Amid the celebrations over the Supreme Court's June ruling in favor of same-sex marriage, LGBT advocates sought to remind people that other challenges to full equality remained. Less than a month later, one of the handful of gay House members has launched an attempt to clear one of the biggest hurdles.
Rep. David Cicilline of Rhode Island introduced the Equality Act which much fanfare Thursday. It would extend the anti-discrimination protections of the Civil Rights Act to cover sexual orientation and gender identity.
Cicilline, a ground-breaker as the first openly gay mayor of a state capital city, has not typically played a center-stage role in LGBT legislation, but is taking that role this time.
No federal law currently prevents people from denying employment, housing, or public accommodations to gay or transgender individuals. Most states offer few, if any, of those protections.
Democrats swarmed to support the effort. The bill already has 165 co-sponsors in the House, and another 39 in the Senate, including every New England Democrat.
Republican support, however, figures to be slow to materialize. Of late, the party has favored the right to claim religious exemption from such protections — for bakeries to refuse business to same-sex weddings, for example. And the inclusion of gender identity is almost certainly a bridge too far for them, even with the current, Cait Jenner-inspired change in attitudes.
LGBT advocates nevertheless see the effort as an important one, to continue educating an increasingly supportive public.
"It's an enormous opportunity," says Janson Wu, executive director of Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders (GLAD) of Boston. "It's shocking that most Americans don't realize that more than half the states have no laws prohibiting discrimination" against gay and transgender people.
Democrats also clearly see an advantage for the politics of 2016 — demonstrating how far the political winds have changed on the issue. Hillary Clinton, for example, quickly voiced her support for it, and the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee tweeted a colorful Equality Act graphic, urging people to add their names to a petition in support.
Poliquin Crosses The Aisle On GMO Labeling
On LGBT issues, including marriage and the Equality Act, Republicans like to argue for leaving those decisions to individual states. But the party appeared to toss that principle out the window on another issue, the same day that Cicilline made his announcement.
On a mostly party-line vote, the House passed a bill that would prohibit states from requiring foods made with genetically modified crops to disclose that fact on labeling.
It would nullify a first-in-the-nation Vermont labeling requirement, scheduled to take effect at the beginning of next year. Two other states — both also in New England — have passed similar laws that take effect only if enough other states join them.
One of those is Maine, which helps explain why the generally conservative Rep. Bruce Poliquin was one of just 12 Republicans to vote against the bill on Thursday.
In a statement, Poliquin said that "Mainers deserve to know what is in the foods we eat and give to our kids before putting it on the kitchen table."
Fundraising Never Stops
Only a few area members of Congress figure to have any significant re-election trouble next year. But second-quarter filings last week show that the work of raising money never stops.
In Massachusetts, newly-elected Rep. Seth Moulton raised $335,000 over the three month period, hiking his war chest over the half-million mark. So far, no challengers have emerged for 2016, but the North Shore district is always ripe for a Republican candidate — or, for Moulton, a primary opponent from the left.
There are even whispers that John Tierney, the Democratic incumbent who Moulton defeated in the 2014 primary, could attempt a rematch; he has more than $300,000 remaining in his campaign account.
The top fundraiser in the state for the quarter was Rep. Joe Kennedy III, who raised nearly $400,000 and has more than $1.6 million stashed. Representatives Stephen Lynch, Niki Tsongas, Richard Neal, and Katherine Clark each raised more than $200,000.
Social media photo of the week
Seth Moulton Tweeted out a photo of himself celebrating National Hot Dog day, with what appeared to be chili dripping down his hand and imperiling a very nice navy suit.
