Discrimination by a government that's supposed to ensure all are treated equally is the worst kind of betrayal, and should be the main target of our rights struggle - whether it be for the right to serve in the military, for marriage equality (even if approached incrementally through partnerships and civil unions), or for the right to nondiscrimination in federal and state employment.
While sporadic discrimination may exist in the private sector, the much-maligned profit motive is a powerful incentive for private employers to seek the best talent they can find, regardless of anyone's personal prejudices. That's one reason why, in Virginia, a business coalition successfully lobbied the extremely right-wing, anti-gay state legislature to overturn a law forbidding employers from offering partnership benefits, arguing that the measure prevented them from recruiting top employees.
Today, more than 83% of Fortune 500 companies include sexual orientation in their nondiscrimination policies and more than 40% provide domestic partner health benefits, and those percentages keep increasing every year, according to a report by the Human Rights Campaign.
In contrast, this week the Washington Post reported that David Schroer, an extraordinarily well-qualified ex-army ranger, received an offer to be a terrorism research analyst at the Library of Congress - only to have the offer withdrawn when he revealed he would begin work as Diane Schroer after undergoing a long-planned gender change.
If the Library of Congress were a profit-making enterprise, the loss of such a candidate would equal a loss of profit-potential for the owners or stockholders. Not so in government, which is why rules with teeth forbidding discrimination are necessary (as is privatizing as many government services as is practical and letting market incentives drive progress forward).
Unfortunately, discrimination in federal hiring seems to be
heading in the opposite direction, thanks to Office of Special
Counsel head
Scott Bloch, even though the administration itself seems to be
embarrassed
by the situation (yet unwilling to risk the wrath of the religious
right by actually removing Bloch).
--Stephen H. Miller