Norton, Former EEOC Chair, Says New DOL LGBT Directive is a Major Anti-Discrimination Milestone

Press Release

Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), a former chair of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), said the Department of Labor has opened an important new protection against job discrimination by issuing a directive this week that updates guidance on sex discrimination laws by, for the first time, including protections for claims of discrimination based on transgender status and gender identity. The directive, based on EEOC and Title VII case law, builds upon President Lyndon B. Johnson's Executive Order (EO) 11246 that prohibits federal contractors and subcontractors from discriminating in employment decisions on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. The DOL directive clarifies that gender identity- and transgender-based discrimination are forms of sex discrimination prohibited under President Johnson's EO. In July, President Obama issued an EO prohibiting federal contractors seeking new contracts with the federal government from discriminating against employees based on sexual orientation or gender identity. In March, Norton and other Members of Congress wrote to the President asking for him to sign such an executive order barring federal contractors from engaging in employment discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) Americans. Both the DOL directive and President Obama's EO prohibit federal contractors from discriminating against applicants and employees on the basis of their gender identity. Currently, there is no federal law that prohibits companies from discriminating against their employees based on sexual orientation, transgender status, or gender identity.

"This new directive from the Department of Labor, this sacrosanct protection which takes effect immediately, is a very significant step forward for LGBT Americans," Norton said. "What President Lyndon B. Johnson did in 1965 with Executive Order 11246 reflected the protections of that era. The Department of Labor has updated protections based on what we now know about discrimination. This latest directive, including the President's executive action earlier this year to bar discrimination against LGBT federal contract workers, reminds Congress of its obligation to take the necessary legal action to protect all lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) Americans from workplace discrimination by finally passing the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) before the 113th Congress is finished."

ENDA would ban workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Norton has been pressing for House passage of ENDA since she was first elected to Congress. The bill has special meaning for Norton because it amends Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, barring job discrimination, which she enforced as chair of the EEOC. The bill currently has 205 cosponsors in the House of Representatives.

Norton has been a longtime leader for LGBT rights. After the District of Columbia passed its marriage equality law, Norton was successful in defeating several attempts in the House and Senate to repeal the law.

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