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 Rep. Jim Kolbe |
Hefley Amendment will not be Attached to Appropriations Bill GOP Attempting to Avoid a Growing Public Relations Nightmare |
| Compiled by Badpuppy's GayToday From Human Rights Campaign Report In an effort to avoid a public relations nightmare, the House leadership Thursday decided not to offer the anti-gay Hefley amendment, which seeks to overturn President Clinton's May 28th executive order banning workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation, to the Treasury-Postal Appropriations bill, chaired by openly gay Republican Jim Kolbe. Instead, Hefley is eyeing the Commerce, Justice, State Appropriations Bill. "This mean spirited, discriminatory amendment is wrong no matter what vehicle the leadership uses to further it. The fact that they moved it from Rep. Kolbe's bill underscores the hypocrisy in this effort to legalize workplace discrimination against gay people," said HRC political director Winnie Stachelberg. The Hefley amendment is expected to be introduced later this week. Earlier today in a Washington D.C. political newspaper "The Hill," Kolbe said he thought Republican support for the Hefley amendment would hurt the party by sending the wrong message. "I think it's wrong on two counts. This just codifies what is already executive branch policy, which is non- discrimination. It doesn't give them any more legal standing or rights. Second, I think it's a bad statement for Republicans to be sending," said Rep. Kolbe.
Before this executive order was issued, many federal agencies had their own separate policies banning discrimination based on sexual orientation. This often led to confusion among government workers as to whether or not they were protected. Contrary to the claims of the GOP leadership, this executive order helps clarify the law for government workers by bringing uniformity to existing anti-discrimination policies throughout the federal government. The GOP leadership's push to keep discrimination legal is not in line with public opinion. An April, 1997 poll conducted for the Human Rights Campaign by the Tarrance Group, shows that eighty percent of the American public says that homosexuals should have equal rights in terms of job opportunities. The order adds sexual orientation to the list of protected categories for which discrimination is already prohibited, i.e., race, color, religion, sex, national origin, handicap and age. In issuing the order, Clinton noted that this policy does not add any new enforcement rights, such as the ability of a civilian federal worker to appeal an anti-gay job discrimination case before the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. |
A "Dear Colleague" letter, written by four Republican members of the House, is being circulated around Capitol Hill, asking members to support the Hefley amendment. The letter contains a panoply of untruths such as that the Clinton administration's executive order would force private contractors who service the federal government to be in compliance and that it would also grant "special protected status" based on sexual orientation. The four Republican Congressmen who signed the "Dear Colleague" letter are House Majority Whip, Tom Delay (TX), Joel Hefley (CO), Joe Aderholt (AL), John Hostettler (IN).
Rep. Joe Aderholt 