What You Need To Know About The Equality Act Just Passed By The House

By Christianna Silva


On Friday, March 17, the Home of Representatives voted to pass the Equality Act, a sweeping policy that would amend the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and other pieces of federal legislation to include protections for LGBTQ people.


The bill, which passed 236-173, should make discrimination on the basis of sex, sexual orientation, and gender identity against the law, particularly as they pertain to education, employment, housing, credit, federally-funded programs, federal jury service, and public accommodations, according to the Human Rights Campaign, a LGBTQ-rights non-profit.


“The question before us isn't whether the LGBTQ community faces outrageous and immoral discrimination, for the record shows that it clearly does,” Rep. Jerrold Nadler of New York, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, told The New York Times. “The question is whether we, as Congress, are ready to take action to do something about it. The response goes straight to the heart of who we wish to be as a nation — and today, that answer must be a resounding ‘yes.’”


The act was introduced in May 2017 by Democratic Rep. David Cicilline of Rhode Island in the Home and by Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley of Oregon in the Senate, although didn’t make any waves at first, since a then-Republican-led Home and Senate didn’t support the legislation.


Democrats reintroduced the bill in March right after they regained control of the Residence while in the 2018 midterm elections. The move didn’t come as a surprise: case in point, in a speech on October 16, 2017, at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, Democratic Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California (who is currently the Residence Majority Leader) promised that passing the Equality Act could be a top priority once Democrats won control of the Home of Representatives. In the end eight Republicans voted for the bill in the House; Republicans preserve most of them in the Senate.


Neither the Senate nor the Trump White Home are unlikely to show support any time the bill shows up before them. And there have been sweeping deconstructions to protections for LGBTQ people in the U.S. Since Trump took office in 2017. Among other moves, the Justice Department sided with a cake shop owner who resisted to create a wedding cake for a same-sex couple citing religious freedom; the administration rescinded a Obama-era guidance for schools that was intended to protect transgender students in restrooms; the administration attempted to redefine gender under Title IX as purely a biological condition decided by a person’s genitalia at birth; they banned most transgender people from serving in the military; and rejected complaints from transgender students who are blocked from using the restroom that matches their gender identity.


“Despite significant advances, LGBT[Q] people across the nation remain weak at risk of discrimination on a day-to-day basis and also often have little recourse,” Rep. Cicilline told The Times. “It is past time for the Equality Act to be written into law.”