The Mad Professah Lectures

Congressman David Jolly, Republican of Florida, became just the 8th member of his party currently serving in Congress to endorse marriage equality today. Just like Congressman Charlie Den of Pennsylvania did this past May, Rep. Jolly announced his position in light of a recent ruling striking down his state's ban on marriage equality.

Last week, a state judge struck down Florida's state constitutional ban on marriage equality. (Since it was just a state judge, and only applied in one county, I didn't even cover the news here at MadProfessah.com). No same-sex couples were able to get married as a result of the decision.

However, the more interesting political fallout of last week's marriage ruling was that Rep. Jolly (who recently won a special election to be the newest member of Congress a few months ago) was asked about his position on marriage equality and answered thusly:

“As a matter of my Christian faith, I believe in traditional marriage," said Jolly in a statement to The Post. "But as a matter of Constitutional principle I believe in a form of limited government that protects personal liberty. To me, that means that the sanctity of one’s marriage should be defined by their faith and by their church, not by their state. Accordingly, I believe it is fully appropriate for a state to recognize both traditional marriage as well as same-sex marriage, and therefore I support the recent decision by a Monroe County Circuit Judge.”

Peculiarly, even though there are just 4 members of Congress who have endorsed marriage equality, half of them are in the Senate. Just a few weeks ago Senator Susan Collins announced she is in favor of marriage equality (which her state has had since 2012). Jolly joins his fellow Floridian Republican Congressmember Ileana Ros-Lehtinen in supporting marriage equality, which is significant since all the other House Republicans who support marriage equality represent states which already have marriage equality, something Florida does not. Yet.

Republican U.S. Senator Susan Collins became the fourth sitting Republican Senator to endorse marriage equality on Wednesday. Collin, Republican of maine, joins her colleagues Rob Portman (R-Ohio), Mark Kirk (R-Illinois) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska).

Collins told the Portland Press-Herald:

On Wednesday, however, her campaign issued a statement that many in the gay-rights community had expected much earlier from a lawmaker who is viewed as one of Congress’ friendliest Republicans on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender issues. 

“A number of states, including my home state of Maine, have now legalized same-sex marriage, and I agree with that decision,” Collins said in the statement. “Today, same-sex couples can be legally married in 19 states and the District of Columbia. Nearly 44% of Americans live in a state where same-sex couples can be legally married, and I believe this number will only continue to grow.” 

Earlier Wednesday, Collins was endorsed once again by the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest LGBT advocacy organization.

Many Democratic LGBT observers (like myself) are dismayed that HRC is endorsing a Republican who had not endorsed marriage equality yet when her opponent is someone who was a champion for marriage equality in Maine as head of the local chapter of the ACLU. Shana Bellows issued a statement in response to the news of the endorsement:

"I've been proud and very privileged to be a leader in the LGBT equality movement for many years. As executive director of the ACLU of Maine, I spent every day bringing Republicans and Democrats together to expand civil liberties and strengthen equal protection under the law. I believe in taking strong stances in favor of Constitutional protections and equal rights even when they're unpopular. Remaining silent on some of the biggest civil rights issues of our generation, even after the voters have spoken, isn't leadership, and it isn't how Maine became one of the most inclusive states in the country for LGBT rights. 

"My opponent, Republican Susan Collins, had the chance to speak up in favor of marriage equality in 2012 or any time in the previous decade. Two years after her constituents made their feelings known at the ballot box, she has refused to break her silence. I believe Mainers need, want and deserve more proactive representation on equal rights -- on allowing LGBT students to learn without fear of bullying, on applying for jobs and going to work without fear of discrimination, and on much more. I'm running for Senate to provide that proactive representation and to expand Constitutional protections for our LGBT community.

I understand that HRC feels like it needs to endorse Republican incumbents over Democratic challengers, but I disagree with the lack of political principle involved. The largest LGBT political organization in the country should make its endorsements based on which candidate actually has the best pro-LGBT record. By endorsing a Republican, HRC is endorsing someone who will vote for Mitch McConnell to be Senate Majority Leader, which will mean absolutely no legislative progress on LGBT rights while Republicans control the Senate.

Good news! The Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), a proposed federal law to outlaw employment discrimination by private employers based on sexual orientation or gender identity, has passed a Senate committee by a bipartisan vote of 15-7. The United States Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, chaired by Tom Harkins (D-IA) sent the bill to the floor of the United States Senate with all 12 Democrats voting for the bill (including openly lesbian Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), along with Republicans Mark Kirk (R-IL), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Orrin Hatch (R-UT).

The HELP Cmte has passed #ENDA, a bipartisan, inclusive bill to ban #LGBT workplace discrimination. Read more: http://t.co/4jSbxcVniy
— Tom Harkin (@SenatorHarkin) July 10, 2013

The seven Republican Senators who voted against the passage of a bill to protect LGBT workers from discrimination (despite the fact that 90% of Americans incorrectly think that its already against the law to do so!) are Mike Enzi (WY), Lamar Alexander (TN), Michael B. Enzi (WY), Richard Burr (NC), Johnny Isakson (GA), Rand Paul (KY), Pat Roberts (KS), and Tim Scott (SC).

In the Senate, ENDA's chances of passage are unclear because it currently has 53 co-sponsors, 51 of which caucus with the Democratic majority. With the assumption that since Murkowski and Hatch voted for ENDA in committee they would do so on the floor, ENDA has 55 explicit supporters so far.

However nothing in the Senate passes unless it has 60 votes to end a filibuster. There are still three Democrats who have not publicly announced they support ENDA: Joe Manchin (D-WV), Mark Pryot (D-AR) and Bill Nelson (D-FL).

There are also more potential Republican supporters, like Deb Fisher (R-NE), Susan Collins (R-ME) and Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) so it is possible that ENDA could pass the Senate in the near future. A version of ENDA (that did not include transgender protections) passed the U.S. House in 2007 but was never taken up in the Senate due to an outcry from LGBT activists about its non-inclusive nature.

If ENDA does pass the Senate it's hard to see how it becomes law since the Republicans who now control the House are openly hostile to the civil rights of most minorities in the USA, including LGBT people.

The number of Democratic U.S. senators who do not publicly support the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (the most prominent piece of federal legislation currently pending before the U.S. Senate) has now been reduced to four! Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) announced today that he supports ENDA, bringing the number of supporters in that body to 52.

Just recently I blogged about the fact that majority support for ENDA had been achieved in the Senate. Since then, a Republican senator has announced that she now supports marriage equality and Delaware passed a law embodying the protections found in ENDA. Rockefeller had previously announced that he was retiring and not running for re-election in 2014. Senator Tim Johnson (D-SD) is aso not running for re-election; perhaps he will become the next of the four Democratic holdouts to realize that LGBT non-discrimination is a core Democratic principle.

Lisa Murkowski, the Senior United States Senator from Alaska, made history today as the 3rd Republican U.S. Senator to publicly announce her support for marriage equality. Murkowski is considered a somewhat moderate member of her caucus, and is also the first Republican female Senator to endorse marriage equality. The other two Republican senators who support full marriage rights for same-sex couples are Mark Kirk of Illinois (2nd Republican Senator to do so) and Rob Portman of Ohio (first Republican to do so, in response to his son's coming out as gay).

Here is an excerpt from the statement on her official Senate website:

The Supreme Court is set to make a pair of decisions on the topic of marriage equality shortly, and the national conversation on this issue is picking back up. This is a significant moment for our nation when it comes to rethinking our society’s priorities and the role of government in Americans’ private lives and decisions, so I want to be absolutely clear with Alaskans. I am a life-long Republican because I believe in promoting freedom and limiting the reach of government.  When government does act, I believe it should encourage family values.  I support the right of all Americans to marry the person they love and choose because I believe doing so promotes both values:  it keeps politicians out of the most private and personal aspects of peoples’ lives – while also encouraging more families to form and more adults to make a lifetime commitment to one another.  While my support for same sex civil marriage is something I believe in, I am equally committed to guaranteeing that religious freedoms remain inviolate, so that churches and other religious institutions can continue to determine and practice their own definition of marriage.

With the notion of marriage – an exclusive, emotional, binding ‘til death do you part’ tie – becoming more and more an exception to the rule given a rise in cohabitation and high rates of divorce, why should the federal government be telling adults who love one another that they cannot get married, simply because they happen to be gay?   I believe when there are so many forces pulling our society apart, we need more commitment to marriage, not less.

This thinking is consistent with what I hear from more and more Alaskans especially our younger generations.  Like the majority of Alaskans, I supported a constitutional amendment in 1998 defining marriage as only between a man and a woman, but my thinking has evolved as America has witnessed a clear cultural shift.  Fifteen years after that vote, I find that when one looks closer at the issue, you quickly realize that same sex unions or civil marriages are consistent with the independent mindset of our state – and they deserve a hands-off approach from our federal policies.

I think as the Supreme Court cases get released there will be a flood of similar statements as politicians use the opportunity of a major change from the United States Supreme Court towards LGBT equality to articulate their opinion change on LGBT equality as well.

Although passage was a foregone conclusion after the 63-33 cloture vote earlier today, the United States Senate completed its legislative work on a standalone DADT repeal bill, passing the measure 65-31, with 8 Republicans joining 55 Democrats and 2 Independents. No Democrats voted against repeal, although Joe Manchin of West Virginia (who was just elected in a special election and is up again in 2012 for a full term) did not vote and issued a statement saying he did not favor DADT repeal at this time.

ANALYSIS
Interestingly, recently outed Mark Kirk (R-IL) who had voted against repeal in the House, and voted against invoking cloture last Friday, voted for cloture and the bill this time. Other Republican surprises were recently re-elected Richard Burr of North Carolina voting in favor as well as retiring George Voinovich of Ohio. Moderate Republic Richard Lugar of Indiana surprised many observers by voting against repeal. Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas was the only woman in the United States Senate to vote against DADT repeal.

100% of Democrats voting (55 of 55) voted in favor of LGBT equality. 21% of Republicans voting (6 of 37) voted against LGBT equality. 94% (16 of 17) female Senators voted in favor of LGBT equality.

Here's the roll call vote on DADT Repeal:

YEAs ---65
Akaka (D-HI) Baucus (D-MT) Bayh (D-IN) Begich (D-AK) Bennet (D-CO) Bingaman (D-NM) Boxer (D-CA) Brown (D-OH) Brown (R-MA) Burr (R-NC) Cantwell (D-WA) Cardin (D-MD) Carper (D-DE) Casey (D-PA) Collins (R-ME) Conrad (D-ND) Coons (D-DE) Dodd (D-CT) Dorgan (D-ND) Durbin (D-IL) Ensign (R-NV) Feingold (D-WI)	Feinstein (D-CA) Franken (D-MN) Gillibrand (D-NY) Hagan (D-NC) Harkin (D-IA) Inouye (D-HI) Johnson (D-SD) Kerry (D-MA) Kirk (R-IL) Klobuchar (D-MN) Kohl (D-WI) Landrieu (D-LA) Lautenberg (D-NJ) Leahy (D-VT) Levin (D-MI) Lieberman (ID-CT) Lincoln (D-AR) McCaskill (D-MO) Menendez (D-NJ) Merkley (D-OR) Mikulski (D-MD) Murkowski (R-AK)	Murray (D-WA) Nelson (D-FL) Nelson (D-NE) Pryor (D-AR) Reed (D-RI) Reid (D-NV) Rockefeller (D-WV) Sanders (I-VT) Schumer (D-NY) Shaheen (D-NH) Snowe (R-ME) Specter (D-PA) Stabenow (D-MI) Tester (D-MT) Udall (D-CO) Udall (D-NM) Voinovich (R-OH) Warner (D-VA) Webb (D-VA) Whitehouse (D-RI) Wyden (D-OR)

NAYs ---31
Alexander (R-TN) Barrasso (R-WY) Bennett (R-UT) Bond (R-MO) Brownback (R-KS) Chambliss (R-GA) Coburn (R-OK) Cochran (R-MS) Corker (R-TN) Cornyn (R-TX) Crapo (R-ID)	DeMint (R-SC) Enzi (R-WY) Graham (R-SC) Grassley (R-IA) Hutchison (R-TX) Inhofe (R-OK) Isakson (R-GA) Johanns (R-NE) Kyl (R-AZ) LeMieux (R-FL) Lugar (R-IN)	McCain (R-AZ) McConnell (R-KY) Risch (R-ID) Roberts (R-KS) Sessions (R-AL) Shelby (R-AL) Thune (R-SD) Vitter (R-LA) Wicker (R-MS)

Not Voting - 4
Bunning (R-KY) Gregg (R-NH)	Hatch (R-UT) Manchin (D-WV)