Washington, DC, July 21, 2015—Congress has announced a plan to introduce new comprehensive LGBTQ non-discrimination legislation. The Equality Act seeks to secure strong and explicit protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) people in employment, housing, education, public services and spaces, public funding, credit, and jury service. The bill comes on the heels of the Supreme Court’s historic ruling upholding the Constitutional right for same-sex couples to marry.
“The Equality Act will yield non-discrimination protections for LGBTQ people in areas as diverse as employment to jury service. Thankfully, the EEOC has ruled employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity as unlawful sex discrimination under Title VII. We now need the certainty of explicit federal legislation to provide employers and workers with this same clear and consistent message in every corner of our nation. And what’s more, this broad federal legislation reaches beyond employment to extend vital protections on several new fronts,” said Rea Carey, National LGBTQ Task Force Action Fund Executive Director.
In 28 states, lesbian, gay, and bisexual people still lack explicit non-discrimination protections in employment, housing and public accommodations—and transgender people lack explicit non-discrimination protections in 31 states. Most Americans think that these protections are already in place but they are not.
“In 1974, the National LGBTQ Task Force worked with the late Congresswoman Bella Abzug to introduce the first-ever comprehensive LGBTQ non-discrimination bill. Today as we have seen in poll after poll, our nation is ready for freedom, justice and equality for LGBTQ people.”
“Discrimination impacts everyone negatively—particularly LGBTQ people of color who experience unemployment, poverty and homelessness at higher rates than the general population. Congress can do something meaningful to help change this picture. They can pass the Equality Act.”
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CONTACT:
Jorge Amaro
Media and Public Relations Director
213-842-7564
jamaro@thetaskforce.org