The Equality Act would ban discrimination against people based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
The House is expected to approve a bill known as the Equality Act which would enshrine legal protections for LGBTQ Americans by amending existing civil rights laws to prevent businesses and institutions from discriminating against people based on sexual orientation and gender identity. “In the absence of federal civil rights protection, there are members of the LGBTQ community who are fair game in the eyes of the law to be targeted, based on sexual orientation. That is not America,” House Democratic Chair Hakeem Jeffries said in a press conference on Wednesday. The House is set to vote on the legislation on Thursday. The bill first passed the House in 2019, but was not considered by the then-Republican controlled Senate and faced opposition from the Trump administration. Last year, the Supreme Court issued a ruling stating that the protections guaranteed by the 1964 Civil Rights Act on the basis of sex extended to discrimination against LGBTQ Americans. The Equality Act would explicitly set those protections for people based on orientation and gender identity, as opposed to having those safeguards included under the umbrella term of “sex.” The Equality Act would extend protections to cover federally funded programs, employment, housing, loan applications, education and public accommodations.
