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Read an Opinion by the New York Times Editorial Board following the post.
On Monday, President Obama signed an Executive Order prohibiting federal contractors from discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.
The Executive Order amends Executive Order 11246, issued by President Lyndon B. Johnson, adding sexual orientation and gender identity to the list of protected categories in the existing Executive Order covering federal contractors.
At the signing ceremony, the President said, “It doesn’t make much sense, but today in America, millions of our fellow citizens wake up and go to work with the awareness that they could lose their job, not because of anything they do or fail to do, but because of who they are — lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender. And that’s wrong.”
However, Todd Starnes — host of Fox News & Commentary — feels the Executive Order is wrong, because it “would prevent Christian and other religious organizations with federal contracts from requiring workers to adhere to the tenets of their religious beliefs.”
In other words, the executive order would prevent Christian and other religious organizations with federal contracts to continue to discriminate against LGBT workers.
“This administration believes gay rights trump everyone else’s rights – including religious rights,” Starnes says.
He quotes Peter Sprigg, Senior Fellow for Policy Studies at the Family Research Council, as saying “If religious organizations cannot require that their employees conduct themselves in ways consistent with the teachings of their faith – then, essentially, those organizations are unable to operate in accordance with their faith,” and adds:
[Sprigg] said the president’s order forces employers to put aside their principles in the name of political correctness. “This level of coercion is nothing less than viewpoint blackmail that bullies into silence every contractor and subcontractor who has moral objections to homosexual behavior,” Sprigg said.
.“The mask is coming off of the homosexual movement’s agenda. They really do not believe in religious liberty. They want forced affirmation of homosexual and transgender conduct to trump every other consideration in the workplace – including religious liberty.”
Read more, if you wish, here.
Watch the video of the ceremony below
The New York Times has an Editorial Board opinion piece that is right on target.
It first points out that federal contractors employ 20 percent of the nation’s work force.
It also points out that Obama’s leadership “is impressive” because he refuses to “bow to intense pressure to include an exemption that would have undermined the order by allowing groups with religious objections doing government work to continue discriminatory practices at taxpayer expense.”
And, finally, the Times correctly throws the ball back at the obstructionist Congress:
The order reaches only a fraction of those who would be protected by a broader bill, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, now stalled in Congress. The celebrating over Monday’s order must be followed by a reinvigorated campaign to enact the stalled bill — without the large religious exemption in the Senate-approved version that would grant license to engage in the very discrimination the act is meant to remedy.
(Emphasis mine)
Read more here.
Lead photo: President Barack Obama delivers remarks before he signs an executive order regarding further amendments to Executive Order 11478, Equal Employment Opportunity in the Federal Government, and Executive Order 11246, Equal Employment Opportunity, to protect LGBT employees from workplace discrimination, in the East Room of the White House, July 21, 2014. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
