Confused Questions

Weirdquark posted about how LGBT federal workers are losing their job protections. Here's the article.

Bloch said that the while a gay employee would have no recourse for being fired or demoted for being gay, that same worker could not be fired for attending a gay Pride event.

In his interpretation, Bloch is making a distinction between one’s conduct as a gay or lesbian and one’s status as a gay or lesbian.

“People confuse conduct and sexual orientation as the same thing, and I don’t think they are,” Bloch said in an interview with Federal Times, a publication for government employees.

Bloch said gays, lesbians and bisexuals cannot be covered as a protected class because they are not protected under the nation’s civil rights laws.

So...I'm a bit confused.
He's recognizing the fact that there's a difference between conduct and sexual orientation: you don't have to be gay, for instance, to go to a pride parade.

But he's saying that you can be fired for being gay, but not for acting gay? Political protests are okay, but being gay while working for the federal government is not?
I don't get this at all.

And the last line really makes me steamed. I read it as: "Because you're not explicitly protected under civil rights laws, as other groups are, we can't help you--and this administration won't be passing those laws anytime soon if we can help it. Oops!" Is that a correct interpretation, or fair? Is there something I'm not understanding, here?

I hope so, because otherwise this is dangerous. Very, very dangerous.