• Tweet
• 

After The Daily Caller first reported that Obama administration bureaucrats at the Labor Department vandalized “gay rights” posters in their building’s elevators on Monday, the administration’s political appointees there remained silent.

Now, though, three full days later, Labor Secretary Hilda Solis sent an 800-plus word email to staffers demanding they respect the posters and what they represent. TheDC obtained a copy of the email.

In addition to the 72-hour wait for her to address the vandalism, it took an open call from a gay advocacy group that gave an award to Solis for her work with the gay community.

“Let me be absolutely clear: The U.S. Department of Labor is a welcoming, diverse and inclusive workplace,” Solis wrote to the bureaucrats at the DOL. “We value everyone. We embrace people’s individuality and celebrate their diversity, talents and contributions.”

Solis doubled down on her civility-via-posters campaign, too. She said those gay rights posters will now remain up in the elevators for the rest of June.

“The LGBT Pride poster will remain up in the FPB elevators for the rest of the month,” she wrote. “Employees in the FPB are encouraged to report defaced, damaged or missing posters to extension 3-5001 so they can be immediately replaced.”

Solis also said she’ll provide posters for any Labor Department employees who want one, too, so they can hang one anywhere they want in the building.

“The poster will be available to any employee at any location who wants to hang it on their office door, cubicle or break/common area,” she wrote. (Feds look to regulate food similar to tobacco)

Solis added that she doesn’t think the “actions of a few define who we are or what we believe.”

In her lengthy email to staffers, Solis went on to detail how the entire Obama administration takes the “gay rights” issue “seriously.”

“That’s why we repealed ‘Don’t Ask. Don’t Tell’ so that gay, lesbian and bisexual Americans can serve openly in the armed forces; required hospitals receiving Medicare/Medicaid funds to allow visitation rights and medical decision-making rights to LGBT patients; and made sure that the Census counted everyone—including LGBT couples,” Solis wrote. “And I take great satisfaction that our own Wage and Hour Division clarified that the Family and Medical Leave Act covers LGBT parents.”

Solis added, too, that “later this month,” she’s going to hold a meeting between her agency heads and “transgender advocacy groups” to “explore ways in which DOL can break down barriers for transgender workers.”

The Obama administration’s labor chief also referenced her 2009 letter, in which she addressed the same subject. The current episode represents the second time Obama administration bureaucrats have vandalized gay rights promotional materials at the Labor Department.

“I do not consider vandalizing government property a constructive, effective or professional way to communicate one’s views,” Solis wrote. “As I stated in a similar message two years ago, respect for one another is “non-negotiable” at the U.S. Department of Labor.”