Our guest blogger is Crosby Burns, special assistant for the LGBT Research and Communications Project at American Progress.

Earlier this year, the Center for American Progress (CAP) revealed that a majority of likely voters support federal laws such as the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, or ENDA, which would prohibit public and private employment discrimination against LGBT workers. Poll results released today from CAP show that small business owners are similarly supportive of workplace fairness.

This poll shows that 63 percent of small businesses owners support ENDA, while only 15 percent of small businesses oppose it. This acceptance from the small business community mirrors the public’s support for ENDA more broadly. CAP has found that 73 percent of likely 2012 voters support legislation to combat LGBT discrimination in the workplace, including a majority of self-identified independent and Republican voters.

The need for this law is immediate. LGBT Americans continue to face high rates of discrimination at all levels of employment. Forty-two percent of gay Americans have experienced at least one form of employment discrimination and harassment in the workplace, and an astonishing 90 percent of transgender individuals reported experiencing some form of harassment, mistreatment, or discrimination on the job, or took actions like hiding who they are to avoid it.

While support from the public and from small business owners portends well for ENDA, 89 percent of likely voters erroneously believe that LGBT Americans already have federal employment protections as do 89 percent of small business owners. More must be done to highlight the lack of legal protections afforded to LGBT Americans.

ENDA has recently been introduced in both the Senate and the House of Representatives. With likely voters and small businesses exhibiting strong support for workplace fairness, ENDA should be a no-brainer for our policymakers. Congress should pass this law, and pass it immediately.

San Francisco mayoral candidate Bevan Dufty became the first openly gay politician to use his daughter in a campaign ad earlier this week, a milestone that sparked some controversy among conservatives. Dufty brushed aside the criticism during an appearance on MSNBC with Thomas Roberts this afternoon and explained that San Francisco voters have embraced his “modern family”:

DUFTY: Having a child is about love, it’s what I wanted all my life. You know Thomas, my mother escaped from Nazi Germany and she raised me pretty much by herself and I’ve never met anyone in her family. And so I always wanted to have a child. She’s been gone for many years now. It means a lot to me, but I understand people can view it differently. I take the long road and think that down the road people will see my child as a happy child.

Watch it:

Watch the original ad here:

This weekend, New Hampshire state Rep. Al Baldasaro (R) — one of Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s (R) newest endorsers — said that he approved of the booing of a gay soldier during a recent presidential debate. “I thought it was great,” Baldasaro told ThinkProgress’ Scott Keyes, adding, “I was so disgusted over that gay marine coming out.” Baldasaro warned the soldier — Stephen Hill — that straight servicemembers will “start getting away from him…. when the shit hits the fan” and will be “looking at your back” instead of “covering your back.”

Asked to clarify his comments for the Union Leader, Baldasaro doubled down. He said that Hill “had no business being there” and should not have come “out of the closet on national TV.” Today, Baldasaro’s Democratic opponent, Jeff Ballard, took issue with the statements and has issued a press release condemning the remarks and calling on the state representative to apologize and resign:

As a veteran and a New Hampshire citizen, I found his applauding the booing of an Iraq War Veteran appalling. Rep. Baldasaro may have freedom of speech, but it exists because Stephen Hill, the veteran he called a ‘disgrace,’ risked his own life to protect it. [...]

“Republican House Speaker Bill O’Brien should immediately call for him to resign and remove him as Chair of the Veterans Affairs Committee in the State House. Rep. Baldasaro is clearly incapable of being an advocate for all veterans. Republican State Senate Majority Leader Jeb Bradley should also call on Rep. Baldasaro to resign; he should make clear that this kind of language is not the official position of New Hampshire Republican Party.”

While several Republican presidential candidates have condemned the debate audience’s reaction to the gay soldier, the Perry campaign has not yet comment on it or distance itself from Baldasaro’s remarks

The state of Florida does not offer employment non-discrimination protections based on sexual orientation, which means employers can fire employees they suspect of being lesbian, gay, or bisexual. But Florida Senate Minority Leader Non Rich (D) has proposed new legislation to end that discrimination, which she argues will simultaneously improve Florida’s economy:

RICH: The Florida Competitive Workforce Act will not only ensure equal protection of the law for all Floridians, it will also show that Florida understands that the one of the best ways to grow our economy is to ensure we have a diverse workforce that capitalizes on the skills, perspectives and talents of all our people.

Currently, only 21 states offer employment non-discrimination protections based on sexual orientation, but Rich is correct that allowing such discrimination has negative impacts, both on LGB employees and the competitiveness of the workforce in general. When employees can come out without fear of termination, they flourish and increase the productivity of their coworkers.

Rick Santorum has come under criticism from conservatives within his own party for failing to condemn the jeering of a gay soldier at last month’s GOP presidential debate in Florida. The former Pennsylvania senator claimed to have missed the booing, but appeared on Fox News the next day to speak out against it.

But the story just won’t die. President Obama took on the GOP for not standing up for the military from the debate stage last week and yesterday, CNN’s Wolf Blitzer again asked Santorum about the incident. Surprisingly, despite all of the questions and attention surrounding the incident, Santorum said he has yet to go back and listen to the audience reaction:

BLITZER: You were the one who had the answer, who was directed that question. What do you say to the president when he says, “you had a moral responsibility to react to an American soldier being booed?

SANTORUM: Well, I can say, and I said this right after the debate — I did not hear the boos….Had I heard the boos and it was clear in my mind that they were directed at someone because of the pronouncement that that person was gay, I would have said that that was inappropriate. But again, I didn’t hear it, I still frankly, haven’t gone back and listened to the tape, so all I can say is, if it was clear to me that that was the case, I would have said something, but I didn’t hear it so I obviously wasn’t going to say anything.

Watch it:

Notice the caveat — even if he would have heard the booing, Santorum wouldn’t have condemned it unless he was certain it was directed at the soldier for being gay, rather than the repeal of the policy. It’s a distinction without a difference, since the audience jeered the presence of openly gay servicemembers, who are putting their lives on the line just like their straight counterparts.

But as Santorum doesn’t understand the magnitude of the issue. As he told the LA Times, “I don’t stay awake at night thinking about this.”

Presidential candidate Michele Bachmann endorsed reinstating Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell and agreed that gays and lesbian servicemembers would “destroy the armed forces” on a conference call with Faith and Freedom coalition last night, the Minnesota Independent’s Andy Birkey reports. Bachmann stressed her social conservative credentials on the call, including her efforts to pass a constitutional amendment outlawing same-sex marriage as a state senator.

The congresswoman also took a question from “a man named Jack who said ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell is going to destroy the armed forces,” and she agreed that the military should not engage in a “social experiment” about the “issue of sexuality.” Bachmann promised to “listen to the generals” on the issue (many of whom, incidentally, supported repealing the policy):

“I think of all of the candidates that are running in this race, I have been very vocal about this,” Bachmann said. “I would reinstate the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy. It worked before and what it says is the issue of sexuality is one that doesn’t come up and people aren’t allowed to be open about it because the United States military is unique, its not a social experiment.”

She said repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell is gong to hurt the military’s preparedness: “I take very seriously the job of Commander in Chief. I see that as my very first job and I would listen to the generals [on DADT].”

Bachmann — who avoided social issues when she first entered the race — played up her conservative credentials in Iowa this week, telling a town hall crowd in Sioux City on Monday, “As much as this job will be about jobs and the economy — as it should be, that’s really the main issue facing our nation right now — we can’t forget the undergirding of our nation and those are the values, the principles that we stand for.”

“I believe in marriage between a man and a woman,” she added, before congratulating the attendees for voting out three judges who overturned a state law prohibiting same-sex marriage.