Kyrsten Sinema Gets More Heat Over Her Support for Filibuster
resistance to reforming the filibuster so that key legislation can move forward.The Senate debated voting rights legislation — designed to override restrictions adopted in several states — into the evening Wednesday, but the bill could not pass because it fell short of the 60-vote threshold needed to break a filibuster, that is, end debate on a measure and move to a vote on the actual bill.
The chamber has now moved into debate on scrapping the filibuster rule, something that is also likely to fail, as two key Democrats in the evenly divided Senate are against such an action — Sinema, who represents Arizona, and Joe Manchin of West Virginia.Sinema, the first out bisexual senator and someone who was once considered progressive, has drawn ire from LGBTQ+ and other liberal groups for her support of the filibuster and her other less-than-liberal actions.
More than 50 LGBTQ+ activists and allies from Arizona issued an open letter Wednesday calling on the Human Rights Campaign, the largest national LGBTQ+ rights group, to urge Sinema to end her backing of the filibuster.They noted that the filibuster stands in the way of not only voting rights legislation but much more, including the Equality Act, which would outlaw anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination nationwide. “While the prospect of convincing 10 Republicans to support this legislation is a nice fantasy, not one single Republican has signed on,” the letter stated.“As a supporter of Senator Sinema, you should be demanding that she champion queer and transgender rights, and that she take any action necessary, including ending the filibuster to get the job done,” it told HRC.
