The White House on Tuesday threw its full-throated support behind the Equality Act, giving LGBT advocates a small victory in what is shaping up to be an arduous battle, with the odds significantly stacked against the likelihood of the bill’s passage.
The Equality Act, which has been endorsed or embraced by the bulk of national LGBT organizations and has been co-sponsored by 39 senators and 170 members of the House of Representatives, would amend the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to ban discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity in the areas of employment, housing, credit and public accommodations.
On Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest told reporters at a daily press briefing that President Obama had been reviewing the Equality Act “for several weeks” before coming to a decision.
“It is now clear that the administration strongly supports the Equality Act,” Earnest said, according to The Washington Post, adding that it would advance the civil rights of “millions of Americans.” He also said that the White House would work with Congress to ensure that the final bill that emerges balances “the bedrock principles of civil rights with the religious liberty that we hold dear in this country.”
This is not the first time that the White House has weighed in on the side of LGBT rights. The White House has previously opposed ballot initiatives to ban same-sex marriage, and threw its support behind the now-failed HERO ordinance providing various nondiscrimination protections to the LGBT community, which was defeated in Houston last Tuesday.
The Human Rights Campaign, one of the most vocal organizations pushing for passage of the Equality Act, issued a statement praising the president’s stance and emphasizing the importance of nondiscrimination legislation.
“The unfortunate reality is that, while LGBT Americans can legally get married, millions remain at risk of being fired or denied services for who they are or who they love because the majority of states still lack explicit, comprehensive nondiscrimination protections,” HRC President Chad Griffin said in a statement. “By endorsing the Equality Act, the White House sent a strong message that it’s time to put the politics of discrimination behind us once and for all. Now it’s time for Congress to act. Everyone should be able to live free from fear of discrimination and have a fair chance to earn a living and provide for their families, including people who are gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender.”
But while many major corporations have embraced the Equality Act, and most polls indicate that a majority of Americans support the concept of protecting LGBT people from discrimination, the bill faces a tough slog in Congress. So far, no Republicans from either chamber have signed on as co-sponsors, and none of the GOP’s top tier presidential candidates has endorsed the Act, making it much more politically difficult for members of their party to express their support, particularly during a presidential election year.
Kansas Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly vetoed a bill seeking to block the ability of transgender youth to access gender-affirming treatments.
The bill, passed largely along party lines by both chambers of the Republican-led Legislature, prohibits any entity receiving state funds from providing or subsidizing gender-affirming treatments for minors.
It also prohibits individuals or entities receiving state funds, or state employees in their official capacity, from encouraging youth who are suffering from gender dysphoria to pursue either medical or social transition.
Kelley Robinson, the president of the Human Rights Campaign, has been named to Time Magazine's list of the "100 Most Influential People of 2024," marking a significant honor for the head of the nation's largest LGBTQ rights organization.
Writing for the magazine, Sarah Kate Ellis, the president and CEO of the LGBTQ media advocacy organization GLAAD, praises Robinson, the first Black queer woman to lead HRC in its history, as having "a vision for a more equal and just world that, paired with her talent for building coalitions across all intersections, has taken the LGBTQ+ movement -- and the larger social-justice movement -- by storm when it is most needed."
A local educational advisory body in Manhattan has adopted a non-binding resolution calling on New York City Public Schools to prevent transgender female students from playing on sports teams matching their gender identity.
On March 20, Community Education Council 2, which covers a swath stretching from Lower Manhattan to the Upper East Side, approved a resolution urging New York City Public Schools to form a review committee to propose changes to the department's current gender guidelines.
Since 2019, the city has allowed transgender athletes to compete on sports teams that align with their gender identity. Critics of the current transgender participation policy argue that key stakeholders -- female cisgender athletes, coaches, parents, medical professionals, and evolutionary biology experts -- were either ignored or not consulted about the potential ramifications of such a policy.
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