The US transportation secretary, Pete Buttigieg, has delivered an emotional appeal for Republicans to support a law protecting same-sex marriage as it heads for the Senate. Appearing on CNN’s State of the Union, Buttigieg – the first openly gay cabinet secretary – was asked about dismissive remarks about the Respect for Marriage Act, which also protects interracial marriage, made by Marco Rubio, a Florida senator. “If he’s got time to fight against Disney, I don’t know why he wouldn’t have time to help safeguard marriages like mine,” Buttigieg said. “I don’t know why this will be hard for a senator or a congressman,” Buttigieg said.
Tapper: Rubio called the bill a stupid waste of time Buttigieg: If he has time to fight against Disney, I don’t know why he wouldn’t have time to safeguard marriages like mine pic.twitter.com/GdaFII7v5R
Last month, Republican Senators. Marco Rubio of Florida, Mike Lee of Utah, Mike Braun of Indiana, and Josh Hawley of Missouri, wrote to Jeff Bezos demanding an explanation of why When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Moment was no longer for sale on Amazon. In a response seen by TheWall Street Journal, Amazon exec Brian Huseman wrote: “We have chosen not to sell books that frame LGBTQ+ identity as a mental illness.” The senators haven’t commented on the response, but whined in their initial letter that book’s removal was a message “to conservative Americans that their views are not welcome on its platforms.”
Rubio, Hawley, and Cruz. The usual anti-LGBT insurrectionist suspects.
Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairman Reince Priebus has canceled the next GOP Presidential debate with MSNBC scheduled February claiming that NBC’s partner network CNBC asked questions that “weren’t fair” to the Republican candidates.
I write to inform you that pending further discussion between the Republican National Committee (RNC) and our presidential campaigns, we are suspending the partnership with NBC News for the Republican primary debate at the University of Houston on February 26, 2016. The RNC’s sole role in the primary debate process is to ensure that our candidates are given a full and fair opportunity to lay out their vision for America’s future. We simply cannot continue with NBC without full consultation with our campaigns.
The CNBC network is one of your media properties, and its handling of the debate was conducted in bad faith. We understand that NBC does not exercise full editorial control over CNBC’s journalistic approach. However, the network is an arm of your organization, and we need to ensure there is not a repeat performance…
I have tremendous respect for the First Amendment and freedom of the press. However, I also expect the media to host a substantive debate on consequential issues important to Americans. CNBC did not.
Speaking Thursday in Colorado, Ben Carson decried the “gotcha” questions of the CNBC debate.
Marco Rubio used the debate to go after the “mainstream media” on FOX News of course. “I don’t think it’s atypical from what you see among most people in the mainstream media, which is privately they believe they’re smarter than the people running, and they can’t wait for their chance to show off in front of their buddies by asking some question they think is going to embarrass us, especially Republicans,” said Rubio.
But let’s be honest. Ben Carson brazenly lied about his disturbing ties to Mannatech, a nutritional-supplement company that’s paid millions to settle lawsuits about its fraudulent claims. Donald Trump lied when he said, “I was not at all critical” of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg for his efforts to advance comprehensive immigration reform and widen the H-1B visa program. Carly Fiorina lied when she claimed 92 percent of those who lost jobs in President Obama’s first term were women. Marco Rubio lied when he charged the media ignored evidence that Hillary Clinton was a “liar” at last week’s absurd Benghazi hearing.
This is the REAL reason why the GOP Presidential candidates are upset.
Because being busted in outright lies on national television is SO UNFAIR.
On CBS’s Face the Nation Sunday, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio stated that while he does not support same-sex marriage, he also doesn’t believe sexual orientation is a “choice.”
Said Rubio:
“I don’t believe same-sex marriage is a constitutional right. I also don’t believe that your sexual preferences are a choice for the vast enormous majority of people. The bottom line is I believe that sexual preference is something that people are born with.”
Watch Rubio’s answer on this and a question on climate change below.
Spurred on by Tony Perkins (pictured above) and his extreme right-wing funded hate group the Family Research Council a dozen Republican senators have introduced a bill called the Marriage and Religious Freedom Act that would bar the government from denying any person or group tax-exempt status for exercising their so-called “religious beliefs” and would give ANY “non-profit” group a ‘license to discriminate’ against LGBT individuals.
“Religious freedom is a foundation principle to our great nation, and it’s something that Louisianians and folks across the country cherish — including the millions of Americans, like myself, who support traditional marriage,” Sen. David Vitter, R-La.,and co-sponsor of the bill. “But, for a number of reasons, this basic freedom is under attack by the current administration. This bill will protect groups from administrative attacks, such as additional hurdles with taxes or obtaining federal grants or contracts.” (Yes. This is the SAME David Vitter whose “Family Values” were exposed back in 2007, when it was revealed that he had been involved in a high-profile prostitution ring in Washington D.C.)
Vitter is an original co-sponsor of the bill wriiten by Senator Mike Lee R-UT (and Mormon) along with Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., and Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Okla.
The Washington Blade is reporting that Florida Sen. Marco Rubio (R) and a little blue slip of paper are the only things standing in the way of advancing openly out gay Judge William Thomas for a seat on the US District Court for the Southern District of Florida.
Thomas would be the first black out male judge to sit on a Federal bench. (the first out gay black judge was Deborah Batts, appointed by President Clinton in 1994.)
When comes to senate confirmations of Presidential appointees to the bench, senators on the judiciary committee are not the only ones who get to weigh in. Senators from a nominee’s home state are involved and provided with “blue slips” they must then submit in order for the confirmation process to continue and Rubio has been holding back his slip without explanation.
Now LGBT groups and others are calling for movement on Thomas’ nomination. The Washington Blade reports:
Fred Sainz, vice president of communications for the Human Rights Campaign, is among those calling for Rubio to take action.
“He should return the blue slip and allow this well-qualified jurist to get confirmed by the U.S. Senate,” Sainz said. “The federal district court system is already backlogged. There’s no good reason why justice should be further delayed when Judge Thomas is ready, willing and able to serve.”
Gee, I wonder what kind of problem Marco Rubio has helping to get a gay black judge seated on southern Florida’s US Disctrict Court bench?
Marco Rubio hates to be called bigot and denies that he is one. But if anyone ever needed any concrete proof to prove that he is today is the day he provided.
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) threatened that he will rescind his support for the Senate Gang of Eight immigration bill he co-authored if it contains a provision allowing gay undocumented immigrants to claim foreign same-sex partners as family. Once again trying to use the GOP strong-arm tactic of threatening to kill the dream of immigration to hundreds of thousands people because of his his and the GOP’s hate of the LGBT community.
“If this bill has something in it that gives gay couples immigration rights and so forth, it kills the bill. I’m done,” Rubio said Thursday
And if that’s not enough proof of what a hateful bigot Rubio is, on the same day ThinkProgress spoke with the Florida Senator at the annual Faith and Freedom Forum on Thursday and asked him about the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), a bill to make discrimination against LGBT individuals illegal across the country and showed no willingness to help protect LGBT workers from discrimination. “I’m not for any “special protections” based on orientation,” Rubio said
KEYES: The Senate this summer is going to be taking up the Employment Non-Discrimination Act which makes it illegal to fire someone for being gay. Do you know if you’ll be supporting that?
RUBIO: I haven’t read the legislation. By and large I think all Americans should be protected but I’m not for any special protections based on orientation.
KEYES: What about on race or gender?
RUBIO: Well that’s established law.
KEYES: But not for sexual orientation?
29 states now have no laws protecting gay and lesbian workers from discrimination in the workplace, and an additional five states don’t protect workers based on gender identity.
The fact that he would walk away from his own immigration bill, his own people if it included protection for gay bi-national couples should tell not only Hispanic voters and the world what a cretinous bigot Marco Rubio actually is.
During his parching SOTU response speech, GOP Sen. Marco Rubio made a big deal about his “blue-collar neighbors” and “still living in the same working class neighborhood (he) I grew up in.”
Well turns out that Rubio’s neighborhood is only blue-collar if you compare it to Mitt Romneys.
Rubio who lives in an upscale Knots Landing cul-de-sac has recently put his humble shack on the market for $650,000.00 and the only blue-collar workers are the gardeners and housekeepers in his McMansions hood.
