This bill doesn’t have a snowball chance in hell to pass the Senate, then why introduce the bill?
It is to get the Republicans on record of rejecting the bill; you remember this morning’s blog about the poll that found strong support for us? I believe this is to get the LGBTQ+ and our allies votes and to use it against the Republicans.
So who supports the bill?
But they are not alone.
One of the things that I learned about passing laws, you don’t give up. You use each time a bill is brought to educate more legislators. We got better organized. We got more voters involved.
Hey if there was a lobby day in Washington, I would go to it.
The Equality Act: What Transgender People Need to KnowSo why introduce the bill if it is going to die in the Senate?
Go to the profile of National Center for Transgender Equality
A bipartisan coalition in Congress is introducing The Equality Act — a nationwide law that would ban discrimination on the basis of your gender identity or sexual orientation. Here’s what that means for transgender people and their families.
The Medium
By National Center for Transgender Equality
March 13, 2019
The ambitious piece of legislation represents a major step forward for the transgender equality movement, and transgender people and their families might have reasonable questions about what it is and what it does: Who is covered by the Equality Act? How would it impact my job, my school, or my health care? What if I already live in a state with legal protections for transgender people? Won’t the President just veto it?
What would the Equality Act do?
The Equality Act prohibits discrimination based on an individual’s sexual orientation or gender identity in employment, housing, credit, education, jury service, federally-funded programs (including health care), and businesses that serve the public. It will also prohibit discrimination against women and girls in public accommodations for the first time in federal law.
Finally, the bill expands the list of protected places of public accommodations to include retail stores, transportation services like airports, taxis and bus stations, and service providers like accountants, for all groups covered.
To do this, The Equality Act would amend several crucial pieces of civil rights legislation — such as the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Fair Housing Act of 1968 — to clearly prohibit sexual orientation and gender identity discrimination. This would prohibit discrimination against LGBTQ people in the same way these laws already prohibit discrimination on the basis of race, sex, religion, and national origin.
[…]
What is a federally-funded program?
Federal civil rights laws apply to any program or service that accepts federal funding, whether through a contract, grant, award, or other forms of funding. This includes (but is not limited to) public schools, prisons, hospitals and health care providers that accept Medicare or Medicaid (which is nearly all of them), many state and local government programs, as well as any program operated by a federal agency (such as Social Security or immigration enforcement). The Equality Act would make clear that discrimination based on gender identity, sexual orientation, or any other gender-related bias is prohibited in these settings.
In short, the Equality Act would prohibit discrimination against transgender people by any entity that accepts federal dollars.
It is to get the Republicans on record of rejecting the bill; you remember this morning’s blog about the poll that found strong support for us? I believe this is to get the LGBTQ+ and our allies votes and to use it against the Republicans.
So who supports the bill?
'We support it': NAACP endorses LGBTQ Equality Act
The African-American civil rights group, which shepherded the 1964 Civil Rights Act into law, endorsed adding LGBTQ people to those the act protects.
NBC News
By Tim Fitzsimons
March 22, 2019
The NAACP, the country’s oldest African-American civil rights organization, publicly endorsed the Equality Act, a federal LGBTQ anti-discrimination bill.
“We support what it does — and we support it now,” Hilary Shelton, the organization's D.C. bureau director, told NBC News on Friday. “It’s important that it gets through.”
Shelton said the group had previously endorsed the bill in meetings with two of its sponsors, Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., and Rep. David Cicilline, D-R.I.
But they are not alone.
More than 160 major companies announce support for the Equality ActBut they are not alone in their support….
Act would ensure protections for the 50% of LGBTQ people who live in 30 states without comprehensive civil rights laws
Metro Weeky
By John Riley
March 8, 2019
On Friday, the Human Rights Campaign announced it had organized a coalition of 161 leading businesses that support for the Equality Act, a piece of federal legislation that would codify protections for LGBTQ people into law.
The coalition announcement comes less than a week before Democratic leaders in Congress are expected to introduce the bipartisan bill, which would expressly prohibit discrimination based on a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity in employment, housing, credit, and public accommodations.
Currently, 50% of LGBTQ Americans live in the 30 states that lack a comprehensive statewide nondiscrimination law that protects LGBTQ people. LGBTQ advocates have attempted to engage the business community and have prominent companies — many of whom already have pro-LGBTQ employee policies in place — place pressure on members of Congress to pass the law.
[…]
“These leading employers know that protecting their employees and customers from discrimination isn’t just the right thing to do — it’s also good for business,” Griffin added.
[…]
Some of the companies announcing their support include, but are not limited to: Abercrombie & Fitch, Adobe Systems Inc., Airbnb Inc., Amazon.com, American Airlines, Apple, Bank of America, Booz Allen Hamilton; The Coca-Cola Co., Corning Inc., Cox Enterprises., The Dow Chemical Co., eBay, Facebook, IBM, Kaiser Permanente, Kellogg Co., Marriott International, Spotify USA, Target, Twitter, Under Armour, Wells Fargo & Co., Yelp, and Zillow Group.
Sally Field and Son First to Support HRC’s Star-Studded ‘Americans for the Equality Act’ CampaignHey with Norma Rae on our side how can we lose?
Variety
By Anna Tingley
March 26, 2019
Award-winning actress Sally Fields and her son Sam Greisman are among the first wave of stars supporting the Human Rights Campaign’s “Americans for the Equality Act,” which launched March 25. In the series’ debut video, filmed by award-winning directors Dustin Lance Black and Paris Barclay, Fields talks to her son about his own journey to accepting his sexuality.
“Sam’s journey was just a different one than his older brothers,” Fields says in the video. “Being with him, watching him to finally be able to be all that nature intended him to be – it was not an easy road for him.”
In the coming weeks, the star-studded campaign will cut a swath through every industry, featuring stars such as Olympic figure skaters Adam Rippon and Shea Diamond, to actors Jamie Lee Curtis and Jesse Tyler Ferguson as they stand behind the Equality Act.
One of the things that I learned about passing laws, you don’t give up. You use each time a bill is brought to educate more legislators. We got better organized. We got more voters involved.
Hey if there was a lobby day in Washington, I would go to it.
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