LGBTQ Leaders Call on Senator Sinema to End Filibuster

More than 140 LGBTQ leaders have called on Arizona Senator Kyrsten Sinema to end the longstanding filibuster rule. The Equality Act, a landmark piece of pro-LGBTQ legislation that’s currently stalled in the Senate, will likely be shot down unless the bizarre and antiquated tactic is written out of the Capitol rulebook.

Queer advocates are looking to Sinema, the first openly bisexual senator in U.S. history, to take a stand, but the Senator is hesitating to make any bold moves. The coalition of activists, organizers, and business owners from across the state signed an open letter hoping to persuade their more moderate representative, but Sinema isn’t budging.

The filibuster rule allows any representative to speak for as long as the wish, on any topic of their choosing, in order to shoot down a bill that doesn’t receive three fifths of the chamber’s support. Signers assert that the bizarre practice is an “undemocratic relic of Jim Crow-era racism and minority repression.”

Indeed, the filibuster will once again be utilized to impede social progress if the Equality Act is brought to a vote. The 50/50 Senate will almost definitely not produce the 60 votes necessary to make the bill “filibuster-proof,” with the likelihood of 10 republicans jumping ship being dismally low. The only viable chance to pass the bill that would codify anti-LGBTQ discrimination laws would be to finally bury the filibuster rule once and for all.

Despite being a key co-sponsor of the Equality Act, Sinema seems less than eager to take down the bill’s obvious villain. The senator attempted to explain her stance in an op-ed in the Washington Post last week that defended the filibuster.

“The filibuster compels moderation and helps protect the country from wild swings between opposing policy poles,” Sinema argues. “It is time for the Senate to debate the legislative filibuster, so senators and our constituents can hear and fully consider the concerns and consequences. Hopefully, senators can then focus on crafting policies through open legislative processes and amendments, finding compromises that earn broad support.”

The senator makes points about her own Democratic Party that used the filibuster to block potentially destructive legislation when republicans held majority in the Senate. Her hopes for a bipartisan approach to bills like the Equality Act and the For the People Act (recently blocked by eepublicans), however, lack the proof that any cooperation between the parties would be possible.

The Equality Act has passed through the House twice now in its history, but once again, its fate now rests in the hands of moderate democrat senators like Sinema. Unless these politicians make a swift change in their ideology, it looks like it will be quite a while before we see this legislation brought to the table again.

Dear Kyrsten Sinema: Who the Fuck Is 'We'? https://t.co/owb1Lm7KNm

— @tiffanydcross (@TiffanyDCross) June 23, 2021

These progressive organizations are urging AZ Sen. Kyrsten Sinema to back filibuster reform pic.twitter.com/yZex0zp0RR

— NowThis (@nowthisnews) June 24, 2021