On Feb. 4, the Kansas Senate committee on Federal and State Affairs voted on Senate Bill 169. The bill passed with a vote of 5-3. Now, Senate Bill 169 will be moved on to the Senate for a full Senate vote.
During the 2009 Legislative Session, Senate Bill 169 was introduced and then passed onto the Federal and State Affairs committee for further consideration. The committee made amendments and passed the bill out for a vote without any other hearings.
Senate Bill 169 is asking to add “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” to the Kansas Act Against Discrimination. This act covers discrimination against “race, religion, color, sex, disability, national origin or ancestry.”
This Kansas Act Against Discrimination is very similar to the Federal Protections Against National Origin Discrimination. In this Act, put together by the United States Department of Justice, also covers Country of Origin discrimination.
Another national group, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has also worked with discrimination issues. According to the EEOC Web site, Eeoc.gov, the U.S. EEOC “is responsible for enforcing federal laws that make it illegal to discriminate against a job applicant or an employee.”
Some discriminatory practices prohibited under the EEOC Federal Equal Employment Opportunity Laws are hiring and firing, compensation, transfer, training and retirement plans. Harassment on the “basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, genetic information or age” is prohibited.
“Sexual orientation” and “gender identity” are defined in a supplemental note put forward by the Federal and State Affairs committee. This note said “sexual orientation” would include “male or female heterosexuality, homosexuality, or bisexuality by inclination, practice or expression.” It also defines “gender identity” as “having or expressing a self-image or identity not traditionally associated with one’s gender.”
Senator Roger Reitz, a Republican senator from Manhattan was on the Federal and State Affairs Committee. When Senate Bill 169 first came to the committee, “the testimony was well accepted,” Reitz said.
The Kansas Human Rights Commission was one organization that provided testimony to the Federal and State Affairs Committee about Senate Bill 169. However, the KHRC only provided neutral testimony.
“We submitted neutral testimony because we are a neutral investigatory body,” said Ruth Glover of the KHRC.
The Kansas Human Rights Commission was asked to testify because the KHRC is in charge of administering the Kansas Act Against Discrimination, Glover said.
According to a supplemental note to Senate Bill 169, the KHRC estimates there will be 50 more complaints generated by Bill 169. The note also said there would be about 320 inquiries.
Even though the bill has made it through the Senate committee votes, there is still a long process ahead. Reitz said if Senate Bill 169 passes through a whole Senate vote, it still needs to get through the House. The process will be similar to what it went through already. The House will have a committee that will look at the bill also. It has already taken a year for Bill 169 to get to a full Senate vote.
Although Senate Bill 169 passed through the Federal and State Affairs Committee, there are some senators who are still opposed to it.
One of those Senators is Dennis Pyle, a Republican from Hiawatha. He was opposed to Senate Bill 169 when it first arrived at the Senate in Jan. 2009. “Adding sexual orientation to the nondiscrimination language is not only offensive to those who have suffered real discrimination but is yet another step of the radical agenda to redefine marriage,” Pyle said.
When asked what his biggest issues with Senate Bill 169 were, Pyle quoted Justice Scalia’s dissenting decision in Lawrence vs. Texas:
“The impossibility of distinguishing homosexuality from other traditional ‘morals’ offenses is precisely why [it was] rejected the rational-basis challenge.”
It will still take time for the entire State Senate to hear testimony and vote on Senate Bill 169.
“This bill will be controversial, no question about it,” Reitz said.
Be the first to comment on this article!