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Tuesday was a day for Obama to make nice with Lilly Ledbetter the many heterosexual women he's let down. What about the LGBT community? (Photograph: Susan Walsh / AP)
Obama's Epic Fail on Equal Pay: LGBT Need Not Apply?
Executive actions are great. But not when they exclude millions. And especially when they don't live up to promises
Apr 09, 2014
President Obama just announced a couple executive actions intended to close the wage gap between men and women. "Our job's not finished yet," he said at the White House, before signing into law new measures that will make federal contractors enforce limited pay equity rules and that will end certain differences in compensation based on race and gender.
That's good news. The president should sign orders like these, especially on Equal Pay Day - especially in a country where women working full-time make 77 cents for every dollar men do. "In 2014, that's an embarrassment," Obama said. "It's wrong."
You know what else is wrong? That it's not Equal Pay Day for a lot of us, no matter what the White House hype machine says about these measures "expanding opportunity for all" or "ensuring equal pay for women". Not unless you're comfortable with a definition of "all" that means "LGBT need not apply".
Read the rest of this article at The Guardian...
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Nancy Goldstein
Nancy Goldstein is a writer and commentator whose work has appeared in the Guardian, the Washington Post, Salon, the Nation and National Public Radio. She also co-edited The Gender Politics of HIV/Aids in Women (1997)
President Obama just announced a couple executive actions intended to close the wage gap between men and women. "Our job's not finished yet," he said at the White House, before signing into law new measures that will make federal contractors enforce limited pay equity rules and that will end certain differences in compensation based on race and gender.
That's good news. The president should sign orders like these, especially on Equal Pay Day - especially in a country where women working full-time make 77 cents for every dollar men do. "In 2014, that's an embarrassment," Obama said. "It's wrong."
You know what else is wrong? That it's not Equal Pay Day for a lot of us, no matter what the White House hype machine says about these measures "expanding opportunity for all" or "ensuring equal pay for women". Not unless you're comfortable with a definition of "all" that means "LGBT need not apply".
Read the rest of this article at The Guardian...
Nancy Goldstein
Nancy Goldstein is a writer and commentator whose work has appeared in the Guardian, the Washington Post, Salon, the Nation and National Public Radio. She also co-edited The Gender Politics of HIV/Aids in Women (1997)
President Obama just announced a couple executive actions intended to close the wage gap between men and women. "Our job's not finished yet," he said at the White House, before signing into law new measures that will make federal contractors enforce limited pay equity rules and that will end certain differences in compensation based on race and gender.
That's good news. The president should sign orders like these, especially on Equal Pay Day - especially in a country where women working full-time make 77 cents for every dollar men do. "In 2014, that's an embarrassment," Obama said. "It's wrong."
You know what else is wrong? That it's not Equal Pay Day for a lot of us, no matter what the White House hype machine says about these measures "expanding opportunity for all" or "ensuring equal pay for women". Not unless you're comfortable with a definition of "all" that means "LGBT need not apply".
Read the rest of this article at The Guardian...
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