Pres. Obama Endorses Legislation to Add Sexual Orientation to ’64 Civil Rights Act
The White House endorsed legislation Tuesday that would amend the 1964 Civil Rights Act to ban discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity, plunging into the next front in the national battle over LGBT rights.
Speaking to reporters, White House press secretary Josh Earnest said the administration has been reviewing the bill “for several weeks.” “It is now clear that the administration strongly supports the Equality Act,” he said, adding that it would advance the civil rights of “millions of Americans.”
Earnest said the White House will work to ensure that the legislative process produces something that balances “the bedrock principles of civil rights with the religious liberty that we hold dear in this country.”
Although there is little chance that this Congress will approve the legislation — which was introduced in July by Democratic Sens. Jeff Merkley (Ore.), Tammy Baldwin (Wis.) and Cory Booker (N.J.) — President Obama’s support elevates to greater prominence the question of whether lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans need greater legal safeguards. Last week, Houston residents rejected an ordinance that would have barred discrimination against gay and transgender people after opponents said it would allow men disguised as women to enter women’s restrooms.
The White House’s endorsement of the Equality Act came on the same day that Obama became the first sitting U.S. president to be featured on the cover of an LGBT publication, after he was named OUT magazine’s “Ally of the Year” for 2015.
[Obama’s mother and an Occidental professor shaped his views on gay rights ]
In the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision in June to legalize same-sex marriage, activists have been pressing for expanded protections based on sexual orientation and gender identity beyond employment discrimination, which had been the traditional focus of legislation in the past. A bill that would have banned workplace discrimination passed the Senate with bipartisan support in 2013 but did not advance in the House.
With Republicans now in control of both chambers of Congress, there is little chance that the Equality Act, which has the support of 37 Democrats and two independents in the Senate and 170 Democrats in the House, will become law before Obama leaves office.
Still, the decision by the nation’s first African American president to back the measure is significant. Some of the nation’s leading civil rights groups — including the NAACP and the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights — have been slow to endorse the legislation.
Although those groups support the idea of a broad LGBT anti-discrimination bill in concept, they have been skeptical about reopening the landmark 1964 law for revisions.
Wade Henderson, president of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, said in an interview that the civil rights community has “supported the concept of the Equality Act from its very inception.”
“It recognizes, however, there are questions that could benefit from further analysis,” he added. “Before it moves forward, there’s hope that those can be addressed.”
A majority of Americans, including Republicans, say in public surveys that they back civil rights safeguards based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Over the past six months, for example, the Public Religion Research Institute has found overall support at 68 percent or higher.
After Earnest’s announcement Tuesday, Human Rights Campaign President Chad Griffin said in a statement that “the White House sent a strong message that it’s time to put the politics of discrimination behind us once and for all.”
“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 non-discrimination protections,” Griffin added.
Although support for protecting gay men and lesbians has traditionally had greater political support than safeguards for transgender Americans, a series of lawsuits as well as the media coverage about celebrities such as Caitlyn Jenner and Laverne Cox have increased the profile of transgender people. Jenner accepted Glamour magazine’s “Woman of the Year” award Monday night; Cox was one of the award’s recipients last year.
On Tuesday, the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Iowa and lawyers at the Des Moines law firm Babich Goldman filed a complaint with the Iowa Civil Rights Commission against the Drury Inn for discriminating against a black transgender woman in July.
Meagan Taylor and a friend, who also is black and transgender, checked into the hotel in West Des Moines on their way to a funeral and were interrogated by the staff there, according to the complaint. At some point between check-in and the next morning, the ACLU statement said, Drury Inn staff members called the police to report that they suspected Taylor and her friend were prostitutes because they were “men dressed like women,” and Taylor was arrested and placed in solitary confinement.
Local police charged Taylor with possessing hormone pills without a copy of the prescription, but those charges were later dropped.
“This ordeal was humiliating, scary and traumatizing,” Taylor said in the complaint. “I felt powerless and degraded. I realized I was not welcome in a public place simply because of who I am.”
Juliet Eilperin is The Washington Post's White House bureau chief, covering domestic and foreign policy as well as the culture of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. She is the author of two books—one on sharks, and another on Congress, not to be confused with each other—and has worked for the Post since 1998.
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