LGBT anti-discrimination bill aims to extend Civil Rights Act protections

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jul/21/lgbt-anti-discrimination-bill-civil-rights

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Democrats plan to unveil an expansive anti-discrimination bill that would give LGBT people employment, housing and education protections.

The bill, which Democrats say will be introduced in the Senate and House, would extend protections granted under the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to LGBT people, according to the Advocate, which received an early copy of the proposed legislation.

It is being sponsored in the Senate by Jeff Merkley of Oregon, Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin and Cory Booker of New Jersey. The lead sponsor in the house is David Cicilline, of Rhode Island, who outlined the plans in a letter to other legislators, where he requested co-sponsors for the bill.

“In most states, a same-sex couple can get married on Saturday, post pictures on Facebook on Sunday, and then risk being fired from their job or kicked out of their apartment on Monday,” said Cicilline’s letter. “A majority of states in our country do not have laws that protect LGBT individuals against discrimination.”

With Republicans in control of both chambers, passing the bill into law is a steep uphill battle. Currently, the GOP is pushing a bill called the First Amendment Defense Act – which would limit how much action the government could take against individuals and businesses who want to deny services to LGBT people.

Supporters say that the legislation was introduced in response to the June supreme court decision that made same-sex marriage legal across the United States.

The laundry list of protections LGBT people would be given under the Democrat-backed legislation demonstrates just some of the ways they can be discriminated against in states and cities that do not provide such protections.

The current bill would prevent people from denying their LGBT counterparts a range of services and activities, because of their sexuality; from stopping those seeking to discriminate against LGBT people hoping to purchase homes, to making it illegal to keep LGBT people off of juries.

Cicilline said these “explicit, consistent protections” would also grant anti-discrimination protections for LGBT people in public education, the workplace and public accommodations.

The Human Rights Campaign president, Chad Griffin, supports the proposed legislation.

“There is an unacceptable patchwork of state-level protections for LGBT people, and more than half of LGBT Americans live in a state that lacks fully inclusive non-discrimination laws,” Griffin said in a statement. “The time has come in this country for full, federal equality, and nothing less.”

This plan follows a landmark decision by the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission that said it is illegal to discriminate against gay, lesbian and bisexual people in the workplace under the Civil Rights Act. The 1964 act forbid discrimination on the basis of sex, race and national origin in schools, at work and in public places. While employers do not have to follow the agency’s ruling, it sets an important precedent for future discrimination cases.