A Senate committee has approved the nomination of an openly gay lawyer to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
The Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee yesterday approved Chai Feldblum, who specializes in workplace equality and helped write the Americans with Disabilities Act, to serve on the commission.
Feldblum is one of two homosexual Obama nominees who’ve stirred up opposition by some right-wingers. Most of the opposition to Feldblum focuses on her speaking approvingly of gay sex. She also had signed a petition that pushed for recognition of, among other things, households that include “more than one conjugal partner.” Before her hearing before the HELP committee, she asked that her signature be removed to avoid perceptions that she supports polygamy.
But her committee hearing went smoothly. She now faces confirmation by the full Senate.
The other appointee is Kevin Jennings, now the director of the Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools. The right, including several Republican lawmakers and the Washington Times editorial page, have blasted Jennings and his history as the director of the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network. Opposition has re-surged a bit after a Times editorial this week claiming that Jennings had once explained fisting and other “gross” sexual practices to 14-year-olds. The editorial also claims Jennings promoted a GLSEN reading list “that made the most explicit sex between children and adults seem normal and acceptable.”
Obama has told the Human Rights Campaign, a gay rights advocacy group, that he will stand by all of his nominees when they’re attacked “not for what they believe but for who they are.”
