LGBT Activists Target Jared Polis on Civil Rights
MEDIA RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: July 28, 2014
CONTACT:
Queer Nation: news@queernationny.org
LGBT Activists Target Jared Polis on Civil Rights
Queer Nation Demands Comprehensive Federal Civil Rights Legislation
New York, NY (July 28, 2014) – Continuing to pressure Congressional Democrats to advance comprehensive federal civil rights legislation that will give lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) Americans the same legal rights and protections that all other Americans currently have, Queer Nation is targeting Rep. Jared Polis in a social media campaign titled “Which Side of Your Mouth Should We Listen To?”
Polis, who is gay, supports the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), which only bars employment discrimination against LGBT people and has a sweeping religious exemption that would let nearly 200,000 religiously affiliated employers fire or deny jobs to LGBT Americans. On July 22, Polis introduced a second ENDA version with a more limited religious exemption suggesting that earlier Democratic claims that the sweeping religious exemption is needed to pass ENDA are false.
“Jared Polis and the Democrats are desperately trying to salvage a worthless bill, but a pig wearing lipstick is still a pig,” said Andrew Miller, a member of Queer Nation. “No version of ENDA will make LGBT people equal under the law. Only a comprehensive civil rights law will do that.“
Miller continued, "It’s time the Democrats – and particularly LGBT Democrats – took civil rights for LGBT Americans seriously.”
Many national and state LGBT groups dumped ENDA over the broader religious exemption. While supporting ENDA, Polis has made expansive comments about civil rights for LGBT people.
In an undated position statement, Polis said, “Equality before the law is a basic American value articulated in our constitution.”
In a second undated position statement, Polis said, “As a gay man, and as a Representative of 614,465 Americans in Colorado’s 2nd district, I am strongly committed to ending discrimination of all kinds.”
Queer Nation’s campaign earlier targeted House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, who is gay, and Rep. Kyrsten Sinema, who is bisexual. The campaign has received just over 30,000 views on Facebook. It is also being distributed on Twitter and other social media networks. Queer Nation demands a comprehensive civil rights law that would ban discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in employment, housing, education, credit, public accommodations, and federally funded programs.
