The debate over protections for the LGBT community has spilled over out of individual states and onto the floor of the U.S. Congress, and late last week Georgia’s own freshman Representative Rick Allen put himself right into the mix of things.
Allen began a Republican policy meeting in the U.S. Capitol with a reading from the Bible, Romans 1:18-32 and Revelations 22:18-19. “And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet” reads Romans 1:27, its message toward homosexuality clear.
The verses allegedly left many House Republicans present upset, with one unnamed lawmaker saying succinctly, “It was f—ing ridiculous.”
Indeed, the incident served to fan the flames of what has become a fiercely combative debate, with both conservatives and liberals maneuvering to tack on amendments pertaining to the protection of LGBT individuals with regards to federal contracting to two different spending bills.
In the second bill the amendment, introduced by Democrat Sean Maloney of New York, proved to be a poison pill for a water-energy bill that otherwise had been viewed favorably by most Republicans. The amendment’s language was identical to that which Maloney attached to a military spending bill from earlier in May, when the bill nearly passed but wound up dying on the floor as GOP leaders held the vote open long enough to sway support against it.
House Republicans have accused the Democrats of wrecking the appropriations process by tacking on unnecessary and unrelated amendments. Their Democratic counterparts, in turn, have argued that the Republicans show their true colors by refusing to allow equal protections for LGBT workers. Allen’s comments, which shocked many of the more moderate Republicans in the room, has given fuel to the left’s fire, with Democratic lawmakers and gay rights activists both pointing to the incident as evidence of GOP members continuing to discriminate against homosexuals.
