ACT On Principles

As we go in to the New Year, we have to turn our eyes to to the complicated process controlled by Congressional leaders House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)  and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV).  That overly complex process is the passage of Health Care Reform.

Below are the following provisions that were included in the House Health Care bill as provided by HRCs blog.  I can’t seem to remember the larger LGBT community listing these on the top of their legislative priorities to be passed.  However, we should appreciate the leadership of Representative Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) and her office for working to include specific LGBT provisions in the House version of the health care reform bill (health disparities, unequal taxation, and non-discrimination).

Each issue is about fairness, sound public policy, inclusion of the LGBT community, and lives being saved.  We hope that Congress and its Leadership do not  leave the LGBT community out of such a significant piece of legislation as they go into the merger process between the House and the Senate this month.

• Health Disparities – the bill specifically designates LGBT people as a health disparities population, opening up health data collection and grant programs focused on health disparities related to sexual orientation and gender identity. With collection of data and funding of research, we can better address the specific health issues facing LGBT people.
• Unequal Taxation of Domestic Partner Benefits – the bill ends the unfair taxation of employer-provided domestic partner health benefits, incorporating the language of the Tax Equity for Health Plan Beneficiaries Act. Without this tax penalty, more people will be able to afford employer-provided coverage for their families, and more companies will be able to offer these important benefits.
• Early Treatment for HIV under Medicaid – the bill also incorporates the Early Treatment for HIV Act, which allows states to cover early HIV treatment under their Medicaid programs, instead of withholding treatment for Medicaid recipients until they develop full-blown AIDS, This will dramatically improve the quality of life for low-income people with HIV, as well as saving taxpayers money and reducing the transmission of the virus.
• Comprehensive Sex Education – the bill provides funding for comprehensive sex education programs that focus not only on abstinence, but also reducing teen pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases. After more than $1 billion wasted on failed and discriminatory abstinence-only programs, this funding will provide youth, including LGBT students, with the tools they need to live healthy lives.
• Non-discrimination – the bill prohibits consideration of personal characteristics unrelated to the provision of health care.

A post from Act On Principles reader, Thomas Waters. You can follow his excellent LGBT issues blog at http://thomascwaters.com/

I saw a post on The Bilerico Project- a guest post by Chris Geidner, who usually posts at LawDork. If you don’t follow Chris, his is a really great blog to follow.

The specifics of the post are interesting and worth knowing about- how the republican led Ohio Senate gutted a teen dating-violence bill and the democrat controlled house went along with it, and a democrat governor signed it. But I think there are two other points to stress anyone who cares about GLBTQ issues.

First, support or a lack of support for GLBTQ issues, doesn’t fall along party lines. we can say that in general republicans are more likely to oppose GLBTQ rights, and democrats in general, are more supportive, but in the end party affiliation isn’t the thing that is going to bring gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and queers any closer to full equality. At least when talking about how already elected officials act. I’ll make a comment on work to elect officials in a moment, below.

Second, GLBTQ and our allies must care about every bit of legislation out there that can affect us. If our focus is only on marriage rights, in the end we will lose on many other fronts, and fronts that matter in a big way. If our focus is only on nondiscrimination, we will lose in other areas that matter. I can’t stress that enough, we have to care about all legislation that affects GLBTQ people in every way, shape and form.

That doesn’t sound like any easy task, and it isn’t. And I believe in the past we have allowed the difficulty of the fight to be the excuse many use for not getting engaged in the legislative process. But we do not have that luxury. Perhaps we once did, I don’t know, but no longer. We must either decide that we care about equality, and we are going to become willing to do something about it, or not. Once that determination is made on a personal level, then we each have to decide what equality is worth to us. What are we willing to do? Spend 15 minutes every day working for equality? Spend $50 a month working for equality? Volunteer 10 hours a week to demand equality? More? Less?

We have two political fronts upon which we need to be working tirelessly. Electing officials who will move forward on legislative work that assures a better life and greater equality for everyone. This itself is no small task, because many politicians will talk a good game to get your vote, but then abandon the cause after election. But this is extremely important but slow work, as elections don’t happen every day, and in any given election, some progressives, some moderates and some conservatives will be elected. But we have to stay at this one and work at it diligently. The other front is both the harder one, but at the same time, shows more immediate payoff for the work. We must be engaged with the legislative process every day, and with every elected official. This is the task, that I have been most interested in and will continue to keep talking about- probably at great length.