Obama rejected an executive order to suspend discrimination of gay contractors

[Guest EXPAT]

Obama and the Executive Order: A Gay Panic at the White House?

By Michelangelo Signorile.

[JKane]

Damn it, well, two steps forward, one step back is better than standing still or backpedling, but the article makes it sound like a win-win no-brainer. I could see maybe some troubles with security contractors and the like, especially in foreign lands, but otherwise it seems pretty innocuous.

[Guest hitoallusa]

Wait why does one's sexual preference matter when hiring a federal contractor? Do they have to write in their bid something like two employees in our group are gay with their quote??? I don't understand why this law is necessary in the first place... How do they know that contractors are gay or straight in the first place???

[JKane]

The federal government pays at least tens of thousands of people as or through contractors. But they don't want the lowest bidder winning by doing unethical things, so they set standards for citizenship, working conditions, etc. They've also had anti-discrimination stuff in there forever, same as any other public-sector worker, and this would've added sexual preference to that policy. It's not quotas or mandatory hiring, it's fairness in hiring and recourse for any firing that can shown to be related.

Thing is, far worse has happened with some federal government contractors, including brutal employee rapes and civilian deaths. So while this would be nice (or better yet, maybe don't contract out every damn thing!) there are bigger problems at the moment...

[JKane]

Here's a story with details about the rape case, for a while there Halliburton was managing to keep it out of court entirely using some very dodgy provisions on immunity the Bush administration put in.