It’s Pride Month! Here at Daily Kos, we honor the LGBTQ+ community and recognize the ongoing fight for equality.
Horribly, that fight seems to be getting harder, and loud, public discrimination seems to be getting worse. We are amidst an unprecedented wave of direct, discriminatory attacks against LGBTQ+ people. This year alone, more than 400 anti-LGBTQ+ bills have been introduced across state legislatures, and more than 70 of those anti-LGBTQ+ bills have become law. Many of these bills target transgender youth, preventing their access to life-saving health care, even though a majority of Americans believe trans Americans should enjoy the same personal freedoms as other Americans.
This isn’t just regressive and wrong, it’s terrifying. There is a clear and undeniable push to strip LGBTQ+ individuals of their rights. As a result, the Human Rights Campaign has declared a state of emergency for LGBTQ+ people.
Sign the petition to Congress: Guarantee freedoms to all RIGHT NOW – pass the Equality Act.
This is an issue of our country’s lack of protection, and the resulting acceptance of discrimination, for its own citizens. Congress can—and—must fix this now.
Campaign Action
Currently, there no federal laws that explicitly protect LGBTQ+ people from discrimination. A few Supreme Court cases have granted protections for marriage and against discrimination in the workplace. Yet for the LGBTQ+ community, fundamental parts of life that cisgender, heterosexual folks take for granted are not sheltered from discriminatory practices—including education, housing, transportation, medical care, public goods and services, family planning, and jury service.
This can, and must, change: Congress must act now to protect all Americans’ inalienable right to exist.
The Equality Act would ban discrimination against people based on sexual orientation and gender identity and expand the areas to which those discrimination protections apply. It is the only piece of federal legislation to explicitly affirm LGBTQ+ civil rights, which can rectify and protect LGBTQ+ individuals from these attacks at the state level.
From the Human Rights Campaign:
The Equality Act would amend existing civil rights law—including the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Fair Housing Act, the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, the Jury Selection and Services Act, and several laws regarding employment with the federal government—to explicitly include sexual orientation and gender identity as protected characteristics. The legislation also amends the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to prohibit discrimination in public spaces and services and federally funded programs on the basis of sex.
Additionally, the Equality Act would update the public spaces and services covered in current law to include retail stores, services such as banks and legal services, and transportation services. These important updates would strengthen existing protections for everyone.
Decades of civil rights history show that civil rights laws are effective in decreasing discrimination because they provide strong federal remedies targeted to specific vulnerable groups. By explicitly including sexual orientation and gender identity in these fundamental laws, LGBTQ+ people will finally be afforded the exact same protections as other covered characteristics under federal law.
This is an issue of basic constitutionally protected freedoms and protection from direct, discriminatory attacks against those freedoms. We elected our congressional leaders to ensure those basic rights were protected.
While the Equality Act passed in the House of Representatives in 2021, it hasn’t been introduced in the current Congress. Join us in demanding Congress pass the Equality Act now, and stop the denial of our freedoms.
Sign the petition to Congress: Guarantee freedoms to all RIGHT NOW by passing the Equality Act.
