A comprehensive bill that protects LGBT people from discrimination in housing, employment, education, public accommodations and credit is
finally in the works at the federal level. From Sheryl Gay Stolberg at the
New York Times:
As barriers to same-sex marriage fall across the country, gay rights advocates are planning their next battle on Capitol Hill: a push for sweeping legislation to protect lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people from discrimination, similar to the landmark Civil Rights Act that President Lyndon B. Johnson signed in 1964.
That's the good news. The bad news is that some Washington LGBT groups are already dashing their own hope, saying the landmark legislation "could take a decade or longer" to pass. Wow. Not the 114th Congress, not the 115th Congress, not the 116th Congress, not the 117th Congress. Maybe, just maybe, in the final stretches of the 118th Congress. Or maybe not. Maybe longer.
Are you kidding? This is the exact problem with most Washington-based groups. They're nearly incapable of articulating a grand vision and then letting people be inspired by it, believe in it, and get behind it.
Fortunately, most of the LGBT legal groups aren't based in Washington. In fact, the people who have really led the marriage equality drive are mostly based outside of Washington—Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders (GLAD), Lambda Legal, ACLU, Freedom to Marry, National Center for Lesbian Rights—all driven by leadership outside of Washington (though some have representatives or satellite offices in D.C.).
And look where that effort is—same-sex couples can now marry in 35 states and counting. Sure, it takes some time to sell new things to the preternaturally conservative culture on the Hill. But the salespeople should not be in the business of being preternaturally conservative.
The reality is that the politics of LGBT issues are working for the movement, not against it. The millennial generation is around the same size as the baby boomers. They will soon dominate election demographics. And guess what many of them consider the defining cause of their time—LGBT equality. Fully 51 percent identify as "supporters of gay rights" according to Pew, nearly 20 points more than those who identify as environmentalists, for instance.
If Republicans want any piece of the demographic pie, they're gonna have to let votes be taken on pro-LGBT bills and some are even going to have to vote for those bills. But those votes will only be taken if the issue is forced, rather than giving lawmakers a "decade or more" to mull it over.