Your Government In Action!

[Guest zipperzone]

The reason behind this post is two-fold.

 

Have just read an article that claims that the current administration is attempting to remove protections for gays from new federal labor contracts. Just another backwards step to repeal gains that you have fought for years to attain.

 

Four more years of Bush and you will be afraid to show your face on the street IMHO.

 

And my second reason is to introduce to you a web site some may not be aware of. It's http://www.365gay.com It is devoted to keeping us up to date about the latest happenings in the gay world and is updated twice a day. Very informative and easy to scan for those who want to keep abreast of what's happening. Also has art & entertainment, fashion and lifestyle componants as well. In fact I use it as my home page. If you don't know of it - give it a read.

[trilingual]

Sigh. . . I hope Dougie and FFF (who are absolutely convinced "it can't happen here") are reading this. x(

 

In 1986 I was a Union bargaining team member in the negotiations that secured what (we have been told) was the first federal-sector contract provision prohibiting discrimination on sexual orientation. It was my proposal, but credit for getting it into the final contract goes to the Union, which was willing to push the proposal, and the two gay members of management's bargaining team, who also wanted to see it happen. Since then, such provisions have become common throughout the Federal government. Now, it seems, the "compassionate conservatives" want to roll the clock back to the days of rampant discrimination. They already have tried to gut the Office of Special Counsel, the agency within the federal government that enforced a general prohibition against discriminating against gays in federal service. So their agenda is clear.

 

This effort, by the way, also accompanies a larger effort to emasculate the already weak federal government labor unions (for the uninitiated, federal employees can't strike and, with extremely limited exceptions, can't bargain over their pay and benefits, which are established by Congress). The Homeland Security Department was, in part, a ploy to eliminate Union representation in several agencies, like Customs and Immigration, which had long been unionized, as well as a way to get around the long-established merit system rules governing the way people are hired, promoted and fired in the civil service. All in the name of that false god, National Security.

 

Just wait'll you see what else this crowd plans in the name of National Security if we're unfortunate enough that they get elected to office in November. . .