You have to give Family Research Council Senior Fellow Peter Sprigg some points for honesty. Usually those who oppose the Employment Nondiscrimination Act are not so frank about why they really oppose ENDA: because they simply want to tell society that LGBT people are immoral.
Here's Peter talking to radio host Janet Mefferd:
[SOURCE: Janet Mefferd Show; 7/17/13]
Um actually, Peter, ENDA is about judging an employee by his or her qualifications, skills set, and work performance rather than his or her sexual orientation or gender identity. ENDA stops employers from being able to nakedly discriminate against an LGBT employee or potential hire simply because of that employer's personally-held condemnations. ENDA makes our workplaces stronger, which is why so many top American employers stand in support of this legislation. And ENDA does not strip any employer of the freedom to hold such objections—it simply says that the standard for hiring or not firing must be higher than this kind of wanton morality test.
But this nondsicrimination standard is precisely the problem. The bottom line is that Peter Sprigg wants to discriminate against LGBT people. He, a person who has gone public with his preference for "exporting" gays from the United States and imposing criminal sanctions on homosexuality, seems to believe that the American workplace is stronger if it has fewer LGBT people in it. And since he knows this, his blatant desire to discriminate, comes across as nasty as it really is, he knows he has to spin his view so that LGBT people seem like the ones playing offense. To do this, he claims that we on the right side of fairness are pushing some kind of imposition, even though all we are trying to "impose" is a fair and equitable workplace standard—one that mirrors protections already in place on the basis of race, religion, sex, etc.
What Peter Sprigg wants is the sort of invidious discrimination that has always weakened us as a people and divided us as a nation. It's refreshing to hear him be so candid about his self-centered drive to fire a top doctor who chooses to put a picture of his husband on his desk or not hire a qualified fast food worker who casually mentions that her girlfriend is waiting in the car. But while the frank admission is welcome, the motivation behind it and the chilling worldview attached are both are both shocking to hear in 2013. It's time we do something about it.