Romney's VP pick is one of the worst homophobes in DC

by Mike Andrew - SGN Staff Writer

Representative Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), selected last week as Mitt Romney's vice presidential running mate, has one of the most anti-Gay voting records in Congress. To call it dismal would be charitable.

According to the ACLU, Ryan 'holds almost uniformly harmful views on five key civil liberties issues including a humane immigration policy, LGBT equality, reproductive rights, torture and indefinite detention, and fair voting access.'

The HRC gave Ryan a zero rating on its most recent Congressional Scorecard, indicating no support whatsoever for pro-LGBT legislation.

Ryan has worked long and hard to earn his reputation as one of Congress's most anti-Gay members.

In 1999, during his first term, Ryan voted to bar same-sex couples from adopting children in the District of Columbia, over which Congress has administrative oversight.

In 2003, Ryan voted for the Marriage Protection Act, which would have barred federal courts from considering the constitutionality of DOMA and possibly overturning it.

Ryan twice voted in support of the failed Federal Marriage Amendment to make discrimination against same-sex couples part of the U.S. Constitution - once in 2004 and again in 2006.

Ryan also voted No on the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act in 2009.

And in 2011, Ryan voted against repealing 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell.'

In the one case in which Ryan is on record as supporting LGBT rights - his vote for ENDA (the Employment Non-Discrimination Act) in 2007 - his performance was ambiguous.

In the complex maneuvering before the final up-or-down vote on the bill, Ryan voted for a Republican-sponsored 'motion to recommit' - in other words, to kill ENDA for the session by sending it back to committee without a vote.

Only after that motion was defeated did he switch to supporting the bill.

The 2007 version of ENDA, which passed the House but was not taken up in the Senate, included protections only for sexual orientation. Ryan has not said what he thinks about the current version, which covers both sexual orientation and gender identity, but Romney opposes it.

As the ACLU pointed out in its statement, LGBT folks are not Ryan's only target. For example, Ryan voted against the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009, which made it easier for women who are victims of paycheck discrimination to sue their employers.

'Paul Ryan may end up a heartbeat away from the presidency but he'll be light years from civil liberties,' said Anthony D. Romero, ACLU executive director.

'Paired with Romney's already abysmal record on civil liberties, Ryan's positions only take this ticket further from the vision of our founding fathers.'

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