A projected $600 million budget deficit for next year. Over $25 million in budget cuts to our elementary and secondary schools. A massive, Dr. Frankenstein-esque experiment gone horribly wrong. These are the issues that we should be discussing as Kansans, but with Gov. Sam Brownback’s recent executive order, we seem to have returned to a debate that we thought to have closed years ago: the rights of the LGBT community.

The governor’s executive order rescinded protections for state employees from workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. These protections were established in 2007 by then-Gov. Kathleen Sebelius. This Brownback power trip is embarrassing for us as a state.

This order followed his first executive order of the week, in which he announced that companies should be more aggressive in their hiring policies for veterans and those with physical and mental disabilities. He said, “it makes good business sense to treat employees . . . with dignity and respect.” But, apparently, this doesn’t apply to LBGTs anymore.

When Sebelius signed the executive order in 2007, she told members of the Kansas Equality Coalition, “I’m sorry it took us so long.” The chairman of the Kansas Traditional Republican Majority, Andy Wollen, had a one-sentence response:

“It’s about time.”

Apologies today to everyone who had been excited to see the same basic rights of job protection for all Kansans. We just … kind of changed our minds?

But the question is, what does Brownback’s latest action really mean?

Annulling the law doesn’t necessarily mean that LGBT workers will get fired from their jobs, but it does allow companies the freedom to do so if they wish. It puts the LGBT community in the classification of second-class citizens — a group without basic guaranteed rights.

It seems ridiculous that in 2015, we are still in the process of discussing what is and isn’t love. This is no longer an argument between Republicans and Democrats; it’s a conversation of basic freedoms.

According to The Pew Research Center, in 2007 when the initial bill was passed, only 37 percent of Americans were in favor of same-sex marriage and freedoms for those in the LGBT community. And now, eight years later, 54 percent of Americans are in favor. It’s obvious that people are changing their age-old opinions — what the heck, Kansas?

America is growing and adapting, especially within our generation; seventy percent of Millennials now believe that same-sex marriage should be legal. And in a few years, these troubadours are going to be taking the seats of Brownback and Mitch McConnell, dusting off these civil rights bills and passing them without a second glance.

On a basic level, I find Brownback’s executive order mean-spirited. The protections had been in place for eight years, why do they need to be rescinded now? He’s lost in a sea of hopelessness, washed over by the troubles he created for himself. His experiments with tax cuts and the state budget have gone completely wrong, and he needs something else to divert our attention.

Yes, at a federal level there is no protection for LGBTs, but there have been strides by the Supreme Court to make same-sex marriage federally legal. States should be making headway on anti-discrimination laws in order to protect their own citizens. Kansans should focus on the larger picture of our future rather than arguing over trite wiles.