Hundreds of people gather in front of the Kansas statehouse in Topeka, Kan., on Saturday Feb. 14, 2015, to rally against actions by Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback that took away protections based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Photo: Chris Neal, The Topeka Capital-Journal (AP)

Hundreds of people gather in front of the Kansas statehouse in Topeka, Kan., on Saturday Feb. 14, 2015, to rally against actions by Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback that took away protections based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Photo: Chris Neal, The Topeka Capital-Journal (AP)

TOPEKA, Kan. — Hundreds of people chanted and held signs Saturday at the Kansas Statehouse in a Valentine’s Day protest against Republican Gov. Sam Brownback’s decision to end legal protections against discrimination for LGBT workers in state government.

Gay rights advocates promised to push for an expansion of a Kansas law barring discrimination in housing, public accommodations and private employment to protect LGBT residents. They also called for renewed political activism against Brownback, who narrowly won a second, four-year term in November, and his conservative GOP allies.

The rally was prompted by Brownback’s decision this week to rescind a predecessor’s executive order prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity in hiring or employment decisions in much of state government.

The earlier order was issued in August 2007 by then-Gov. Kathleen Sebelius – a Democrat who later served as President Barack Obama’s health secretary – and applied to agencies under the governor’s direct control.

Brownback acted less than three months after federal courts cleared the way for gay marriage in parts of the state, despite a ban on same-sex marriage in the Kansas Constitution. The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to decide this summer whether all states must allow same-sex marriages.

The rally drew about 600 people, and speakers accused Brownback of moving the state backward and showing disdain for gays, lesbians, bisexuals and the transgendered. One activist, Davis Hammett, a founder of the Equality House in Topeka, called Brownback’s move “a sick piece of policy.”

The state’s anti-discrimination law does not cover bias based on sexual orientation or gender identity – and such an expansion appears unlikely to win approval from the GOP-dominated Legislature. Brownback said Sebelius acted “unilaterally” in imposing such a policy in state government.

“If you’re going to do something like that, you need to engage the people’s elected representatives, which would be the Legislature,” Brownback spokeswoman Eileen Hawley said Saturday. “This is not something to be done unilaterally by executive fiat.”

Continue reading →