That from the lips of Randy Thomas of Exodus International, the group that purports to "convert" people from being gay, at the press conference today in opposition to the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), pending in Congress, that would add GLBT people as a protected class to federal employment discrimination laws. Other speakers included Bishop Harry Jackson, FRC president Tony Perkins, and Rick Scarborough, author of Liberalism Kills Kids. There was a lot of overheated rhetoric about the legislation "hijacking the language of the civil rights movement," "dilut[ing] of First Amendment protections of freedom of religion," and being "insanity that will wreck the economy of this country." There was also a lot of very un-Christian mockery of transgendered people. I could go on about the silliness of their arguments -- that they wouldn't be able to fire a lousy employee they didn't even know was gay and be sued under the law, or that a gay person would even want to work at one of their organizations that considers homosexuality a sin -- but, ah, well, that's all pretty obvious. All the reporters in the cramped and steamy room had another question on their mind: which presidential candidate will be endorsed? Short answer: there will be two or three candidates (and one of them won't be Giuliani) who will emerge as contenders for this constituency after the straw poll. --Sarah Posner
