South Dakota House Bill 1144

[antiochian]

Just heard about this today. It would add sexual orientation, gender identity, and other items to the state's anti-discrimination laws. I hope it passes. South Dakota is really, really backwards, and this would be a wonderful beginning victory for LGBT persons living here.

Here's a facebook link:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/We-Support-South-Dakotas-HB-1144/270338747797?ref=ts

[Gennee]

That's great news.

Gennee

[offog]

This is so awesome! I'll keep my fingers crossed.

[SolApollo]

Good luck & hope it passes too! OH approved a similar bill in 2008 that prevents anti-GLBT discrimination in state & federal jobs in Ohio.

[antiochian]

The bill was killed by a vote of 8-4, the reason? If homosexicles have rights, religious folks will lose theirs. :( God forbid we discriminate against discriminators...

http://www.argusleader.com/article/20100216/UPDATES/100216026

I'm not surprised. As I said before, SD is full of antigay Conservative fruit loops who think that John Thune is Christ's representative on earth.

[BruceChris]

That would make abortion illegal. It would be unenforceable, even if passed. But even so, it managed to get a double digit percentage of votes, each time.

BruceChris

[SolApollo]

I misspoke when I said OH passed a non-discrimination bill for employment of GLBT in the state. However, my assertion was correct: the current, progressive governor issued an executive order banning state (i.e. public school teachers, government employees, etc.) employees from being fired or not employed on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. However, it was not issued for employees of private institutions, which was passed in the state House, but not yet in the state Senate. Luckily, I am a state employee (public school teacher), and the executive order protects me. However, for the sake of other GLBT that are not state-employed, I hope the bill passes in the Senate too. Similarly, I believe President Obama issued a similar directive protecting federal employees that are GLBT.

Link here: http://www.hrc.org/issues/workplace/3022.htm