One step forward, one step back
I’m not sure whether the Louisiana legislature deserves a reaming, a reacharound, or some combination thereof. In a matter of days, they’ve demonstrated startlingly progressive ideals on the one hand, countered by disastrously misguided social policy on the other:
PANEL BACKS BAN ON BIAS IN STATE JOBS
Homosexual and bisexual state workers would win new employment protection under a bill approved by a House panel Tuesday despite charges that the measure is part of a political agenda promoted by homosexuals.
– from The Advocate
REJECT BAN ON CONDOMS
It is difficult to understand how the Louisiana House of Representatives would eliminate, without discussion or debate, the state’s cheapest activity to prevent a terminal and tragic but preventable disease [ed. note: not to mention unwanted pregnancies].
But that’s what happened when lawmakers adopted an amendment to the state budget offered by Rep. Gary Beard, R-Baton Rouge. It forbids the Office of Public Health from using federal dollars to buy and distribute condoms.
– also from The Advocate
So, did someone drop schizo germs in the Capitol Hill water supply? Did my super-secret mind-control ray finally start to work (at least on half of the House)? Or did all the real legislators high-tail it to Vegas for the week, leaving a horde of malfunctioning robot clones in their stead?
Then again, maybe this is just the legislature’s way of saying, “Discriminating against homos in the workplace isn’t cost-effective. We’ll get the job done much faster if we simply help them kill themselves.”
And BTW, no, I don’t make a habit of reading The Advocate. I do, however, subscribe to the daily newsletter from the Coalition for Louisiana Progress. Perhaps you should, too.
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Is there any sense that one will pass and not the other?
Tyler, Tyler, Tyler… That would assume there’s some sense in Baton Rouge to begin with.
*looks abashed*
Yaup. Well. *stubs and rubs big toe in the ground* You got me there.
I was puzzling over the language of the report on forbidding the use of *federal* dollars for condoms.
I love the fact that Peppi “Lepeu” Bruneau is having fantasies about drag queen state workers. As for Abraham Hamilton III, proud representative for the City of New Orleans, what on earth are you dragging man-on-dog love into this for?
Speaking of which, I should go pet my pooch.