Obama endorses Equality Act

By John Mack Freeman

This week, the White House formally endorsed the Equality Act. Via Out:

“The administration strongly supports the Equality Act,” said Press Secretary Josh Earnest at today’s afternoon White House press briefing.

The Equality Act would amend the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and other federal laws to protect LGBT Americans from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. But Republicans, who currently control of both House and Senate are unlikely to pass this bill.’

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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 proposed legislation also clarifies that sex-segregated facilities must admit individuals in accordance with their gender identity, explicitly noting that anyone discriminated against because of their perceived sexual orientation or gender identity or association with a protected class is protected themselves.

The Equality Act was first announced by Merkley in December. The codirectors of GetEQUAL, Heather Cronk and Angela Peoples, wrote in an Advocate op-ed earlier this year that they saw the legislation as “dangerous,” fearing right-wing lawmakers would not only strip the bill of its intended protections with amendments, but also gut the civil rights laws being amended.

The Equality Act would make sweeping changes to federal civil rights law. One of the most notable, and likely controversial, sections would expand the list of businesses listed as public accommodations to include banks, retail stores, and companies that provide transportation and health care services — covering nearly every business that provides goods or services to the public.”

This comes on the heels of President Obama being the first sitting president to pose for a major GLBT publication when he appeared on the cover of Out this week.

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