Earlier today the US Senate voted 64-32 to approve the Employment Non Discrimination Act. This legislation would prohibit employers from discriminating based on sexual orientation. The law was crafted carefully to provide protections for religious organizations and really does nothing more than insure everyone is treated equally. It is a law that I strongly support.

It seems to me that in the workplace the only real issue should be your job performance. If you do a good job and behave in a professional matter it should not matter what your race, gender, religion or sexual preference is. These things are no more relevant to your job than what sports teams you root for or what TV shows you watch.

Obviously there are circumstances where things go beyond a line. If you are disruptive to the workplace by trying to promote a particular political, religious or other personal agenda then it is entirely proper for the employer to direct you to stop, and if you fail to take proper action. Again, this would be true regardless of what the agenda is, if it is unprofessional then it is unprofessional.

On the other hand you should not face punishment for simply being who you are. An employee who wears a religious symbol should not be punished for that, an employee who stands at their desk preaching a sermon every day can be told to stop. A person who wears a campaign button for a given candidate is free to do so, one who refuses to work with colleagues because of their politics is not.

Along those same lines an employee who happens to be gay should be free to display a photo of their loved ones in the same way his straight coworkers do. That employee is free to express support for gay rights as long as it is along the same lines of a co worker doing so for a particular candidate. The same basic rules of proper boundaries should apply to everyone but they should also give everyone equal rights on both sides of that boundary.

Having said that I can respect that people could have legitimate objections to the legislation. Many may sincerely believe that current laws already provide sufficient protection. I can also understand if you feel it could be subjected to abuse and cause frivolous lawsuits. I can even understand those who have concerns about insufficient protections for religious employers.

What I cannot support however is the decision by Speaker Boehner (or more likely the hard right members of his caucus) to block a vote on this bill in the House. If you oppose the bill that is fine and you are free to vote as you wish. I would hope those who do so have sincere reasons for doing so but even if you don’t you are free to vote the way that you and/or your constituents wish.

But to block the bill and not even allow a vote is wrong. If a majority of the House opposes the bill then so be it but at least let the vote be held. Obviously this doesn’t mean that every single bill that is introduced should be heard but when a bill has the level of support this one does it should at least get an up or down vote.

Indeed this is an increasingly disturbing trend over the past few Congresses. In this post I am directing my disappointment at the GOP because they are in control of the House but I am sure some of our conservative readers could provide a list of examples where Speaker Pelosi blocked a GOP supported bill.

Things are just as bad on the state level, here in California it is pretty much a given that if you are a Republican in the state legislature you shouldn’t even bother introducing bills because they generally won’t be heard without a Democratic sponsor. Again I expect the same is true in red states where the Democratic minority doesn’t get heard.

My purpose in writing this post is twofold. First, I do think this is an important piece of legislation that should be passed. But more importantly I think we need to return to a time where both the majority and minority in the legislature have the same rights to promote bills and to get a floor vote.

To do any less is to diminish our Republic.