Rick Scott Neglects Sexual Orientation, Handicaps, Marital Status In Anti-Discrimination Order

Newly-minted Florida Governor Rick Scott (R) this week signed a narrow non-discrimination executive order that neglects to extend protections based on sexual orientation and identity, handicaps, or marital status.

Gay rights activists, who had earlier lobbied Scott to go above and beyond the existing laws to broaden these assurances, quickly took aim at the scope of the statement.

"Governor Scott's limited view of diversity is very discouraging," said Rand Hoch, president of the Palm Beach County Human Rights Council. "Governor Scott did not even include all of the classifications listed in the Florida Civil Rights Act -- let alone sexual orientation and gender identity."

WonkRoom reports:

The order does not negate the existing Florida law, but acts as a statement of administration policy and intent. "It's a message to us that it's not going to be a gay friendly administration in Tallahassee," Hoch told me in a phone interview and suggested that Scott's order sets the state back decades. The Act was last amended in 1992 to prohibit discrimination against marital status -- a protection Scott did not include.

Scott, who has been bombarded for his questionable past as a CEO of a scandal-plagued hospital chain and his proposed agenda on issues such as unemployment and education, had made his opposition to gay rights somewhat of a recurring theme during his campaign.

He infamously took a shot at GOP primary opponent Bill McCollum for his ties to supposedly "'pro-homosexual rights" presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani and favored the continuation of a Florida law that prohibited gay couples from adopting children, a statute that has since been stricken down.

The St. Petersburg Times reports on a specific question from a gubernatorial debate between Scott and then-Democratic candidate Alex Sink:

"What I believe is marriage is between a man and a woman. ... I believe that children are raised in a more healthy environment if they are raised by a married couple," said Scott when asked in Wednesday's debate whether he thought homosexuality is immoral.

Comments

[robertradliff]

11:50 PM on 01/19/2011

Good job Florida.
....Useless piece of criminal $H!+

I can't believe my dear state voted for this dense, dirty, heartless, skeletal, dingbat.
Where are the 700,000 jobs, Mr. Scott?????????

[Zeiq the Pyro]

06:28 PM on 01/11/2011

I loath this Lex Luthor wannabe with every fiber of my being. 2014 cannot come fast enough.

[tangelan]

10:45 PM on 01/08/2011

As a native Floridian, I can say that Florida deserves everything it gets. Do you expect any better behavior from a known criminal?

[TheIndependenceParty]

05:51 PM on 01/08/2011

Now, Floridians, ... you see the man for what he is.

[Skeetshooter]

04:17 PM on 01/08/2011

Time to start the recall.

[Nat Irvin]

04:02 PM on 01/08/2011

...Well Floridians, you elected Mr. Scott...he has made his move...I wonder what will be your move...?

[Fretslayer]

12:51 PM on 01/08/2011

Here's the fun question!

Since Rick Scott (a known criminal currently under investigation) now has a throne and political army behind him...

How long do you guys think it'll be before he gets the current investigation against him shut down?

[tangelan]

10:29 PM on 01/08/2011

He's currently under investigation? I hadn't heard that.

[PWM]

05:27 PM on 01/19/2011

His part in the investigation is kind of on the back burner since he pled the 5th 75 times on the stand.

He is hiding a great deal.

[wforvendetta]

10:18 AM on 01/08/2011

Governor Gollum looks like he just stepped out of a Carl Hiaasen novel. When will Superman save us Floridians from the Sunshine State's Lex Luthor?

[Peanut Santiago]

11:05 PM on 01/08/2011

Lex Luther. Yea. I KNEW Scott reminded me of somebody.

The other guy he reminds me of was caught in the Watergate Burglary. What's his name?
Was it LIddy? LIbby? (not sure)

Scott is creepy looking. I never liked his looks from day one....like a humanoid robot or something. Or a CIA hit man.

[wforvendetta]

10:16 AM on 01/08/2011

"Rick Scott belongs in a prison cell, not the governor's mansion." -- Dick Morris, Fox News

[RicOShea]

12:14 PM on 01/08/2011

F & F!

[standish]

03:12 AM on 01/08/2011

I recently brought my elderly mom down to Florida to spend the winter at her condo in one of the endless 55+ communities in the state. Many, no most, of her friends here are elderly (mid-80s) who exist on their Medicare payouts for their illnesses and have handicap licenses because of the inevitible ailments that afflict the advanced elderly. AND THEY ALL VOTED FOR THIS MAN. Can someone please explain this to me? No, they don't have dementia, either, so no wisecracks.

[Turtlenewz]

04:06 AM on 01/08/2011

Do they watch Fox News???

[medicontheedge]

04:36 AM on 01/08/2011

BINGO!

[garystartswithg]

06:43 AM on 01/08/2011

The best part is fox news pays graft to keep the public tvs on fox 24/7. They don't even have to request it.

[TheIndependenceParty]

05:55 PM on 01/08/2011

You are there. Ask them. I believe the world can seem very frightening to the elderly but in this instance they literally elected a man whose corporation jeopardized the future of their Medicare coverage. Senility is not the only risk to the elderly. Left to the echo chamber of community room at the retirement center, ... they come up with all the wrong answers.

[eddiefi]

02:11 AM on 01/08/2011

It is just amazing to look around the country and see the people that have been elected to run our country. I mean Scott had to pay one of the largest penalties ever for fraud, congressmen skipping their swearing in to attend a fundraiser, the governor of Arizona making her statement by showing how tough she is going to be by telling patients who need transplants that there is not enough money in the budget when they could just quit subsidizing the Univ of Arizona's travel expenses for their basketball team to keep the program alive. All of these people so obsessed with hating Obama that they don't want to work on the real issues that are needed to be fixed in this country. Instead of Obama's election helping the country as it should have it has just given so many people an opportunity to show their racism that they have hid so well over the years.

[Peanut Santiago]

03:00 AM on 01/08/2011

I live in Florida and I KNEW Scott was BAD news.

What can I do? The conservative sheeple put him in office.

I just do NOT like the looks of him. He looks like a CIA hit man. Creepy. Heck, I would even take Jeb Bush back if we could get rid of this guy.

[Turtlenewz]

04:10 AM on 01/08/2011

You can try to get democratic and Independent voters that did not vote to the polls next time

[SalesmanForLife]

10:45 PM on 01/07/2011

To our neighbors in Florida...probably not on HP but in anycase....you voted him in with all the obvious signs which indicate this man is going to create a little havana of repub hammock swinging. I hope you gather enough umph to make his tenure noisy with your action.

[SensibleJoe]

10:16 PM on 01/07/2011

Simply put, Rick Scott is a criminal cheat who shouldn't be in office for all the money he's bilked the government out of. His past clearly shows he has no business speaking of morality, unless it's in the context of changing his own ways and making amends for all the dishonest, immoral things he's done to enrich himself and buy his way into public office.

[chicagurl]

02:38 AM on 01/08/2011

But it doesn't seem like he hid anything from the voters in getting elected. They CHOSE him and voted him in. In this case, it says more about Florida voters than this guy.

[Turtlenewz]

04:10 AM on 01/08/2011

Yup

[FunkyP]

12:06 PM on 01/08/2011

He hid the reasons that he cited the fifth amendment numerous times during testimony regarding his company's fraudulent activities. He refused to address the issue during the campaign and backed out of a debate which may have shown his dissembling to a wider population.
But, yes, Floridians allowed their votes to be bought, and now chickens are coming home to roost.
Florida voters are among the nation's most misinformed.

[alicam]

09:23 PM on 01/07/2011

I keep thinking of what Wanda Sykes said on the Chris Rock Show when Florida screwed up the first election of W, "F*&@ Florida". Let's just slice its behind right off the United States. All the voters down there need a class on ethics and voter responsibilities.

[FunkyP]

12:16 PM on 01/08/2011

You read a lot into the comment that the comment did not contain.

Nobody remembers that Florida was guilty of civil rights violations by purging 'convicted felons' from the voter roles violating the rights of legal voters who had the same or similar names to convicted felons.
The commission's report found that voter disenfranchisement was "widespread" and that state and county officials, including Bush and Secretary of State Katherine Harris, "failed to fulfill their duties in a manner that would prevent this disenfranchisement."

The report said "countless unknown eligible voters" were wrongfully turned away from the polls or purged from voter registration lists because of procedures and practices used by election officials.
http://articles.cnn.com/2001-06-08/politics/florida.vote_1_black-voters-ineligible-voters-voter-disenfranchisement?_s=PM:ALLPOLITICS
There were riots from Republican operatives, shipped in from out of state, demanding the recount be halted and Bush be declared the winner.
Then the Supreme Court stopped the recount, and appointed Bush President.
So, no, that is not what the people voted for. We will never know what the people voted for.

[tangelan]

10:33 PM on 01/08/2011

That sounds like projecting. Comparing both sides, which one's rights are actually being violated?

[odinfellow]

11:15 PM on 01/07/2011

Not all of us.