Idea: End sexual orientation discrimination
Editor's Note: On February 6, we asked BlueOregon readers to suggest progressive ideas that the next Oregon Legislature should enact. Over the next several weeks, we'll post some of these ideas here - and ask you to discuss them. Good idea? Bad idea? Any suggestions?
From KittyJ:
The state of Washington finally got its act together and prohibited discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. Oregon needs to do the same.
Discuss.
[If you have your own original progressive idea to propose, do it here: "There oughta be a law."]
March 04, 2006
Posted in open discussion. |
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10:33 a.m.
Mar 4, '06
well, Oregon did try to do exactly this. it was SB1000, and the Senate passed it and the House ... never saw the damn thing. Minnis buried it, as she & Scott did to anything they did not want to see the light of day. Oregonians are quite likely to have supported SB1000, so Minnis could not risk the democratic process.
so if we want to end this discrimination (and we do), we have to get rid of Karen Minnis, at the very least as Speaker. the Dems may not be able to fix every problem in the state, but they will pass this legislation. of course the christofascists will get a repeal on the ballot, but Oregonians have demonstrated, albeit by slim margins, that they want to be fair.
get rid of Minnis and we can end this discrimination. otherwise it will take a ballot measure battle to even get started, and that will cost millions. even BRO isn't ready to take that on yet.
Mar 4, '06
End Discrimination! Yay! Todd is right, SB1000, a bipartisan measure in the senate, WOULD HAVE PASSED were it to be sent to the floor of the house, so Karen Minnis did what she had to do to kill it.
The most exciting thing about SB1000 was that it wouldn't have just ended discrimination based on Sexual Orientation, but also would have ended discrimination based on GENDER IDENTITY and EXPRESSION.
What is this?
This relates to how people view another's gender- how effeminite or masculine someone is. This varies from their biological sex (Male/Female). Just cause someone was born a male doesn't mean they do all masculine things- perhaps they enjoy __ (Insert activity commonly associated with a woman). Or, perhaps inside they've always felt like a woman (a gender) even though they were born with a "male" body. (this is an oversimplified explanation. For more, Wikipedia, anecdotal story from the Oregonian, and from Basic Rights Oregon)
Regardless, discrimination happens very often based on someone's perceived gender identity. Gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender people aren't the only folks deal with this, straight people face it if they don't follow traditional norms.
Course, laws can't change society, but they CAN make it illegal, which is what we need to do. Discrimination = Bad.
<h2>Especially in access to marriage... but that's a whole seperate big idea.</h2>