Washington, D.C. – Colorado U.S. Senator Michael Bennet today joined his colleagues in introducing historic, comprehensive federal legislation—the bipartisan Equality Act of 2019—to ban discrimination against LGBTQ Americans.
“It is far past time for federal laws to be entirely free from discrimination,” Bennet said. “We owe it to everyone in the LGBTQ community to pass the Equality Act and right these injustices once and for all.”
Despite major advances in equality for LGBTQ Americans, including nationwide marriage equality, the majority of states still do not have explicit LGBTQ non-discrimination protection laws
The Equality Act of 2019 would ensure LGBTQ people have the same non-discrimination protections as other Americans by adding sexual orientation and gender identity, alongside protected characteristics like race and religion, to existing federal laws. The bill would explicitly ban discrimination in a host of areas, including employment, housing, public accommodations, jury service, access to credit, and federal funding. The bill would also add protections against sex discrimination to federal laws where they had not been included previously, including those addressing public accommodations and federal funding.
The bill text is available HERE.