Jeb Bush backs anti-discrimination laws despite his party opposing them
Jeb Bush appears to have split from the Republican viewpoint on LGBT rights – backing non-discrimination laws that his own party has fervently opposed.
Despite the Supreme Court ruling in favour of same-sex marriage, you can still be fired for being gay in a huge number of states.
Last year Republicans in Congress killed the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, a bill that would have protected LGBT workers, after refusing to allow it to come to a vote.
However, despite his own party being to blame for stopping ENDA and state-level equivalents, Republican Presidential wannabe Jeb Bush says he now actually supports anti-discrimination laws on a state level.
TIME magazine reports that when asked about the issue during a Q&A, Bush said: “I don’t think you should be discriminated because of your sexual orientation. Period. Over and out.”
He continued: “The fact that there wasn’t a law doesn’t necessarily mean you would have been discriminated against.”
Referring to a florist who disagrees with same-sex marriage, he says:”you should be obligated to sell them flowers, doing otherwise would be discriminatory”.
However, he did not go as far as backing a federal law.
The former Governor of Florida said: “I think this should be done state-by-state, I totally agree with that.”
It comes after the Republican stopped short of calling for any meaningful action in his statement on the Supreme Court ruling on same-sex marriage.
He has also backed transgender people in the military, claiming: “If you can accommodate people who are transgendered and deal with making sure the military’s comfortable with this and making sure that the overriding principle ought to be how do we create the highest morale for the greatest fighting force the world has ever seen… and if you can accommodate those two concerns, then fine.”
His pro-LGBT statements put him at odds with the more hardline Republicans.
