PHOTO: Bruce Jenner agitatedly telling Dain Sawyer he is "asexual, for now," and he will not be a "lesbian woman" after his transition, even though he will physically be a woman who was previously a man that had a heterosexual sexual orientation. (At approx. 1:44) Jenner told Dianne Sawyer that he was a Christian Republican and "This is my cause in life -- this is why God put me on Earth -- to deal with this issue," by helping transgendered children. Jenner agreed with Dianne that he should do this by lobbying his Christian, conservative, Republican friends to pass laws protecting transgendered individuals from discrimination. (At approx. 1:31) See previous post Bruce Jenner comes out as asexual transgender woman Christian conservative Republican (4/15/15).
The fact that Bruce Jenner is a Christian Republican conservative fits perfectly with the strategy of Tim Gill for gay rights activism after gay marriage rights are won -- that is lobby state legislatures to pass antidiscrimination laws that protect lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender LGBT workers from being fired by a Christian employer who objects to gay marriage on religious grounds.
Tim Gill's gay rights activism strategy after gay marriage rights are won includes getting help from businesses and Republicans, such as former HP CEO Carly Fiorina who often tells other CEO's how it is bad for business to discriminate against LGBT employees. The key motivation for Gill's strategy is that most Americans, who already support gay marriage rights, are unaware that employers can legally fire somebody just because they are gay.
Leading this lobbying effort is Tim Gill's new organization Freedom for All Americans freedomforallamericans.org whose about page says, "Freedom for All Americans is a campaign initiative dedicated to ensuring that every American, regardless of where they live, is protected under the law from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity and expression - without allowing overly broad and harmful religious exemptions that will encourage employers, business owners or others to choose to disregard those protections."
Tim Gills' strategy is detailed in a well written article by Joshua Green, "America's gay corporate warrior: Quark founder Tim Gill is leading a bipartisan effort to bring the struggle for full equality to red states," Bloomberg Businessweek, Apr. 27 - May 3. 2015, p. 64-67, bloomberg.com posted Mar. 24, 2015:
"In 1992, Tim Gill was living a Rocky Mountain version of the familiar tech dream. A sci-fi buff and self-described "pathological introvert," he'd earned degrees in applied mathematics and computer science from the University of Colorado at Boulder and then, in 1981, founded the publishing-software company Quark in his apartment, with a $2,000 loan from his parents. When Quark took off, Gill became rich. He eventually sold his stake for half a billion dollars. But in 1992, he was merely the multimillionaire chairman of a successful tech company.
Gill was also gay. . . .
Then, in 1992, Christian groups in Colorado began pushing a ballot measure, Amendment 2, that would prevent nondiscrimination ordinances against gays and lesbians and repeal those already in effect in Denver, Boulder, and Aspen. "It was a shock," says Gill. What was more shocking, though, was that some of his own employees supported the ban, openly and at work. One of them even placed a "Vote 'Yes' on Amendment 2" sign on her desk. . .
They'll coordinate these efforts through a new organization, Freedom for All Americans, with the goal of building momentum toward federal action. . .
The campaign won't lack for resources. OutGiving brings together the movement's wealthiest donors, collectively worth billions. Gill says he's spent $327 million already and will spend more. The new organization is prepared to spend $100 million in the coming decade. Although persuading elected Republicans won't be easy, he's counting on two new forces to help the cause: major Republican donors, including billionaire hedge fund founders Paul Singer and Dan Loeb, who are full partners in the new endeavour, and corporations and business leaders, such as Amazon.com's Jeff Bezos and Apple's Tim Cook, whose public support for gay rights-and in Cook's case, outspoken criticism of Indiana's law-has helped frame the national debate. . .
A victory on marriage will present gay-rights advocates with a curious challenge. Their campaign has been so high-profile, its recent momentum so swift, and the cultural shift so dramatic that a favorable ruling is certain to be recognized as a landmark advance for civil rights. Activists worry that the public will interpret this to mean that gays and lesbians have secured the same rights and protections as everyone else, when, in fact, that isn't the case. . .
By obstinately pushing the religious freedom law even amid a public outcry, Indiana Governor Mike Pence did something Gill's donor alliance might have spent tens of millions of dollars trying to achieve: He alerted people across the country to a form of discrimination few of them had ever conceived of, thereby helping to fix the problem Gill's strategists had identified in their focus groups. . . "
The importance of Tim Gill's strategy to seek anti-discrimination protection, so that you can get married without being legally fired by a Christian employer who objects to your "lifestyle," is because the majority of Americans believe this is already illegal and can't happen. In fact there is still a large percentage of people who think it should be legal to fire gay employees and in my previous post Rebuilt OSU black cultural center had cross burning in 1976 (4/19/15), I cited an example of lingering anti-gay discrimination by Christians who feel they are victims of gay marriage, as described by a typical letter to the editor published by my local town newspaper's Sunday edition, which is also distributed in the more conservative rural areas surrounding my very liberal eCollege town:
- Chuck Lane, "Gay community should tolerate Christians," Sunday Albany Democrat-Herald and Corvallis Gazette-Times, Apr. 12, 2015, p. A6 - letter writer paints Christians as being victims of intolerant gays because they are demanding equal rights
- Gary Lehman, "Mailbag: Gays and tolerance," democratherald.com posted Apr. 21, 2015 - this letter in reply ran in the Albany city edition and did not appear in the Corvallis newspaper edition.
- Mark Keller, "Real perecution," Sunday Albany Democrat-Herald Corvallis Gazette-Times, Apr. 24, 2015, p. A6 democratherald.com posted Apr. 17, 2015 in reply says, "The LGBT community is the group under persecution in the United States and worldwide by religionists of all strips. Here in the U.S., the conservative Christian community fired the first salvo in this war on gay rights. The LGBT community is merely using the Constitution as a defense tool. They will soon win the war. Perhaps then, Christians in this country can look past their shortsightedness and begin to do something constructive and useful with their time and resources."
Those who think gay marriage rights have been won quickly are ignoring the history of Jack Baker, who got the first decision by the U.S. Supreme court on gay marriage in 1972 that left it up to state law, and the former Oregon State University Professor W. Dorr Legg who went on to become a famous gay activist, Christian Republican and editor of an academic journal that published a discussion on gay marriage in 1953. See my previous posts:
