Q Center

February 12, 2024

About the Equality Act – Policy Post February 2024

Laws that Outlined Civil Protections

In 1964, the landmark passage of the Civil Rights Act prohibited discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin. As a result, discrimination on the basis of someone’s race, color, religion, sex or national origin in voting rights, employment, public accommodations, and against people who received federal financial assistance, was prohibited. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 paved the way for the Equal Employment Opportunity Act of 1972 that would prohibit discrimination on the basis of someone’s race, color, religion, sex or national origin in the workplace. However, none of these landmark Acts extended protections to LGBTQ+ people on the basis of gender identity or sexual orientation. Ten years after the Civil Rights Act was passed in the US Congress, the Equality Act, H.R. 14752, was introduced in the US House of Representatives in 19741. The bill defined sexual orientation and prohibited discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, marital status and sex. Despite the many efforts to push for the passage of this bill, the bill was not made into a federal law.

Reintroduction of the Equality Act

In 2015, the Equality Act was reintroduced in the US Congress and was followed by numerous different versions of the Equality Act but none of them have passed into law. This includes the latest effort, the- H.R.15 – the Equality Act – that was introduced in the House of Representatives in 20232. Versions of the Equality Act introduced after 2015 took a different tactic from previous attempts. H.R.15 differed from H.R. 14752 becuase it redefined the protected characteristic of “sex” from the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by expanding it to include sexual orientation and gender identity. As a result, the expanded definition would prohibit voting, employment, public service, and federal financial assistance discrimination on the basis of gender identity and sexual orientation.

Introduction and Passage of Anti-LGBTQ+ Legislation Across the United States

Since 2018, 1,035 anti-LGBTQ+ state bills have been introduced3. As of May 2023 and of those state bills introduced, 105 anti-LGBTQ+ state bills have been passed that have disrupted and deeply impacted the lives of the LGBTQ+ community and have changed the political landscape. These state bills are predicated on discrimination under the guise of contributing to the general welfare of the public. The reality is that people in our community are harmed and marginalized by these bills because they remove access to lifesaving and vital healthcare services like reproductive or gender-affirming care, restrict the use of public spaces like bathrooms, and promote transphobic discrimination against trans athletes in schools and institutes of higher education. The Equality Act aims to address these threats to our community on the federal level. By making the Equality Act into a federal law, it would amend the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and subsequently provide our community with expanded protections under federal law to better protect us against anti-LGBTQ+ state bills.

Where to Find Updates and Resources

Organizations like the National LGBTQ Task Force, HRC, or the ACLU provide national updates. Local organizations like the Washington State LGBTQ Commission and the UW Q Center’s website are great resources that provide additional information and updates for the LGTBQ+ community.

Footnotes

  1. H.R. 14752 (1974) ↩︎
  2. H.R 3185 (2015), H.R. 2282 (2017), H.R.5 (2019, 2021), and H.R.15 (2023) ↩︎
  3. Rogers K. Over 100 Anti-LGBTQ+ Laws Passed In The Last Five Years — Half Of Them This Year. FiveThirtyEight. Published May 25, 2023. https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/anti-lgbtq-laws-red-states/#fn-1 ↩︎