What I have Been Saying…

Those of you who have been following my blog know this has been something that I have been saying for a long time, we need to go beyond ENDA (Employment Non-Discrimination Act),

The Equality Act Is the LGBT Rights Bill We Want and Need
NCTE
By Mara Keisling
July 22, 2015

In 1974, the Equality Act was introduced to add sexual orientation throughout the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Twenty years later, for various political reasons, the bill was stripped down to be only an employment rights bill and renamed ENDA, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. ENDA has been the centerpiece federal legislation ever since—although gender identity was excluded from the act until 2007. And this week, we are very pleased to announce that ENDA is being replaced with the Equality Act, a more comprehensive bill that when passed will offer protection in employment, housing, public accommodations, and four other areas.

This is what I wanted to hear,

NCTE has advocated for over ten years for refocusing on a comprehensive bill more akin to the original Equality Act. The most notable difference between the Equality Act and its 1974 namesake is that it includes both gender identity and sexual orientation—and unlike in 2007, removing gender identity is now completely unthinkable.

For those of you who do not know what the reference to 2007 means, it was the first time ENDA included gender identity and expression and the HRC was “totally” behind the inclusive bill until Congressman Barney Frank pulled it from the bill and then the HRC switched to supporting the non-inclusive bill leaving us to get run over by the bus.

The NCTE blog goes on to say…

Here’s what you may want to know.

• The Equality Act will be introduced this Thursday, July 23 by Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR) in the U.S. Senate and Rep. Cicilline (D-RI) in the U.S. House of Representatives, along with many co-sponsors: Senators Tammy Baldwin, and Cory Booker, and Representatives Nancy Pelosi, and John Lewis. They will be joined by a large number of co-sponsors.
• The bill will explicitly prohibit discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation in employment, housing, education, credit, public accommodations, jury service, and federally funded programs. (Gender identity and sexual orientation are defined the same way they were in ENDA.)
• The bill will also codify the existing interpretations of sexual orientation and gender identity bias as being forms of sex discrimination, which many courts and federal agencies including the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission have already embraced. Think of it as wearing both a belt and suspenders. So for instance, if a trans person is discriminated against in their job, it will be clearly illegal as both gender identity discrimination and sex discrimination. This is important for various reasons, including that it will help cement these interpretations under various other laws not directly amended by the bill.
• Interestingly, the types of businesses considered to be public accommodations would be expanded by the Equality Act, not only for sexual orientation but also for the existing categories of race, color, religion, and national origin. Additionally, the category of sex would be added to the public accommodations section of the Civil Rights Act for the first time, greatly advancing women’s rights.
• In the same way the law protects people on the basis of their race and religion, the Equality Act will make clear that discrimination because someone is (or is perceived to be) LGBT, or is a parent, child, partner, or otherwise associated with someone who is LGBT--is also illegal.
• Whereas ENDA would have created a new law specific to LGBT people, the Equality Act will add LGBT protections to existing civil rights laws like the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Fair Housing Act, the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, and the Jury Selection and Service Act. It is being done this way to ensure that LGBT people are protected equally compared to other marginalized groups that are already protected.
• No special religious exemptions would apply for discrimination against LGBT people. Amending existing civil rights laws means that the religious exemptions that have been in place for fifty years will remain in place. Mainly this means that religious institutions can continue to prefer individuals of their own faith.

Two things to notice, the first is this bill is not just a LGBT bill, it is also adding “sex” to areas of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 where it was left out like in public accommodations. And second it allow religious exemptions, “Amending existing civil rights laws means that the religious exemptions that have been in place for fifty years will remain in place.” The Advocate writes,

The Equality Act would include protections in public accommodations, public education, employment, housing, federal funding, jury service, legal protections, and credit. The bill would also clarify that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act cannot be used to defend discrimination against LGBT people.
[…]
The Equality Act would also amend Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to include employment protections against discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Religious beliefs, race, sex, color, and national origin are already protected characteristics. The bill would not change existing religious exemptions for religious corporations, schools, and associations to make hiring decisions based on religious beliefs if the employee will be performing work connected with their religious activities. [My emphasis]

So it maintains the exemptions that were in place since the original law was passed. But that doesn’t sit well with the conservatives.

The Daily Signal (a news organization of The Heritage Foundation) reports that,

Nevertheless, having expanded the bill from including sexual orientation to also including gender identity, activists have also extended this misguided policy well beyond employment—to “credit, education, employment, federal funding, housing, jury service and public accommodations.” These SOGI laws must be resisted, as I explain in chapter six of my new book, “Truth Overruled: The Future of Marriage and Religious Freedom.”

The Advocate reports that the “Equality Act’s” special privileges would apply to “public  accommodations, public education, employment, housing, federal funding, jury service, legal protections, and credit. The bill would also clarify that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act cannot be used to defend” people who believe that marriage is the union of man and woman. That’s right: the bill says that religious freedom needs to take a back seat to special SOGI protections.

So we are going to have a long uphill battle in the Republican controlled Congress even though the polls show that the majority of the people support this bill. The 2016 elections are going to very important; the Republicans are trying to expand religious exemption and if they control Congress and the Presidency you can probably bet your bottom dollar they are going to pass the law.