Congressional Democrats Reintroduce Equality Act
The bill would protect LGBTQ individuals from discrimination but faces uphill battle in a Republican-controlled Congress.
U.S. House and Senate Democrats have reintroduced their respective versions of the Equality Act, a landmark civil rights bill prohibiting discrimination against people based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
The act, which passed the House of Representatives in previous years under Democratic-led leadership, would amend the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to enshrine protections for LGBTQ people.
But it has never been able to gain the 60 votes needed to start debate on the bill or overcome a potential filibuster in the Senate.
It stands little chance of currently passing either chamber as long as Republicans control Congress.
Republicans typically have opposed the Equality Act, arguing that people who disagree with same-sex marriage or homosexuality should be allowed — on religious grounds — to discriminate against LGBTQ people in various aspects of life, but especially with respect to public accommodations and wedding-based services.
As attacking the transgender community has become en vogue among Republican circles, opponents have argued that the bill would grant too many rights to transgender individuals, threatening the rights and bodily privacy of cisgender women as it relates to sports participation (which the bill does not address) and single-sex spaces like restrooms, homeless shelters, and rape crisis centers.
President Trump has opposed the Equality Act in the past, citing provisions that he claims threaten “parental and conscience rights.”
However, when exploring a presidential run as a Reform Party candidate back in 2000, Trump said he liked the idea of extending anti-discrimination protections in the 1964 Civil Rights Act to gay people, reports The Hill.
Polling shows that a majority of Americans claim to support nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ people, although that number has dipped in recent years.
According to a survey published last month by the Public Religion Research Institute, 75% of adults support policies protecting LGBTQ Americans from discrimination in housing, employment, and public accommodation, which has decreased from a high of 80% just three years ago.
With no federal law in place, nondiscrimination protections vary by state, with only 23 states having any kind of safeguards against discrimination.
“If you are gay, lesbian or transgender — and let that sink in — it’s a patchwork of rights and protections depending on who you are and who you love,” U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), one of three chief co-sponsors of the Senate version of the bill, said in a statement. “Will you be protected from being discriminated against by a bad landlord when you try to rent a house? Depends on where you live. Will you be protected from being discriminated against when you are trying to get a mortgage or a new credit card? Again, it depends upon where you live.”
A coalition of pro-LGBTQ groups and civil rights advocates, including Advocates for Transgender Equality, the American Civil Liberties Union, the Human Rights Campaign, and the National Women’s Law Center, urged Congress to pass the legislation.
“Anti-equality politicians have worked to crater the health, education, housing, financial, workplace safety and public accommodations laws that protect all of us,” the coalition said in a joint statement. “These harmful efforts have meant that in 2025, LGBTQ+ people can be denied a loan, an apartment, or access to public facilities simply because of who they are. And now, the Trump-Vance administration has weaponized the Executive Branch against every marginalized community, taking aim at all of our civil rights and freedoms.
“Across areas of life, this bill would safeguard people from discrimination and ensure we all have the chance to chase our American Dream.”
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