If signed into law, the Equality Act would provide across-the-board protections for LGBTQ Americans in the United States in housing, employment, and other public accommodations

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According to MAP, 26 states current provide zero non-discrimination protections for LGBTQ Americans. 

NEW YORK – GLAAD, the world’s largest LGBTQ media advocacy organization, today praised Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the United States House of Representatives for passing the Equality Act. The bill would amend the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to include protections for LGBTQ Americans on the basis of employment, housing, public accommodations – among others – across the country. Currently, LGBTQ Americans receive zero non-discrimination protections in 26 states.

“LGBTQ Americans are one step closer to being protected by federal law instead of living in a country where hard-working Americans in a majority of states can be fired from their jobs, denied housing opportunities, and turned away from other critical services – including access to health care – simply for being who they are. Fairness should never be a partisan political issue, and the Senate should pass this bill without delay,” said Sarah Kate Ellis, President and CEO of GLAAD.

Ellis praised the leadership of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi following the vote.

“The Equality Act’s passage wouldn’t have been possible without Speaker Pelosi holding the gavel,” Ellis said. “Speaker Pelosi has made full LGBTQ equality under the law a cornerstone of her career, and her leadership today reminds us once more what a staunch ally she is.”

If signed into law, the Equality Act would update the existing Civil Rights Act of 1964 by ushering in across-the-board protections for Americans regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity. This means protections in employment, housing, credit, education, and public accommodations would be guaranteed for LGBTQ Americans under this law.

The Equality Act would also come at a time when the most anti-LGBTQ government in recent memory has attacked LGBTQ people at every turn. Since taking office, the Trump Administration has unleashed more than 106 attacks against LGBTQ Americans in policy and rhetoric, all of which could be found on GLAAD’s Trump Accountability Project (TAP) by going to www.glaad.org/trump.

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