Eyes turn to Federal LGBT employment non-discrimination protection

From left: Brian Moulton, Jeff Krehely, Tico Almeida, Stacey Long, Harper Jean Tobin discussed a non-discrimination executive order for federal contractors. (Not pictured, Brad Sears of Williams Institute.) The LGBT constituency, like any, has been conducting a post-election debrief on the ramifications for the 2012 election, in D.C. and across the nation.

There seems to be very little reality-based objections that 2012 will be logged in history as a very decisive year for LGBT rights. Pick your cliche'watershed, milestone'but by any metric, the LGBT community won. They historically won ballot measures, not once but four times. They've claimed more seats at the state and federal legislative tables than ever before and elected the first out senator. They demonstrated they could very effectively insulate key allies from electoral backlash, from Supreme Court Justice Wiggins and Senate Leader Mike Gronstal in Iowa, to helping deliver a massive 72 percent win for New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, as well as helping reelect the gay-friendliest president ever.  

At the top of ticket the LGBT vote can be shown to be decisive in delivering the popular vote to President Obama. And now, The New York Times says even decisive margins in swing states like Florida and Ohio.

What's also notable is the president's support for the LGBT community drew very little mainstream conservative criticism. Despite countless opportunities, the Romney campaign made no overt attacks on Obama's support for marriage equality, his repeal of "don't ask, don't tell," use of Medicare to enforce hospital visitation rights, the Housing and Urban Development's adoption of non-discrimination policies, and many others. It was "the dog that didn't bark," says Tico Almeida, executive director of Freedom to Work, a group working for LGBT non-discrimination protection in the work place. "We can push forward strongly on the freedom to marry and freedom to work, and with the exception of the professional anti-equality types, the mainline conservatives will mostly remain quiet.'    

So. How to move forward?

Aside from the Supreme Court cases, marriage equality is an issue that is most likely to move forward primarily at the state level. And the ballot wins are sure to deliver some courage to political leaders in cusp states like Hawaii, Rhode Island, Delaware, Illinois and others.

Many eyes are turning to how the federal government can address the issue of LGBT employment discrimination.

Seen as a key component is reigniting the call for Obama to issue an executive order requiring companies to have LGBT inclusive non-discrimination policies to qualify for consideration for a federal contractor. (There has long been such a requirement covering race, gender and religion dating since first initiated by the Truman administration.)

'First and foremost,' says Fred Sainz, Human Rights Campaign's vice president for communications and marketing, Obama must sign 'an executive order on nondiscrimination with respect to federal contractors. That's the most high-profile of the issues.'

The movement calling for the order was reaching a particular fever pitch in the spring of 2012. In April, 72 members of Congress called on the president to sign it, as well as a handful of allied groups, like the Council of La Raza and a big handful of labor unions.

Then two funny things happened. The administration called advocates in to the White House to explain that it wasn't happening before the election.

Usually sympathetic outlets like the New York Times, the Washington Post and even Melissa Harris-Perry's MSNBC show were framing the president's inaction in a decidedly unflattering light.

And then the president announced support for marriage equality, essentially draining any grassroots momentum that had been built up to pressure the president further on LGBT rights, perhaps appropriately.

Now, the election is over and the issue is back.

(Continues after the fold ...)