Jefferson City, MO – Earlier today, the Missouri Chamber of Commerce, Missouri Catholic Conference and Associated Industries of Missouri testified against legislation sponsored by Republican Representative Kevin Engler of Farmington that would outlaw discrimination against LGBT Missourians.
In response, Sean Soendker Nicholson, Executive Director of Progress Missouri, issued the following statement:
Right now, Missourians can be fired for being gay. Why are you okay with that?
The bipartisan support for passing the Missouri Nondiscrimination Act is strong, and growing. In the House, Engler is joined by fellow Republicans Anne Zerr, Sheila Solon, Noel Torpey, Casey Guernsey, Chris Molendorp and Ron Hicks in supporting Rep. Stephen Webber’s bill to outlaw discrimination against LGBT Missourians.
“I just think that you just can’t discriminate against people,” said Rep. Nate Walker (R-Kirksville) at the hearing.
Last year, Republican Senators Tom Dempsey, Mike Kehoe, Mike Parson, David Pearce, Gary Romine, David Sater, Rob Schaaf, Ryan Silvey and Wayne Wallingford voted for legislation that including nondiscrimination prohibitions similar to those proposed by Representative Engler.
Testifying in support of Rep. Engler’s HB1930 today were AJ Bockelman of PROMO, a representative from Monsanto and Attorney General Chris Koster’s office.
In their testimony against the Missouri Nondiscrimination Act, the Missouri Catholic Conference expressed support for discriminatory policy similar to legislation recently vetoed by Arizona’s Republican Governor, Jan Brewer. Testimony from the Missouri Chamber’s lobbyist focused on protecting corporations from being sued for discriminating against Missourians.
