On a day when the Senate took a historic step on civil rights by moving ENDA forward, 30 Republicans voted in favor of legal discrimination workplace against gays.
The final vote to move forward was 61-30.
The entire Democratic caucus was joined by Republican Senators Collins, Hatch, Heller, Kirk, Ayotte, Portman, and Toomey in moving the bill forward.
Republicans who voted in favor of legalized workplace discrimination included, Sens. Barrasso, Bozeman, Cotts, Crapo, Enzi, Flake,Graham, Inhoffe, Isakson, McConnell Paul, Risch, Shelby, Thune, Wicker, Corker, Fischer. (It was a group of Senate Republicans who were driven to vote no based on reelection concerns, future political ambitions, and tea party far right ideology.
Conservative groups broke out some strange arguments against ENDA. Heritage Action warned that, “The legislation would severely undermine civil liberties, increase government interference in the labor market, and trample on religious liberty. It is flawed public policy based in part on the tenuously defined term “gender identity,” which is commonly understood to be subjective, self-disclosed, and self-defined. The Heritage Foundation’s Ryan Anderson explains the policies in ENDA would be “backed up by coercive enforcement. If ENDA were to be enacted, business owners’ civil liberties would be trampled upon; business owners would be restricted from forming associations and contracts according to their own beliefs. Instead, they would be required by law to adopt the government’s values which are based on a vague, subjective definition of “gender identity.”
The conservative outfit The Public Advocate said that Republicans were stabbing family values in the back by voting for ENDA.
Even though this was a procedural vote to move the bill forward, 30 Republicans put themselves on record as support legalized workplace discrimination against gays and lesbians. The bill wasn’t filibustered thanks to the courage of few Senate Republicans, but it is astounding that in the year 2013 any elected member of the Senate would take a stand against a basic civil right.
The Republican senators who voted no deserve more credit than their House colleagues. At least they attached their names to their prejudice. Speaker of the House John Boehner is refusing to bring the bill to the House floor for a vote, so that House Republicans can continue to pander to their radical right wing fringe without having to worry about being held accountable for championing workplace discrimination.
It was great for the country that this bill cleared the procedural hurdle, so that it can move on for a final vote. but it is still disgusting that so many Republicans are willing to vote against civil rights and for discrimination.
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