Obama to sign executive orders that protect gay federal employees

President Barack Obama has announced plans to sign executive orders on Monday that will prohibit discrimination against gay and transgender people who are working for the federal government or its contracting agencies. The executive order will not include the exemption that was requested by some religious organizations.

These plans have come shortly after the Supreme Court’s ruling in the Hobby Lobby case that enabled some religiously oriented businesses to opt out of federal health laws that require contraception coverage be provided to workers at no extra charge. Senior administration officials said Friday that ruling has no impact on non-discrimination policies in federal hiring and contracting. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the plans publicly.

President Obama originally announced the plans last month and since then has faced pressure over the religious exemption, but has, until now, given no indication of where he would come down. Numerous religious leaders and conservative groups wanted him to exempt religious organizations from the order, while liberal clergy and gay advocacy groups adamantly opposed such an exemption.

Prior to the announcement last month, Obama had resisted pressure to pursue an executive order for federal contractors in hopes that Congress would take more sweeping action banning anti-LGBT workplace discrimination nationwide. A bill to accomplish that goal, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, passed the Senate last year with some Republican support, but has not been taken up by the GOP-controlled House. Because of this, Obama has decided to take matters into his own hands.

A poll conducted last fall by Republican pollster Alex Lundry and the Americans for Workplace Opportunity campaign showed that more than two-thirds of registered voters, including 56 percent of Republicans, support the protections of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. In fact eight out of 10 thought that such federal workplace protections were already in place. Read more about the story here.