update their discharge papers to reflect their new name following a change in gender identity or expression.
Who was saying that the Kim Davis’ reaction to the SCOTUS decision was a flash in the pan?! The repercussions continue to emerge both on the state and now federal level. The struggle is far from over!
And that is all the more reason for LGBs and TQs to remain united in our common struggle for human and civil rights.
BS It is not about YOUR rights, it is about Destroying MY Rights, and the ethnic cleansing of Whites.
and the Rights of the American people. This is cultural Marxism and you are its tools.
I wonder what kind of businesses and groups donated to his campaign for Congress? Contractors? Banks?
Kudos to HRC for prioritizing resistance to this anti-LGBT bigotry.
Straw man argument, and a diversion from the truth by a Cultural Marxist. Nothing of what you say is relevant.
Congress has never upheld the First Amendment rights of LGBT Americans.
Gender identity illness is part of Cultural Marxism.