House Speaker John Boehner was irked
last week when asked to weigh in on an executive order which
prohibits federal contractors from discriminating against workers on
the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.
President Barack Obama signed the order
on Monday, citing the need to act after broader legislation has
languished in Congress for over 4 decades.
(Related: Obama
on banning gay discrimination: We're on the right side of history.)
While Christian conservatives have
condemned the order – mostly
framing it as an attack on Christians – Republicans have mostly
kept quiet.
When asked Thursday by the HuffPost if
he had any reaction to the president's order, Boehner answered:
“Nope.”
“The president signs a lot of
executive orders,” he said during his weekly briefing.
When asked in a follow up whether he
supports such protections, Boehner answered: “Listen, the president
is going to make his decisions. He can.”
Fred Sainz of the Human Rights Campaign
(HRC), the nation's largest LGBT rights advocate, called the GOP's
silence “evidence of our progress.”