Queer Quote: Speaker Boehner Lies About ENDA (Again)

Speaker John Boehner has been under increasing pressure to allow a vote in the U.S. House of Representatives on the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) since the measure passed the United States Senate recently. Boehner's response to LGBT advocates calling for leguslative action to outlaw anti-LGBT workplace discrimination has generally been to lie about what the law does.

He was asked about ENDA on Thursday and repeated his false statements on the bill, which is today's Queer Quote:

I am opposed to discrimination of any kind — in the workplace and any place else. But I think this legislation — that I have dealt with as chairman of the Education Workforce Committee long before I was back in the leadership — is unnecessary and would provide a basis for frivolous lawsuits. People are already protected in the workplace. I am opposed to continuing this.

Listen, I understand people have different opinions on this issue, and I respect those opinions. But as someone who has worked in the employment law area for all of my years in the statehouse and all of my years here, I see no basis or no need for this.

It must be repeated that this statement is simply not true, and that if Speaker Boehner really believes this is a true statement, then he must be an idiot. The fact is that 29 states do not have laws that protect LGBT people from being fired based on their sexual orientation or gender identity. Since it is probably not the case that Boehner has risen to be second in line to become President of the United States while being an idiot, one can only conclude that Speaker Boehner is deliberately repeating a lie in order to deflect attention from the call to allow a vote on ENDA.