Kansas: Kelly will reinstate protections for LGBT state workers in Kansas

[itsApril]

Thank you, Kansas voters, for defeating Kris Kobach and electing Laura Kelly as Governor!

Kelly will reinstate protections for LGBT state workers in Kansas

BY JONATHAN SHORMAN
The Wichita Eagle
November 08, 2018 02:24 PM

https://www.kansas.com/news/politics-government/article221347000.html

"Gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender state employees across Kansas will again have protections from on-the-job discrimination once Democrat Laura Kelly becomes governor.  Kelly on Thursday reaffirmed plans to reinstate an executive order providing a protection from discrimination that former Gov. Sam Brownback rescinded in 2015.

"The order, first put in place by Democratic Gov. Kathleen Sebelius in 2007, prohibited harassment, firing or discrimination against state workers based on sexual orientation or gender identity.  "I am planning to actually have an executive order drafted before I take office" to take action as soon as possible, Kelly said. . . ."

[AnneK]

It's so nice to see the disasters created by Trump get rolled back, even if only at the state level.

[Lucca]

It's nice, but I hope something more concrete than an executive order materializes. They're not very resilient, as we've seen.

[AnneK]

It's nice, but I hope something more concrete than an executive order materializes. They're not very resilient, as we've seen.

I see it as just one skirmish in the battle that Trump and supporters started, but are going to lose.

[Lucca]

My point is that any lasting protections are going to have to be passed into law by the state Congress. Executive orders can be easily undone once a new Governor takes power. Hopefully, this order is just a stopgap that leads to an established law, and then that law makes it through the courts.

[Devlyn]

It's so nice to see the disasters created by Trump get rolled back, even if only at the state level.

2015, Anne. Obama was president, not Trump.

[AnneK]

2015, Anne. Obama was president, not Trump.

I was referring to all the nonsense from the Trump admin.  While the original state issue may have been earlier, the problem, as a whole, escalated dramatically with Trump.  With federal laws providing protection, it's much harder for states to undermine them.

[Devlyn]

Facts...so inconvenient. You said it was created by Trump, and rolled back at a state level. That simply isn't true. I've learned in life that sometimes it's better to say  "I stand corrected." 

[itsApril]

Yes, BUT . . . It's worth looking at the history more broadly and in greater detail.

Kathleen Sebelius, the earlier Democratic Governor of Kansas, the one who issued the earlier order protecting LGBT state workers in Kansas, left office in 2009, when she was appointed as the Obama administration's Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS).

As HHS Secretary, Sebelius was principally responsible for drafting the new Affordable Care Act regulations for health insurance.  The regulations she developed and implemented broadly opened up US health insurance to coverage of trans-related medical, surgical, and counseling services.  (These are, by the way, exactly the regulations that the current Trump administration HHS now seeks to modify to OUR disadvantage!)

Republican Governor Sam Brownback, formerly an ultra-conservative US Senator, took office as Governor later and, in addition to rescinding the LGBT protections, massively cut state taxes in favor of corporations and wealthy Kansans, to the point that the state budget tanked and the state public education system was devastated.  (Even today, many Kansas schoolchildren only go to school four days a week!)

And what happened to Brownback?  Donald Trump thought so highly of the damage Brownback inflicted on Kansas that he appointed Brownback to the US State Department as "the United States Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom."

By "religious freedom," of course, what Trump and Brownback mean is that conservative and fundamentalist believers should have a right to assert their religious beliefs to DENY recognition to the rights of LGBT people.  For instance, the "right" of a fundamentalist business owner to refuse service to an LGBT customer, the "right" of a conservative doctor or pharmacist to refuse treatment or service to an LGBT patient, the "right" of a state-recognized corporation owned by Bible-thumpers (I'm looking at YOU, Hobby Lobby!) to refuse to include contraception coverage in the health insurance plans for female employees despite the requirements of federal law.

So Devlyn is CORRECT in pointing out that AnneK was mixed up about the timing of the specific events in Kansas about the LGBT policy.  But where AnneK is absolutely CORRECT is in her understanding that Trump and Brownback are both involved (right up to their necks!) in a generalized Republican Party effort to roll back and suppress LGBT rights.

If trans folks in the United States ignore this larger truth that AnneK so clearly grasps, they do so at their peril.

[AnneK]

You said it was created by Trump, and rolled back at a state level.

No, my comments were is reference to the general disaster that Trump has created in so many areas.  I know some things started earlier, by others, but it's come on with full force since Trump became president.  He has enabled and encouraged so much bigotry that our community, one among many, is feeling.  April pointed things out in much better detail above.  As she pointed out, the Republican party is hostile to the average person, simply trying to earn a decent wage.  In Canada, we have a similar problem, though to a lesser degree with the "Conservatives".  In Ontario, our new Premier is often referred to as "Trump Lite", because of his similarly disastrous policies.  One of the first things he did was roll back the sex ed curriculum, to one from 20 years ago, because it discussed things like trans, gay,  etc.

Years ago, like the Republicans, the Conservatives were a responsible party.  Now they're opposed to so much that a healthy country needs, simply because it might cost money.  They also get a lot of their support from the religious wrong.