Mucarsel-Powell Votes to Pass Historic Equality Act to End Discrimination Against All LGBTQ Americans

Press Release

Today, U.S. Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell (FL-26), member of the Judiciary Committee, voted to pass H.R. 5, the Equality Act, to ensure that all LGBTQ Americans are granted the full protections guaranteed by federal civil rights law. The Equality Act extends anti-discrimination protections to LGBTQ Americans with regard to employment, education, access to credit, jury service, federal funding, housing and public accommodations.

"Protecting every American from discrimination is not only a fundamental value of our country, it's essential for the health of our economy. For the first time in American history, we passed legislation that would add protections for a community that has been ignored for too long. The Equality Act ensures that no one can lose their job or home because of whom they love or who they are. It finally includes protections for our LGBTQ community that are inherent in the Constitution for all Americans. This is the United States of America. Equality Matters. As we say in Key West, and I'm proud to say in Congress: we are all one human family."

Fifty percent of the national LGBTQ community still live in states where, though they have the right to marry, they have no explicit non-discrimination protections in other areas of daily life. Only 21 states have explicit laws barring discrimination based on sexual orientation in employment, housing and public accommodations, and only 20 states have such protections for gender identity. In most states, a same-sex couple can get married one day and legally denied service at a restaurant, be fired from their jobs or evicted from their apartment the next. The Equality Act amends existing federal civil rights laws to create a nationwide standard that explicitly prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.

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