[StarfishKey]

There is no good reason this is not a part of statewide Florida mandate by now. To deny the basic civil rights of tax-paying American citizens is un-American. But the Keys is leading the way - again.

Raschein files bill to protect LGBT workers | KeysNews.com

[macrodome2]

They're just asking to be treated "equally". I don't think I've ever read about someone being fired for being a heterosexual, or being refused services because they were a heterosexual. IMHO, the people discriminating against the LGBT community are no different from the ones that discriminated against the African-American community prior to the 60s. Could you imagine a African-American couple being denied a wedding cake because they are African-American?

[SDPMiami]

IMO, a private company should be able to hire and fire whoever they want for whatever reason they want. I don't care for this legislation.

[hpotterfan77]

Originally Posted by SDPMiami

IMO, a private company should be able to hire and fire whoever they want for whatever reason they want. I don't care for this legislation.

A private company is not above federal law...or state law for that matter. In these here United States, the government, for the most part, protects us from people like yourself. No one should be fired for who they are and how they are born...period.

[macrodome2]

Originally Posted by SDPMiami

IMO, a private company should be able to hire and fire whoever they want for whatever reason they want. I don't care for this legislation.

So if they only want to hire white males between the ages of 22 and 30, OK with you. Nothing like pushing back civil rights by 60 years or so.

[SDPMiami]

Originally Posted by macrodome2

So if they only want to hire white males between the ages of 22 and 30, OK with you. Nothing like pushing back civil rights by 60 years or so.

Yes why not? It's a private business. just like letting someone in your house. I can choose based on any arbitrary criteria I want so why not for my private business?

I find laws that apinge on that right a fundamental violation of liberty to do what you please with your own property.

[Bobdreamz]

Originally Posted by SDPMiami

IMO, a private company should be able to hire and fire whoever they want for whatever reason they want. I don't care for this legislation.

Really? For any reason at all?
Anyways Miami Dade county has had a Human Rights Ordinance since 1998 and another 21 counties have similar laws already. Stop dragging your feet Florida and get with the program.

[macrodome2]

Originally Posted by SDPMiami

Yes why not? It's a private business. just like letting someone in your house. I can choose based on any arbitrary criteria I want so why not for my private business?

I find laws that apinge on that right a fundamental violation of liberty to do what you please with your own property.

WOW!

[StarfishKey]

Originally Posted by SDPMiami

Yes why not? It's a private business. just like letting someone in your house. I can choose based on any arbitrary criteria I want so why not for my private business?

I find laws that apinge on that right a fundamental violation of liberty to do what you please with your own property.

Hitler was a great lover of what you call liberty. So was the KKK.

Private business has regulation - to protect the CITIZENS of this nation from corporate interest, and corporate greed. They cannot indiscriminately harm our environment. They cannot indiscriminately harm our economy. And they cannot indiscriminately harm our citizens.

Such business regulation is in the best interest of our nation, and of the long-term preservation of our economy, as well as our national security. When American businesses at large discriminate against certain groups in particular over and over again, it puts us in a terrible PR situation, making it difficult to gain the trust of other nations, to enter into treaties with them, and to protect us from the scrutiny of their citizens whom might seek to crush as a nation (either through terrorist attacks or through more formal calls of war). If our nation's overall culture is seen as bullying and cultivating callousness to the concepts of civil rights, it makes it hard for us to garner support from allies when we really need it for various issues. Our values must be centered around protecting our own citizens, above protecting business interests.

The fact is, people who use these arguments love to speak as though this is a level playing field, as if we live in a vacuum and discrimination can and does happen to everybody equally. But in the realm of 98% of all discrimination by those in power (the businesses) in the US has historically been, and is currently, directed against women, people of color, people who are LGBTQ, people who are disabled, people who are poor, people who are non-Christian, and other groups who are disenfranchised for not being part of the rich WASP male sector. It happens in shockingly disproportionate numbers. And that is one of the central values of our nation, and upon which our country was founded: to protect the weak against the brutal strength of the strong, so that every citizen may rise up and use our Constitution to have an equal voice, even in the face of tremendous opposing forces.

We now look back on history and generally speaking, praise the legislative changes that brought about property and voting rights for women; protection of employment for women, disabled, and all people of color or minority religions; and protection of housing for those same groups. Although there are always going to be people on C-D who are the type who wish none of those people had any rights at all, the majority of our nation agrees that this is PROGRESS, and that social progress is a good thing - both for our citizens, and for our economy.

Protecting tax-paying citizens is exactly what our government was founded for. It serves no other purpose, and has no other intrinsic value, from an idealistic standpoint anyway. So there is very little to think about in that equal rights belong to all. Our nation does not allow any employer to fire an employee due simply to their sex, race, religion, or value system, where those things do not impede in any way on the performance of their job. So too - it is quite obvious - should be a protection on an employee's sex life and innate romantic attractions to others.

Moreover, it should, as a matter of course, be illegal to prevent a US citizen from acquiring housing, or to throw them out of their current housing, or to deny them a mortgage, etc., based solely on their sexuality or gender presentation.

The banks should not have more say in who has rights in this nation, than do the citizens themselves. Nor should the landlords, nor the cake bakers, nor the church leaders, etc. The average, ordinary, everyday citizen should be as entitled to protection as any one of these moneymaking entities. And they do not have the legal right, according to the Constitution, to impinge on the rights of citizens with their belief system. You cannot murder people in your neighborhood just because your god says so. And you also cannot deny them employment or housing, which are fundamental human rights for a person to seek and to earn at will. This should have been written into our federal law a long time ago, but Florida should not be dragging its feet to the realization, as it does to so many other civil rights issues. Florida shows again and again that the culture of the state is to care more about the source of money, than the well-being of individual citizens.

Thanks to initiatives like is being brought about by our Keys representative (who is Republican by the way), we could change that.

[Bobdreamz]

Originally Posted by StarfishKey

Hitler was a great lover of what you call liberty. So was the KKK.

Private business has regulation - to protect the CITIZENS of this nation from corporate interest, and corporate greed. They cannot indiscriminately harm our environment. They cannot indiscriminately harm our economy. And they cannot indiscriminately harm our citizens.

Such business regulation is in the best interest of our nation, and of the long-term preservation of our economy, as well as our national security. When American businesses at large discriminate against certain groups in particular over and over again, it puts us in a terrible PR situation, making it difficult to gain the trust of other nations, to enter into treaties with them, and to protect us from the scrutiny of their citizens whom might seek to crush as a nation (either through terrorist attacks or through more formal calls of war). If our nation's overall culture is seen as bullying and cultivating callousness to the concepts of civil rights, it makes it hard for us to garner support from allies when we really need it for various issues. Our values must be centered around protecting our own citizens, above protecting business interests.

The fact is, people who use these arguments love to speak as though this is a level playing field, as if we live in a vacuum and discrimination can and does happen to everybody equally. But in the realm of 98% of all discrimination by those in power (the businesses) in the US has historically been, and is currently, directed against women, people of color, people who are LGBTQ, people who are disabled, people who are poor, people who are non-Christian, and other groups who are disenfranchised for not being part of the rich WASP male sector. It happens in shockingly disproportionate numbers. And that is one of the central values of our nation, and upon which our country was founded: to protect the weak against the brutal strength of the strong, so that every citizen may rise up and use our Constitution to have an equal voice, even in the face of tremendous opposing forces.

We now look back on history and generally speaking, praise the legislative changes that brought about property and voting rights for women; protection of employment for women, disabled, and all people of color or minority religions; and protection of housing for those same groups. Although there are always going to be people on C-D who are the type who wish none of those people had any rights at all, the majority of our nation agrees that this is PROGRESS, and that social progress is a good thing - both for our citizens, and for our economy.

Protecting tax-paying citizens is exactly what our government was founded for. It serves no other purpose, and has no other intrinsic value, from an idealistic standpoint anyway. So there is very little to think about in that equal rights belong to all. Our nation does not allow any employer to fire an employee due simply to their sex, race, religion, or value system, where those things do not impede in any way on the performance of their job. So too - it is quite obvious - should be a protection on an employee's sex life and innate romantic attractions to others.

Moreover, it should, as a matter of course, be illegal to prevent a US citizen from acquiring housing, or to throw them out of their current housing, or to deny them a mortgage, etc., based solely on their sexuality or gender presentation.

The banks should not have more say in who has rights in this nation, than do the citizens themselves. Nor should the landlords, nor the cake bakers, nor the church leaders, etc. The average, ordinary, everyday citizen should be as entitled to protection as any one of these moneymaking entities. And they do not have the legal right, according to the Constitution, to impinge on the rights of citizens with their belief system. You cannot murder people in your neighborhood just because your god says so. And you also cannot deny them employment or housing, which are fundamental human rights for a person to seek and to earn at will. This should have been written into our federal law a long time ago, but Florida should not be dragging its feet to the realization, as it does to so many other civil rights issues.Florida shows again and again that the culture of the state is to care more about the source of money, than the well-being of individual citizens.

Thanks to initiatives like is being brought about by our Keys representative (who is Republican by the way), we could change that.

Starfishkey I Underlined you above because honestly I don't feel Florida is a very discriminatory state but you have people in this state who are more interested in money and how laws affect businesses than they do what is fair & right.