VIDEO: Equality Act Introduced

Lambda Legal reacts:

We applaud the introduction of this essential bill. Today, it spotlights the pervasive, unjust, and unacceptable discrimination facing LGBT Americans and their families; when passed, it will be a crucial next step forward in ending that discrimination. Its introduction comes nearly one month after the Supreme Court’s historic decision in Obergefell v. Hodges that made marriage equality the law of the land and just one week after the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s (EEOC) landmark ruling in Baldwin v. Foxx that the sex discrimination provisions of Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, properly understood, protect employees who suffer workplace discrimination because of their sexual orientation. LGBT equality keeps advancing because fairness is a fundamental American value.

The ACLU reacts:

Today is a historic day that has been decades in the making. The Equality Act would transform the lives of countless women and LGBT people. Our country’s most basic promise of equal treatment under the law will never be real if you fear losing your job, being kicked out of your home, denied access to healthcare or turned away from a business because of who you are. Both the lack of clear and explicit federal protections for LGBT people and the lack of protections for women in core areas of American life are unacceptable. We urge Congress to take up this landmark bill and make our country a more just nation for all.

The Center For American Progress reacts:

This historic legislation would provide clear and vital protections from discrimination for LGBT Americans in all areas of life, from the workplace to the public marketplace. Despite last month’s historic Supreme Court decision, many LGBT people and their families live in constant fear that discrimination could lurk around any corner at school, in the office, or on Main Street. Modernizing our federal nondiscrimination laws to include sexual orientation, gender identity, and, where currently excluded, sex, will bring our laws into the 21st century and ensure that all Americans, including our LGBT friends and neighbors, are judged on their merits, can provide for their families, and live free from fear. The progressive cause in our country has always been about ensuring people can live free of fear regardless of who they are. This bill promises to be a major priority for the LGBT movement and broader progressive community moving forward, and CAP applauds Sens. Merkley, Booker, and Baldwin and Rep. Cicilline for their leadership on behalf of all Americans.

The HRC reacts:

The time has come for full federal equality -- nothing more, nothing less. While America is now a marriage equality nation, the tragic reality is that millions of LGBT Americans face persistent discrimination in their lives each and every day. In most states in this country, a couple who gets married at 10 AM is at risk of being fired from their jobs by noon and evicted from their home by 2 PM, simply for posting their wedding photos online. Congress must pass the Equality Act to ensure that LGBT people and their families are just as safe at work or at school as they are in their marriages. This bill will guarantee all LGBT Americans have the clear, permanent, and explicit protections from discrimination that they deserve.

Major Corporations Back Equality Act

Today the Equality Act, a comprehensive federal LGBT rights bill, will be introduced in Congress. The Human Rights Campaign has already brought three major corporations on board. Via press release:

STATEMENT BY APPLE – “At Apple we believe in equal treatment for everyone, regardless of where they come from, what they look like, how they worship or who they love. We fully support the expansion of legal protections as a matter of basic human dignity.”

STATEMENT BY THE DOW CHEMICAL COMPANY – “Dow applauds the introduction of the Equality Act and continues to support a comprehensive federal framework that ensures fairness and opportunity for everyone. Full inclusion of our LGBT colleagues and citizens is quite simply the right thing to do – for business and for society.”

STATEMENT BY LEVI STRAUSS & CO. – “Levi Strauss & Co. is proud to support the Equality Act. We have a long history of supporting LGBT equality, and the time has come in this country for full, federal equality for the LGBT community. Ensuring fairness in our workplaces and communities is both the right thing to do and simply good business.”

Each of the three major companies scored a perfect 100 on HRC’s annual Corporate Equality Index (CEI), a nationally recognized benchmark of LGBT inclusion in the workplace, and were recognized on HRC’s list of Best Places to Work for LGBT Equality in 2015.

“These remarkable companies have proven once again their tremendous leadership on behalf of LGBT Americans,” said HRC President Chad Griffin. “Time and again, these leaders of Corporate America have asked 'what more can we do?,' and each time they’ve stepped up to the plate and delivered. As the fight for full, federal equality enters a new chapter, I am tremendously thankful that we have these champions standing shoulder to shoulder with us.”

Yesterday winning Prop 8 attorneys Ted Olson and David Boies also endorsed the bill. Most believe that the Equality Act will see little traction in either GOP-dominated chamber.

CONGRESS: Comprehensive LGBT Rights Bill Set For Introduction On Thursday

Via Chris Johnson at the Washington Blade:

A highly anticipated bill that would explicitly bar anti-LGBT discrimination in all areas of civil rights law is set for introduction in both chambers of Congress on Thursday, the Washington Blade has learned. Capitol Hill sources said lead sponsors Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) will introduce the legislation on Thursday and hold a news conference at noon on the legislation on the Senate side of the U.S. Capitol. According to a “Dear Colleague” letter dated July 20 and obtained by the Washington Blade, the legislation intends to prohibit anti-LGBT discrimination in seven areas: credit, education, employment, federal funding, housing, jury service and public accommodations. The name of the legislation is the Equality Act, which is the same as legislation introduced more than 40 years ago by the late Rep. Bella Abzug of New York City. The bill, which was the first-ever gay rights measure introduced in Congress, would have amended the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to include sexual orientation.

More from Dominic Holden at Buzzfeed:

Provisions of the bill to ban discrimination in places of public accommodations may draw the most scrutiny, and elevate local debates over faith. Religious freedom bills in Indiana and Arkansas became national lightning rods this spring, raising disagreement about whether business owners selling cakes or flowers to same-sex couples who are marrying compromised the moral rights of Christians. But Allison Steinberg, a spokeswoman for the American Civil Liberties Union, which advocates for LGBT rights and religious liberties, argues this should be an open and shut issue. “Open for business means open for all,” Steinberg told BuzzFeed News. “A public serving business owner can’t turn someone away because of their race, color, religion, sex, or national origin, nor should they be allowed to deny someone service because of their sexual orientation or gender identity.”

The bill is expected to see little traction in either GOP-controlled chamber.

Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) To Introduce Sweeping Federal LGBT Rights Bill

Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) today announced that in the next session he will introduce a sweeping federal LGBT rights bill that will cover employment, housing, credit, and public accommodations. Justin Snow reports at MetroWeekly:

Merkley said that while the Senate’s passage of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act in November of last year by a 64-32 vote after the bill failed by one vote in 1996 was a “tremendous victory,” if discrimination is wrong in employment, it also must be wrong in areas such as housing, public accommodations and financial transactions. “Such an act would be a major advance for opportunity and equality for the LGBT community and would be a major stride toward a more just society,” said Merkley, who has been the lead sponsor of ENDA in the Senate since assuming that role from Sen. Ted Kennedy in 2009. Merkley made the announcement during the unveiling of a new report by the Center for American Progress addressing the need for comprehensive LGBT nondiscrimination protections.

Merkley spearheaded the passage of a similar bill while speaker of the Oregon House.

OREGON: Winning Marriage Plaintiffs Back GOP Candidate For US Senate

Politico reports:

A Republican Senate candidate in Oregon will unveil a television commercial Tuesday that highlights her support for gay marriage — a reflection of the rapidly shifting politics of the issue. Monica Wehby, a pediatric neurosurgeon, has been attacked by Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley as just another cookie-cutter conservative. The first-time candidate supports abortion rights and gay marriage, and she’s looking for ways to show voters in the blue state that she’s different. “My opponent keeps trying to paint me as an extreme right-wing Republican, and that’s actually not who I am,” she said in a phone interview. “I’m a very independent-minded person, like our state. I’ve always felt government should stay out of it. This isn’t a change in thought for me at all.” The man who stars in the ad, Ben West, was a plaintiff in the lawsuit that successfully struck down the Oregon Constitution’s ban against same-sex marriage early this year. He and his husband, Paul Rummell, were intrigued by Wehby’s support for marriage equality ahead of the May Republican primary, in which her opponent was a socially conservative state representative.

In his first term Sen. Merkley has been an ardent ally of LGBT causes. He cosponsored the repeal of DADT and the failed attempt to repeal DOMA. While a member of the Oregon House, he spearheaded the successful campaign to pass the Oregon Equality Act, a feat that lead to his selection to introduce the current incarnation of ENDA in the US Senate. While Wehby's support for marriage equality is certainly welcome, the Democratic Party's tenuous hold on the Senate should not be risked for an ally to some progressive causes.

(Tipped by JMG reader Rich)

Senate Resolution Will Call On IOC To Denounce Russia's Anti-Gay Laws

Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) will introduce a resolution which calls on the International Olympic Committee to explicitly denounce Russia's ban on "homosexual propaganda." Via Chris Geidner at Buzzfeed:

The resolution will ask the IOC both to oppose the law itself and to receive a guarantee that athletes and spectators will not be discriminated against on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity at the Sochi Winter Olympics, Merkley spokesman Jamal Raad said. The language is still being finalized, however, and he said the resolution will not be introduced formally until the Senate returns from its August recess. The resolution would be the Senate’s first formal statement regarding the Russian law, which was signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin in June. The Human Rights Campaign praised Merkley — also the lead sponsor of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which would ban anti-LGBT discrimination in employment in the U.S. — for the move.

Inclusive ENDA Hearings Begin

Yesterday the first ever transgender-inclusive ENDA hearings began before the U.S. Senate.

Restrooms and religion arose as the only objections today during the U.S. Senate’s first hearing on the inclusive Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA). And the testimony from the Obama administration struck an unusually ironic note just two days after Maine voters rejected an equal marriage law there. The 2009 version of ENDA is different from a 2002 version that also received a Senate hearing in that it includes a prohibition based on both sexual orientation and gender identity. The only one of seven witnesses to speak against the bill was Craig Parshall, Senior Vice President and General Counsel for the National Religious Broadcasters Association. He raised the concern about religious exemptions, as he did in September when the House held a hearing on the bill.

Only three (all Democrats) of the 23 members of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions bothered to show up for the hearing: Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA), Sen. Al Franken (D-MN), and the bill's sponsor, Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR), whose opening statements are below.

ENDA Introduced In Senate

Sen. Jeff Merkely (D-OR) introduced a fully inclusive version of the Employment Nondiscrimination Act to the U.S. Senate today, backed by Susan Collins (R-ME), Olympia Snowe (R-ME) and Edward Kennedy (D-MA.) The Senate Health, Education, Labor & Pensions Committee, of which Merkley is a member, will hold hearings on the bill before bringing it to the full chamber.

The House version of ENDA was introduced in late June. To learn how to lobby your legislators on this vital bill, join the Facebook group, Inclusive ENDA.