Gender & Sexuality Law Blog

Late this week the Senate Health, Education, Labor & Pensions Committee voted out in a bundle the Obama Administration’s Nominees to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (as well as nominees to the Corporation for National and Community Service, the National Council on the Humanities, the Rehabilitation Services Administration at the Department of Education and the Women’s Bureau at the Department of Labor).

The nominations now proceed to a vote by the full Senate.   This is good news – we need a fully staffed and functioning EEOC.  Keep an eye out, however, for the Senate debate on one nominee in particular – Georgetown Law Professor Chai Feldblum.  She was given a bit of roughing up in the Committee hearing where she was pressed by several Senators about her views on same-sex marriage, marriage law reform more generally, lgbt sex, and her tolerance toward religion.  Never mind that her testimony before the Committee made special mention of the role of religion and religious tolerance in her own life, and she made a particular effort to distance herself from some advocates’ support of polyamorous relationships/marriage.

Feldblum is a particularly well-qualified nominee to serve as an EEOC Commissioner, about which I have previously blogged.  And the campaign to discredit her has been quite nasty.  I have a post ready to go in which I discuss the politics of this nomination, but I’m holding off until the Senate confirms her and her c0-nominees.  No sense in giving any more attention to her critics and their tactics until the darn thing is over.