On Wednesday, Nevada congressional candidate Cresent Hardy described the Employment Nondiscrimination Act (ENDA) as “segregation.” ENDA is a federal bill that bans workplace discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.
Hardy said that “When we create classes, we create that same separation that we’re trying to unfold somehow… By continuing to create these laws that are what I call segregation laws, it puts one class of a person over another. We are creating classes of people through these laws.”
I don’t know if I even understand what Hardy is implying, probably because I don’t speak asshole. (I just write it pretty well.) Is he saying that antidiscrimination laws assume that straight cis people are in a better class than queer people and that’s why queer people need protection? Queer people aren’t in a worse class; in fact they totes lucked out in getting Cher as their professor. Antidiscrimination laws don’t exist because one class is “over
another,” but rather because one group is more privileged systemically. The main mystery with this Hardy boy is what the hell he is talking about.
“I strongly oppose laws to hold back, or advance, a person strictly based upon a label or grouping…The truth is, I support workplace laws that reward those who do the best job regardless of who they are. Any suggestion otherwise is simply not true.”
It stinks strongly of old men who don’t support affirmative action because it’s giving special treatment to non-white people. And if you were wondering what that stinks like, it’s kinda like leftover breakfast burrito forgotten for three days when you went out of town and left it in your room instead of in the refrigerator. (Hypothetically.)
It’s ridiculous that Nevada’s Cresent Hardy thinks laws that laws banning discrimination are somehow enforcing segregation. Laws banning discrimination help protect people from subjugation and inherent prejudices in the system.
What happens in Nevada should stay in Nevada.
Alison, or Barbara…?
Don’t be a Barbara, Allison.
Oh whoops, forgot to set the byline when I was scheduling this post. SORRY, TWO BLOGTOWN COMMENTERS!
he is implying that the straight people have the right not to be discriminated against too. that is all
Right. He’s saying we’re all just people, and we don’t need to segregate it any further than that. Treat all people equally.
Or at least that what that one sentence means. I can’t be arsed to go read the guy’s blog, or whatever, to distill down his entire worldview for you.
Assuming that illogical imbalances in fairness in the workplace are made up is exactly the kind of thinking that leads to what Arizona is going through right now, among other things. When all you can see is your own life experiences, it’s pretty easy to assume that the things that laws are made for don’t actually exist at all.
For the sake of this discussion, can anybody here cite the part in ENDA where it says “screw straight people”?
If everyone could treat everyone as an equal then yes these laws would suck. Unfortunately we, the human race, have not yet reached that point and so sometimes we need these bills and laws.