House Announces Floor Vote Tuesday on the Equality Act

The President promised the most significant piece of LGBTQ legislation in the history of this nation in the first 100 days. This afternoon House Majority Leader Steny Hoys, who manages the floor proceedings in the House affirmed in a “Dear Colleague” letter the Equality Act would be one of two pieces of legislation the chamber will take up next Tuesday.
Congress is heading full steam ahead with the Equality Act, legislation to expand LGBTQ civil rights protections with a full house floor vote next week. Hoyer wrote “ Coming to the floor next week is the Equality Act, which will end legal discrimination against LGBTQ Americans.” Katie Drew Grant, a Hoyer spokesperson, predicted the legislation may come next Thursday, but added that could shift as coronavirus relief legislation comes together and gets scheduled.
Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.) and Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) are set to introduce the Equality Act in their respective chambers of Congress as they have in years past.
Although the Supreme Court decision last year in Bostock v. Clayton County extended vast protections for LGBTQ people under federal law, securing a prohibition against anti-LGBTQ discrimination in the workplace sought for decades by movement leaders as well as all areas of civil rights law where sex discrimination is prohibited, the Equality Act would take things a step further. The Equality Act would take last year's Supreme Court decision in Bostock a gigantic step farther. In addition to the explicit declaration that anti-LGBTQ discrimination is a form of sex discrimination in employment, education, housing, jury service and credit, the Equality Act would amend the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to prohibit discrimination on the basis of sex and LGBTQ status in public accommodations and federal programs. Further, the Equality Act would expand the definition of public accommodations under federal civil rights law to include retail stores, banks, transportation services, and health care services.
The legislation would also establish that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act — a 1994 law aimed at protecting religious liberty — can’t be used to enable anti-LGBTQ discrimination. Queer News Tonight has been broadcasting since January 6, 2020. Today is very likely the most important news we have ever brought to LGBTQ America. Until the Equality Act passes.