The White House has announced they will not be issuing an Executive Order compelling companies that are on the taxpayer's payroll to institute a non-discrimination policy covering sexual orientation and gender identity.
Conspicuously absent from the statements of disappointment and condemnation released by Human Rights Campaign, Center for American Progress, National Center for Transgender Rights, American Civil Liberties Union and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Forece was Freedom To Work's statement.
Tico Almeida, Freedom to Work
Freedom to Work is a relatively new advocacy group, concentrating on workplace hostility and discrimination experienced by LGBT citizens, and lack of legal remedies in most of the country. We have a statement now from founding President Tico Almeida:
“This is a political calculation that cannot stand. I urged senior White House staff yesterday to reconsider their mistake. We will continue to publicly urge them to reconsider for many months to come. White House staffers and lawyers have let politics stand in the way of a basic American value – that a solid day’s work deserves a solid day’s pay, regardless of the color of your skin, your place of worship, your gender, or who you love. We can’t wait for the White House to catch up with this basic democratic value, we can’t wait for them to catch up with the prevailing views of the American public, we can’t wait for them to do what is right for the American taxpayers who should not have to subsidize discrimination. And now we have the resources, as well as the will, to give the White House some political courage on this issue.”
The group has likewise announced they will be building a new pressure campaign, “We Can’t Wait!” It is perhaps not so coincidentally named the same as
President Obama's own campaign highlighting executive action designed to end-run around congressional gridlock.
Supported by a $100,000 donation
Freedom to Work's efforts have been buoyed by a spontaneous $100,000 donation.
Almeida reports the cash infusion came from liberal donor Jonathan Lewis, the son of major Democratic philanthropist Peter Lewis.
Jonathan Lewis provided the original seed money for the GetEqual LGBT advocacy group. He says:
“This isn't a broken promise President Obama can blame on Congress. He has not been able to provide a single valid reason for why he is now refusing to sign the executive order protecting LGBT workers. It has become increasingly clear that this decision is based on cowardice rather than principled leadership."
The executive order was among the recommendations both Human Rights Campaign and Center for American Progress placed as a top priority with the administration in proposals submitted for transition in fall of 2008. They have worked with the administration ever since, and it is reported to have already cleared hurdles at the Department of Labor and Justice.
Lewis continues:
“Over the past several years the LGBT advocacy groups have jumped through hoops for this administration, conducting extensive research and polling -- more than has been done for any similar executive order -- and now the only impediment is President Obama."
“This is nothing short of craven election-year politics, a game Obama told us he would not play.”
Polling from the Human Rights Campaign has shown that
73% of Americans support an executive order barring federal contractors from discriminating against LGBT employees. Additionally,
90% of Americans believe federal protections already exist for LGBT workers nationwide according to a survey from the Center for American Progress.
The Department of Labor website reveals such an order would apply to 22% of the American workforce:
OFCCP’s jurisdiction covers approximately 26 million or nearly 22% of the total civilian workforce (92,500 non-construction establishments and 100,000 construction establishments). The Federal Government awarded more than $179 billion tax-payer dollars in prime contracts in Fiscal Year 1995.
The
Williams Institute says this federal executive order would protect up to 16.5 million more workers than are already protected by state or private anti-discrimination policies.
Freedom to Work points out Democratic president since Franklin Delano Roosevelt has leveraged his executive authority on behalf of providing a more fair and equitable workplace for all Americans.
What reason could President Obama have for not putting pen to paper?
Update: Jay Carney asked about this at White House briefing. Many questions, many of them confused why the President supports non-discrimination policies, but won't take a stop-gap measure that would provide immediate relief.
White House doesn't want to own this. They are going to force Congress to address this apparently. They claim to be "aggressively pursuing" the passage of the Employment Non-discrimination Act in Congress. There really is no evidence to support this, and very little hope it will be passed anytime soon.
It's nice they say they are going to go out an talk about LGBT workplace discrimination. Except the LGBT community is doing a pretty good job of that by themselves. The vast majority (87 percent) of Fortune 500 companies already prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. It's the ones, like Exxon oil, that refuse to that must be compelled by law.