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Ted Cruz Smacked Down by Dick Durbin After Lying About LGBTQ Equality Act and ‘Religious Liberty’

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During Vanita Gupta’s confirmation hearing to become Biden’s associate attorney general, Ted Cruz attempted to assert a misrepresentation of what the Equality Act does. Thankfully Democrat Dick Durbin wasn’t willing to allow it.

U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) on Tuesday apparently tried to make a soundbite speech for Fox News while falsely characterizing the LGBTQ Equality Act and its impact on “religious freedom.” Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin (D-IL) was not going to allow Cruz’s political grandstanding get in the way of an important confirmation hearing.

Cruz, under fire for months now over various scandals, including his role in the January 6 insurrection, has gone as far as doing a photo op showing him holding a case of bottled water after his Cancun excursion when he left millions of his constituents in the middle of a sub-freezing winter storm without power or water.

On Tuesday Cruz tried the “religious liberty” approach, attacking civil rights attorney and champion Vanita Gupta.

Gupta, the president and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, is President Joe Biden’s nominee to be Associate Attorney General. Cruz falsely framed his question, trying to back Gupta into a difficult position while not letting her complete her answer.

“Do you agree with the provisions stripping RFRA’s religious liberty protections from Americans?” an argumentative Cruz asked Gupta.

The LGBTQ Equality Act does not “strip” the Religious Freedom Restoration Act’s religious liberty protections from Americans. What it does is say the law cannot be used as the basis for anti-LGBTQ discrimination. Cruz has attacked LGBTQ activists in year past, claiming they are waging “jihad” on Christians.

Gupta tried to answer and present her position. She did not get far.

“Senator, let me begin by saying that religious liberty is incredibly important to me. I am a person of faith. My family is one of deep and abiding faith. And this country’s founding freedom was rooted in religious liberty. I have defended religious freedom throughout my career. When I was at the Justice Department, I launched an interagency effort to protect religious liberty –”

“I appreciate that but our time is limited –” said Cruz, not wanting Gupta’s background to be advertised, and cutting her off.

“Senator, Senator, it is only fair to allow her to complete her answer,” Chairman Durbin told the Texas Tea Party Senator.

Cruz was not about to let Durbin set the rules.

“Mr. Chairman, I understand that she has things she wants to say but I asked if she supports the repeal of RFRA,” Cruz said, admitting that he’s lying about the LGBTQ equality Act, which does not repeal the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

“Senator, if you want to make a speech you may make a speech,” Durbin replied before Cruz cut him off too.

“I’m asking a question, I’m asking a question, and I understand that you support her nomination so you’re giving a speech too, but, but I’m asking a question,” Cruz repeated.

“I’m asking you allow her to answer,” Durbin again stated.

“She was not answering,” Cruz claimed, unfairly. “She’s welcome to answer the question. The question is, do you support the Equality Act’s repealing RFRA’s protection of religious liberty for Americans?” Cruz said, again falsely stating what the LGBTQ Equality Act does.

“Senator, I support RFRA,” Gupta replied. “I have enforced provisions of RFRA, and the Justice Department must enforce the law. The Justice Department enforces religious liberty and protects it. It also enforces our nation’s anti discrimination laws.”

Cruz again was not satisfied and interrupted Gupta again.

“Let me try again for a third time. Do you support the Equality Act’s repeal of RFRA’s religious liberty protections?” he asked, again lying about what the legislation does.

“Senator, if confirmed as Associate Attorney General, my duty will be to enforce laws to protect religious liberty and the anti discrimination laws that the Justice Department –”

And once again, Cruz interrupted Gupta.

“Okay so you’re declining to answer that as well.”

Written by David Badash, The New Civil Rights Movement. Image via screencap.

Democrats Introduce LGBTQ Equality Act in House and Senate

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The bill has been introduced over and over since the 1970s, but this time the Biden Administration has made clear that passing the Equality Act is “a priority” for the President.

In almost every Congress since the 1970s, the LGBTQ Equality Act has been introduced in some form or another. On Thursday Congressman David Cicilline (D-RI) and Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR) once again introduced the legislation.

This very well may be the year it passes and is signed into law. Speaker Pelosi is expected to allow the bill to go to the floor for a full House vote next week.

The Equality Act remains a much-needed tool in the protection of LGBTQ people, women, and other minorities, because 29 states still do not protect these people in all areas, including employment, education, credit, jury service, federal funding, housing, and public accommodations, as Rep. Cicilline said in a statement Thursday.

“In 2021, every American should be treated with respect and dignity,” Cicilline says in a press release. “Yet, in most states, LGBTQ people can be discriminated against because of who they are, or who they love. It is past time for that to change. I’m proud to introduce the Equality Act today, and I look forward to continuing to work with Senator Merkley to get this bill signed into law.”

In 2019 the Equality Act passed the House in a historic 236-173 bipartisan vote. But then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) refused to even allow it to be taken up in a committee.

“All of us go to work and school, go home, and go shopping, and none of us should have to keep our families hidden or pretend to be someone we’re not to do those things,” Merkley added. “But in 29 states, Americans can still be evicted, be thrown out of a restaurant, or be denied a loan because of who they are or whom they love. We all love the vision of America as a land of freedom and equality, but are we willing to take the steps to make that vision closer to reality? Let’s make 2021 the year the Equality Act crosses the finish line and is signed into law by President Biden.”

Since the 2019 version’s passage the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled in favor of LGBTQ equality. The landmark 2020 Bostock v. Clayton County ruling found Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 protects people from sexual orientation or gender identity discrimination in the workplace.

That alone should make passage easier.

But not a guarantee.

The Washington Blade notes West Virginia Democrat Joe Manchin did not support the bill in 2019. Republicans who might be considered more moderate are also not guarantees. Senator Mitt Romney (R-UT), who once, as governor of Massachusetts told a group of same-sex parents “I didn’t know you had families,” is a no currently.

Unless Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer allows the filibuster to die, 60 votes would be needed to pass the Equality Act. At least 10 Republicans would have to vote for the bill, which might be possible, a Republican lobbyist told the Blade.

Meanwhile, President Joe Biden on the campaign trail promised to pass the Equality Act in his first 100 days. He has since amended that based on the pandemic. Cicilline and Merkley say the President has “has made a priority for his first 100 days in office.”

Written by David Badash, The New Civil Rights Movement. Top Image: Reintroduction of the Equality Act in 2015, photo by Senate Democrats via Flickr and a CC license

LGBTQ Virginians Have Cause To Worry About Daniel Gade

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Gade, the Republican candidate competing against incumbent Democrat Mark Warner to represent Virginia in the United States Senate, has a history of anti-LGBTQ views that should give LGBTQ Virginians pause.

A candidate with a history of anti-LGBTQ comments and a platform that supports discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity is vying for a seat in the U.S. Senate. Daniel Gade, the Republican candidate running against incumbent Democratic Senator Mark Warner, opposes additional protections against discrimination, and has sought endorsements from anti-LGBTQ activists.

Gade hasn’t previously held political office, but spent years serving the U.S. Army in Iraq, where he lost his right leg and was awarded the Bronze Star. He retired in 2017 at the rank of lieutenant colonel. Gade worked on veteran’s issues, disability policy, and military healthcare in President George W. Bush’s administration, and was nominated by President Donald Trump to be a member of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, but declined the position due to the “toxic political climate in Washington.”

Gade’s platform on LGBTQ issues contrasts with Warner’s platform and voting record in the Senate. Warner has a record of voting in support of LGBTQ rights 100 percent of the time, including co-sponsoring the Equality Act in 2019.

“Discrimination has no place in our nation’s laws, and it has no place in the Commonwealth of Virginia,” Warner said in a statement. “I was the first Virginia Governor to ban discrimination in state employment based on sexual orientation, and I recognize that while we’ve made tremendous strides in the journey towards equality, work still remains. That’s why I’m a proud supporter and original co-sponsor of the Equality Act.”

Senator Mark Warner. Photo via Facebook

Gade’s rhetoric during his candidacy has made clear his opposition to equal protection for LGBTQ Virginians. He publicly opposed the Equality Act during a speech in Virginia Beach in January 2020, which included anti-transgender rethoric. 

“Freedom of worship, not freedom of religion,” Gade said. “And what does that look like? It looks like a bill sponsored by Mark Warner with the greatest name ever. I mean the Equality Act today. We’re all for equality, right? …but Equality Act would erase 50 years of women’s rights gains since the 1960s by putting men in women’s locker rooms, by putting men in women sports, just on their word that they now self-identify as woman. OK, it’s a bad bill.”

In 2017, before Gade declined his nominated position on the EEOC, Lambda Legal director of strategy Sharon McGowan told NBC News that Gade’s appointment alongside Janet Dhillon would be a “huge loss” to LGBTQ advocates and discimination cases. Gade and Dhillon testified before the Senate that they’re “personally opposed to workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity,” but declined to confirm that they’d support the Obama-era EEOC policy that makes this type of discimination illegal under civil rights laws. 

In 2013, Warner voted against the amendment to permit employment discrimination by businesses owned by religious organizations, a policy that Gade expressed support for in a speech in August 2019, when he said that bakers should be legally permitted to refuse to bake a cake for gay clients, citing religious liberty. 

“Those principles may actually come in conflict with other people’s principles,” Gade said. “So if you’re a baker who doesn’t want to bake the wedding cake for somebody who’s violating what you believe are important spiritual laws, the left would make you bake the cake and they would make you bend the knee to that ideology.”

In response to an iVoterGuide questionnaire, Gade said that he “strongly disagrees” that sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression should be considered protected classes under anti-discrimination statutes. He “strongly agrees” that businesses and institutions should be able to engage in discrimination against people whose marriages fall outside the traditional “one man and one woman” standard. 

Additionally, Gade has said that he supports the removal of all federal funding to Planned Parenthood, a medical provider that not only supports women’s reproductive health access to abortions but is a committed primary caregiver of affordable healthcare to transgender individuals. Warner’s voting record on multiple bills shows his support of Planned Parenthood and women’s reproductive health. 

“As Virginia’s Senator, I’ve voted against partisan attacks on Planned Parenthood, which would reduce access to health care in our country, and I’m proud to have earned their endorsement in the 2020 election cycle,” Warner said in a statement. 

Gade is endorsed by E.W. Jackson, a far-right anti-LGBTQ pastor who has said the “Homovirus” is destroying America and warned that if Pete Buttigieg was elected the country would become a “homocracy.” Gade and Jackson spoke at an event held by the Family Foundation, an anti-LGBTQ group that has opposed bans on conversion therapy and anti-discrimination measures. The Family Foundation is a donor to Gade’s campaign.

Gade’s anti-LGBTQ policies should be concerning to those who wish for equality. If Gade is elected to the U.S. Senate, he seems likely to be a destructive force against the rights of LGBTQ Virginians. 

Top Photo via Daniel Gade/Facebook

The Fairness For All Act: Why Does A Supposedly Pro-LGBTQ Bill Face Such Fervent LGBTQ Opposition?

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Utah Republican Chris Stewart’s new “compromise” bill, the Fairness For All Act, doesn’t really hold up to scrutiny.

Last Friday, Utah Republican Congressman Chris Stewart introduced a new bill in the House Of Representatives. Entitled the Fairness For All Act, the bill seeks to ban discrimination against LGBTQ people in employment, housing, education, and public accomodations. However, the same day it was released, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) posted an article on their blog entitled “The Fairness For All Act is an Affront to Existing Civil Rights Protections.” If your first thought is, “Wait, what?” you’re certainly not alone.

However, examination of the fine print contained in the Fairness For All Act, as well as the context in which was introduced, starts to make all of this much clearer. And as it turns out, HRC is right, as they so often are.

Rep. Stewart’s bill is a response to the Equality Act, a bill that passed in the Democratic-majority House Of Congress mainly along party lines (five Republicans also voted for it). That bill’s purpose was straightforward: end the ongoing confusion over whether or not the 1964 Civil Rights Act’s prohibition of discrimination on basis of “sex” did or did not cover LGBTQ people facing discrimination on the basis of their gender identity or sexual orientation. The Equality Act would add discrimination on basis of gender identity and sexual orientation to the Civil Rights Act’s list of prohibited discriminations, and also ensure that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act could not be used as a justification for such discriminations.

The Equality Act, which enjoys widespread popular support as well as the support of LGBTQ advocates, has not been able to gain traction in the Republican-controlled US Senate. And now Stewart’s Fairness For All Act is being presented as a more acceptable alternative, one that could potentially gain bipartisan support and enshrine LGBTQ anti-discrimination protections into our country’s law.

However, the Fairness For All Act, while adding the same sort of protections to federal law that the Equality Act would ensure, carves out a significant exception for religious organizations, as well as allowing small businesses like the infamous anti-LGBTQ wedding cake bakers to engage in discrimination against LGBTQ people on the basis of religious freedom. The act would not curtail any aspect of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act and would allow religious higher education facilities like Brigham Young University to retain tax-exempt status despite vocally opposing marriage equality.

Another way in which the act would allow for anti-LGBTQ discrimination, according to the Washington Blade, is its requirement that a business must have “15 or more employees for each working day in each of 20 or more calendar weeks in the current or preceding calendar year” before anti-LGBTQ discrimination prohibitions apply. That means you can still be discriminated against legally in any business that has 14 or less employees; for example, if you need your car repaired, the fact that the average repair shop has around five full-time employees means that you’re likely to be at the mercy of the notoriously right-wing car industry, which would be well within its rights to offer you higher rates or substandard repair due to your sexual orientation or gender identity.

Car repair. Photo by Maxime Agnelli on Unsplash

Yet another way is in its exemption of religiously-affiliated adoption agencies, thereby allowing organizations who only wish to allow adoption by hetero couples to continue refusing adoptions by same-sex couples.

Backers of the Fairness For All Act include the Mormon church, as well as several other religious organizations and the editorial page of the conservative Washington Examiner. “I’m excited about the solutions that are embodied in the legislation, because I think that those are the exact ideas that we’re going to need to pass federal civil rights for LGBTQ people,” Tyler Deaton, senior adviser at the American Unity Fund, told Vox.

However, LGBTQ advocacy organizations like HRC, GLAAD, and Lambda Legal, as well as other advocacy organizations including the NAACP, the National Fair Housing Alliance, the National Partnership For Women and Families, and several others released a joint statement on Friday, December 6 condemning the Fairness For All Act.

In the statement, the groups called the Fairness For All Act “an affront to existing civil rights protections that protect people on the basis of race, sex, and religion and creates new, substandard protections for LGBTQ people with massive loopholes and carve-outs, and upends critical federal programs that serve children in need.” They also argued that “Our nation’s existing civil rights framework already strikes the right balance when it comes to the government’s interest in protecting religious freedom and advancing nondiscrimination, and it is wrong to put into law a different system of protections for LGBTQ people and their families. This legislation would create a “double whammy” for anyone at the intersection of multiple marginalized identities: a Black lesbian or Transgender Jewish woman, for example, could see many of her existing rights erased or rolled back, ostensibly to protect her.”

Of course, quite a few conservative groups hate the Fairness For All Act too, including the Heritage Foundation, who say the bill does not “promote the common good,” according to Vox. If anything, this proves that weakening our own rights in order to placate the conservatives of the country will gain us little in the eyes of many who are dead set on opposing our civil rights. Therefore, if we’re going to push for anything, it seems worthwhile to push for legislation that protects LGBTQ people in as many situations as possible, rather than accepting a watered-down compromise that will leave us open to quite a bit of discrimination even if it is signed into law by Donald Trump.

Top Photo: Chris Stewart’s press conference announcing the Fairness For All Act, via the Seventh Day Adventist Church of America/Twitter

‘Ex-Gay’ Group Goes To DC To Lobby Against Equality Act

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The group of “ex-gay”/”formerly transgender” people, members of CHANGED and Church United, claim LGBTQ people aren’t discriminated against, and that conversion therapy isn’t being practiced anywhere in the US.

A small group of so-called “ex-gay” and “formerly transgender” people are spending time in Washington, D.C. this week to lobby against two bills that, given the current president, have zero chance of becoming law any time soon. What they actually are doing is engaging in a disinformation campaign that flies in the face of facts.

15 members of CHANGED and of Church United, who call themselves “formers,” are lobbying against the Equality Act and the Therapeutic Fraud Prevention Act, as NBC News reports. The Equality Act would expand the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to ensure it provides protections for LGBTQ people in areas such as housing, credit and banking, employment, public accommodations, and more. The Therapeutic Fraud Prevention Act would ban harmful and dangerous conversion therapy, a pseudo-science that purports to change its subjects into cisgender heterosexuals.

Among their provably false positions: LGBTQ people don’t face discrimination.

“Despite federal hate crimes data and academic research to the contrary, the ‘formers’ question the existence of anti-LGBTQ discrimination,” according to NBC News.

“I live in Portland [Oregon] and I don’t see the discrimination that LGBTQ people talk about,” Kathy Grace Duncan, a member of Changed who formerly identified as a transgender man, told NBC News. “They’re asking for certain rights in this legislation, but these are rights that they already have.”

Jim Domen, founder of Church United, identifies as formerly gay. He said, “Sexual behavior should not be a protected right.”

Domen goes on to claim, falsely, that were the Equality Act to become law, a “super class” of LGBTQ people would be created “at the expense of people who are not.”

“The Equality Act treats sexual preference as an elevated class and would strip people of religious freedom,” Domen says.

Domen and Duncan have a different take on banning conversion therapy. While they appear to oppose it, they also say it isn’t being practiced.

Why?

They say they’ve “never met” anyone who has been subjected to it.

“I do think conversion therapy should be banned,” Duncan said, “but first we need to prove that it’s actually happening.”

Despite their claims, conversion therapy is being practiced. It is dangerous, has been linked to suicide, and major medical associations have denounced it. Anti-LGBTQ discrimination exists – one need merely look at the recent U.S. Supreme Court case argued earlier this month to see it.

Substituting personal experience or belief for facts helps no one.

Written by David Badash, The New Civil Rights Movement. Image via NCRM

Franklin Graham Is Upset About Taylor Swift’s Support Of The Equality Act

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Graham accused Taylor Swift of “pushing the LGBTQ agenda down the throats of the American people” with her pro-Equality Act MTV speech.

Evangelical Christian Franklin Graham is back attacking the LGBTQ community, this time taking social media swings at the Equality Act and singer-songwriter Taylor Swift. The legislation, which passed the House but will never see the light of day under Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, would basically just expand the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to include protections for LGBTQ people.

But not according to the far right wing North Carolina-based religious extremist.

Graham was angry over the award-winning Swift’s comments urging the White House to support the Equality Act, when she spoke at the MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs).

“Regardless of who we are, regardless of how we identify, at the end of this video there was a petition – and there still is a petition for the Equality Act, which basically just says we all deserve equal rights under the law,” Swift said on stage, irking Graham.

“Shame on Taylor Swift for using her platform to try to push the socialist left’s so-called Equality Act, which has nothing to do with equality, but is about pushing the LGBTQ agenda down the throats of the American people,” Graham wrote on Facebook, using the same language as President Trump frequently uses.

Evangelical Christian Franklin Graham is back attacking the LGBTQ community, this time taking social media swings at the Equality Act and singer-songwriter Taylor Swift. The legislation, which passed the House but will never see the light of day under Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, would basically just expand the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to include protections for LGBTQ people.

But not according to the far right wing North Carolina-based religious extremist.ADVERTISING

Graham was angry over the award-winning Swift’s comments urging the White House to support the Equality Act, when she spoke at the MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs).

“Regardless of who we are, regardless of how we identify, at the end of this video there was a petition – and there still is a petition for the Equality Act, which basically just says we all deserve equal rights under the law,” Swift said on stage, irking Graham.

“Shame on Taylor Swift for using her platform to try to push the socialist left’s so-called Equality Act, which has nothing to do with equality, but is about pushing the LGBTQ agenda down the throats of the American people,” Graham wrote on Facebook, using the same language as President Trump frequently uses.

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“When she received an award for her LGBTQ pride-themed music video at the MTV awards last night, she did a pitch for the Equality Act,” Graham continued, falsely calling it “the most crushing threat to religious liberty in our nation’s history.”

Graham, in typical fashion, claims the Equality Act would allow “perverted men access to women’s private spaces like dressing rooms and restrooms,” and allow “biological males to take over girls’ and women’s athletic competitions.”

He then wrongly claims the Equality Act is “about trying to force those of us who don’t agree to accept and approve the LGBTQ lifestyle,” and he warns defiantly, “I’m not going to accept that.”

Graham and his supporters should know being LGBTQ is not a “lifestyle,” and supporting equality is not socialism.

Here’s Taylor Swift’s performance of “You Need To Calm Down” on this year’s MTV VMAs. This one’s for you, Franklin.

Written by David Badash, The New Civil Rights Movement. Image via Facebook