A Kansas First! Senate committee approves bill banning LGBT discrimination

As far as I know this is the first time any Kansas legislative committee has ever taken such a pro-queer vote. The Harris News Service reports that a Kansas Senate committee just endorsed a bill banning discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in housing, employment and public accommodations.

The vote by the Senate Federal and State Affairs Committee was 5-3. Harris News writes:

Senate Federal and State Affairs Committee Chairman Pete Brungardt, R-Salina, voted with the majority in favor of the bill. He said that in this day and age, there’s no reason that people should be discrimination against because of their personal characteristics. "It just affirms the obvious," Brungardt said of the bill.

Kudos to the Kansas Equality Coalition! Well done Tom Witt, lobbyist and former chair; Maggie Childs, current chair; and all the other hard-working members of KEC.

This makes the bill, SB 169, eligible for a vote on the floor of the Senate. If passed by the full Senate, it would have to go through the same process in the Kansas House. Despite the victory, the future of the bill remains uncertain.

Having said that, I'm still thrilled. This is a significant victory. Kansans who believe in fairness should savor this win. Hoorah!

Lesbians & gays are finally free! Well, maybe, sort of, kind of...

By Diane Silver

Oh, the Internet is buzzing in the aftermath of the Massachusetts gay marriage vote. Kevin Drum is cheerful and positive the gays have won.

Kevin quotes Michael Kinsley who writes at Time Magazine that LGBT folk have carried the day in all areas of rights and fairness, or at least will soon.

Personally, I am pleased and downright delighted at what happened in Massachusetts. I am thrilled that my very own town will soon have a domestic partner registry. I am happy that Iowa just approved a statewide law protecting against discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. Every other victory we have won is sweet indeed.

But only someone who has never had to live as a lesbian, gay man or bisexual could possibly believe that we're free. We aren't even close to being free, or equal under the law or even to being treated fairly. Oh yes, society is changing, but our families and our children still suffer.

Our children can still taken from us for no other reason than the fact that we are lesbian or gay. We can still be fired from our jobs in almost every city and state in the country for no other reason than our sexual orientation.

And there is no state in the nation -- not even Massachusetts -- where we have equal rights with heterosexual couples. Even legally married lesbians and gays in the Bay State do not have the more than 1,000 federal benefits that heterosexual couples take for granted.

So yup, I am happy at what has happened and at all we are accomplishing. But it's not enough, and the fight for basic human decency and fairness, the fight to be treated as if this country actually believed in the Golden Rule, is just beginning.