Rep. Chu Celebrates Passage of Equality Act

Statement

The House of Representatives today voted to pass H.R. 5, the Equality Act, which updates the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and other statutes to prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity in employment, public education, access to credit, jury service, federal funding, housing, and public accommodations. Rep. Judy Chu (CA-27), Vice-Chair of the House LGBT Equality Caucus, issued the following statement:

"Americans speak of freedom and equality, and yet it is still legal in many states to deny housing, credit, education, employment, and more to somebody simply because of who they love or how they identify. That is unacceptable. And today, we took our first step towards correcting that by passing the Equality Act to give LGBT Americans the legal protections they deserve. Just as the obvious prejudice of the civil rights era compelled Congress to act, passing the historic Civil Rights Act, so are we compelled to act today by the attempts to make LGBT individuals into second class citizens. Your ability to succeed in this country should be defined by your own abilities and hard work, not by somebody else's prejudice. And I am proud that we have the support of not only civil rights groups but many business organizations as well. It is a powerful display to the country that discrimination isn't just harmful to people's lives, it's harmful to our economy as whole. With such wide support, I hope the Senate does the right thing by considering this bill as soon as possible."

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