Politicians & Pundits: Virginia Foxx

House Of Hate: The GOP’s War On Equality

research •

Earlier this month, the Senate affirmed that all Americans deserve basic civil rights in the workplace regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity by passing the Employment Non-Discrimination Act.

Backed by a large majority of voters who believe it should be illegal to fire somebody because they are gay, 64 senators – including 10 Republicans – came together in support of the bill, which social conservatives have bitterly opposed since it was first introduced in the 1990s. Now, the only thing standing in the way of long-overdue protections for LGBT workers is House Speaker John Boehner, who has declared his opposition and signaled that he may not even allow a vote on it.

Boehner has justified his stance by falsely suggesting that any workplace discrimination is already illegal, but past statements by many members of his party reveal another factor at play: the homophobia and bigotry of extreme House Republicans. Among other ugly views, conservative House members have described homosexuality as “personal enslavement,” compared being gay to “somebody who has love for an animal,” and warned that LGBT rights are “a threat to the nation’s survival.”

The choice for Boehner is clear. He can listen to the American people and recognize that everybody deserves equal rights in the workplace, or he can acquiesce to the far right and turn the people’s House into a House of Hate.

Read more after the jump.

Rep. Foxx Invokes Holocaust In Talk On ‘Eroding’ Religious Freedom

video •

During an October 20, 2012, Stand Up For Religious Freedom Rally in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC) said:

FOXX: We are allowing our freedoms to be eroded a little at a time. We now have very clearly a position that wants to take our most basic freedom away from us. If we allow that to happen we are literally cooked, because the rest of the freedoms will go away also. So we’ve got to stand up for it, we have got to make sure that we do the right things. I have often made this little speech on the floor of the house because I feel so strongly about this and I have for a long time. There’s another way to consider the significance of the time we’re in, and you might be able to convince some unbelievers by using the words of German pastor Martin Niemoller, and again, many of you will know this. “First they came for the socialists and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a Jew. Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak for me.” Folks, that’s where we are. That is where we are. So we have to speak up for our fellow Americans, those who may not understand the significance of the situation that we’re in. We want our children and grandchildren to enjoy a free America that continues to protect the rights of conscience. And it is up to us to make sure that that is the country that we leave to our posterity. If we allow the freedom of religion to be undermined then all the rest of our freedoms are gone.