As a continuation of their ceaseless fight for equality and social justice, Democratic leaders stepped up their game on Wednesday, aiming to secure unprecedented protections for the LGBTQ community. This time, they have set their sights on something truly historic: the amendment of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
Congressman Mark Takano (D-California) — the pioneering co-chair of the Congressional Equality Caucus and the first openly gay person of color elected to Congress — alongside Senator Jeff Merkley (D-Oregon), has reintroduced the Equality Act. This groundbreaking piece of legislation is aimed at establishing comprehensive protections for LGBTQ people, a response they declare is long overdue in the face of the right’s relentless onslaught.
The Equality Act is revolutionary in its scope, extending the Civil Rights Act to explicitly defend LGBTQ individuals from discrimination in areas like employment, housing, education, and credit access. This bill would herald the first federal law that explicitly bars discrimination against the LGBTQ community on such a wide-ranging scale. Takano referred to the Act as a mechanism to provide “full personhood under the law,” during Wednesday’s press conference.
The Act has garnered the full support of the Democratic caucus in the House, along with substantial backing from Senate Democrats, according to Takano.
Merkley passionately remarked, “We introduce the Equality Act today to tell kids across the country who might feel threatened or scared about who they are and how others react to them that you are not alone and that you should have the opportunity to participate in every aspect of national life.”
Despite this beacon of hope, LGBTQ rights are under siege. This year alone, right-wing lawmakers have flooded state legislatures with over 530 anti-LGBTQ bills, the vast majority of which aim to dismantle rights for transgender individuals. A disturbing number of these have been successful, now masquerading as laws.
However, the Equality Act may just be the pushback needed to halt these assaults. “We cannot allow extremists in our country to once again normalize homophobia and attacks on LGBTQ people. We can’t turn away from the discrimination that still exists for so many LGBTQ people today,” Takano argued during the press conference.
While the Act has twice passed the Democratic-controlled House, it faces an uphill battle in a Republican-ruled Senate. However, Democrats have drawn attention to the bipartisan success of the Defense of Marriage Act, which passed the Senate last year, indicating potential cross-party support for the Equality Act.
Presently, LGBTQ people are afforded protection against discrimination via the 2020 Supreme Court decision in Bostock v. Clayton County. This ruling equated discrimination based on gender identity or sexuality to sex-based discrimination, which Title VII of the Civil Rights Act prohibits in employment.
However, these protections are tenuous with the current far-right-leaning Supreme Court Justices, who appear more than willing to reverse pivotal decisions to favor conservative agendas. Right-wing groups have already launched legal attempts to curtail the reach of Bostock’s protections. This underscores the urgency for LGBTQ advocates’ call to enshrine these protections into federal law, ensuring lasting safeguards for the LGBTQ community.
