Equality Act would expand the Civil Rights Act to explicitly protect LGBTQ+ individuals
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator John Hickenlooper joined a group of Senate and House Democrats to reintroduce the Equality Act, which bans discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in housing, education, employment, public accommodations, federal funding, and more.
“Love is love. Colorado will always fight for everyone to be free to love who they love and be who they are,” said Hickenlooper. “These basic, nationwide protections are long overdue.”
Specifically, the Equality Act would amend the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964 to explicitly add sexual orientation and gender identity to longstanding bans on discrimination in employment, housing, public accommodations, jury service, education, access to credit, federal funding, and more. It would also add protections against sex discrimination in parts of anti-discrimination laws where these protections had not been included previously, such as public accommodations and federal funding.
Hickenlooper originally introduced this legislation in 2023. Before that, in 2022, he voted in support of the bipartisan Respect for Marriage Act, which protects marriage equality and guarantees same-sex and interracial couples the same rights afforded to all other marriages.
As governor of Colorado, Hickenlooper signed into law legislation that allowed same-sex couples to enter into civil unions in 2013. Same-sex marriage became legal in Colorado in 2014. Hickenlooper also signed a law to expand the Family and Medical Leave Act in Colorado to include same-sex partners.
Full text of the legislation is available HERE. A section by section summary is available HERE.
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