Oct 22, 2004  |  By: LOU CHIBBARO JR.  | COMMENTS     

The number of senators and House members receiving a top rating of 100 percent on gay and AIDS issues — including many gay-friendly Democrats — dropped nearly 50 percent in the Human Rights Campaign’s latest Congressional Scorecard.

HRC, the nation’s largest gay political group, rates each member of Congress on gay and AIDS related issues in each two-year congressional cycle since at least 1992. The number of the 535 members of Congress receiving a perfect 100 score fell from 196 in 2002 to 97 this year.

In its latest scorecard for the 108th Congress, which it released Oct. 15, HRC set a heavy penalty for lawmakers who voted for a proposed constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage. Most members of Congress with a history of support on gay rights voted against that measure, known as the Federal Marriage Amendment.

But dozens of otherwise gay-supportive Senators and House members lost points from HRC for declining to co-sponsor bills calling for giving immigration rights to same-sex partners of U.S. citizens and expanded Medicaid benefits to people living with HIV.

Many docked over trans pledge
The largest number of gay-friendly and less supportive lawmakers lost points on the scorecard for declining to agree to sign a pledge not to discriminate in the hiring of workers in their congressional offices on the basis of “gender identity and expression” as well as sexual orientation.

In its previous scorecards, HRC limited its congressional office personnel requirement to a pledge not to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation. HRC added the term gender identity and expression as a component to the scorecard last year when transgender rights groups called on HRC to include transgender non-discrimination polices in all of HRC’s congressional lobbying efforts.

Earlier this year, HRC startled some of its allies and supporters when it announced it would no longer support the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, or ENDA, a gay civil rights measure pending in Congress since the early 1990s, unless it included a transgender rights clause.

No senator or House member has yet to introduce a revised version of ENDA to include transgender protection.

“I don’t think this indicates a less supportive Congress,” said Christopher Labonte, HRC’s legislative director. “But I think the baseline has changed. And the baseline for the expectations that the GLBT community has on our public policy makers has been raised,” he said.

“We have legal marriage in Massachusetts, which is historic,” Labonte said. “And we need Congress to continue to recognize that. I think our scorecard is a tool in that educational process.”

Mara Keisling, executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality, said she hoped the ratings drop of about 12 points for not signing the gender identity and expression pledge would prompt lawmakers to think more about transgender issues.

“It is very good for us to be challenging our allies to go further,” she said. “We will work hard in the 109th Congress to get more people to sign these pledges.”

The Permanent Partners Immigration Act, the AIDS Medicaid measure, and the gender identity pledge for congressional staff hiring were new additions to the HRC scorecard, Labonte said.

The PPIA calls for amending an existing U.S. immigration law to provide a means for U.S. citizens and lawful permanent U.S. residents to sponsor their same-sex domestic partners for residence in the U.S. in the same way that citizens married to foreigners do so.

Labonte said HRC assigned a “double weight” to the vote on the proposed constitutional ban on gay marriage, causing lawmakers to lose twice as many points for voting for that measure.

Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, a senator from Massachusetts, retained his 100 score despite not voting on the FMA because of his statements against it.

His running mate, Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina, dropped from a 100 score in 2002 to 66 this year. Edwards lost points because he is not a co-sponsor of the permanent partners bill and did not sign a pledge that he would not discriminate in his office over gender identity or expression.

Other members who did not meet HRC’s new standard on those two items received a 75 score. Edwards score was determined based on his support of six issues, not seven like the other members of Congress. He was not graded on the ...