About the bill
Should the 1964 law which outlawed race discrimination be updated to include LGBT individuals too?
Context
Great strides have been made this decade for legal equality based on sexual orientation or gender identity, including permitting openly gay troops in the military and the Supreme Court legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide. However, both those gains came at the federal level.
28 states still allow discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity on the state level, including in such sectors as employment and housing.
States used to similarly allow other forms of discrimination, before the Civil Rights Act of 1964 banned any discrimination or segregation on the basis of four categories: race, color, religion, or national origin.
What the legislation does
The Equality Act would add sexual orientation and gender identity to …
Sponsor and status
116th Congress (2019–2021)
This bill was introduced in a previous session of Congress and was passed by the House on May 17, 2019 but was never passed by the Senate.
Although this bill was not enacted, its provisions could have become law by being included in another bill. It is common for legislative text to be introduced concurrently in multiple bills (called companion bills), re-introduced in subsequent sessions of Congress in new bills, or added to larger bills (sometimes called omnibus bills).
240 Cosponsors (236 Democrats, 4 Republicans)
Position statements
What legislators are saying
“Congressman Al Green Commemorates LGBTQ+ Pride Month”
—
Rep. Al Green [D-TX9]
(Co-sponsor)
on Jun 27, 2020
“Bonamici Statement on Supreme Court Ruling on Anti-LGBTQ Workplace Discrimination”
—
Rep. Suzanne Bonamici [D-OR1]
(Co-sponsor)
on Jun 15, 2020
“Following SCOTUS ruling on LGBTQ discrimination, Carper, Coons lead push to bring Equality Act to a vote”
—
Sen. Christopher Coons [D-DE]
on Jun 18, 2020
More statements at ProPublica Represent...
What stakeholders are saying
History
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Jul 23, 2015
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Earlier Version —
Introduced
This activity took place on a related bill, H.R. 3185 (114th). |
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May 2, 2017
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Earlier Version —
Introduced
This activity took place on a related bill, H.R. 2282 (115th). |
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Mar 13, 2019
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Introduced
Bills and resolutions are referred to committees which debate the bill before possibly sending it on to the whole chamber. |
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May 1, 2019
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Ordered Reported
A committee has voted to issue a report to the full chamber recommending that the bill be considered further. Only about 1 in 4 bills are reported out of committee. |
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May 10, 2019
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Reported by House Committee on the Judiciary
A committee issued a report on the bill, which often provides helpful explanatory background on the issue addressed by the bill and the bill's intentions. |
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May 17, 2019
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Passed House (Senate next)
The bill was passed in a vote in the House. It goes to the Senate next. |
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Feb 25, 2021
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Reintroduced Bill —
Passed House (Senate next)
This activity took place on a related bill, H.R. 5 (117th). |
H.R. 5 (116th) was a bill in the United States Congress.
A bill must be passed by both the House and Senate in identical form and then be signed by the President to become law.
Bills numbers restart every two years. That means there are other bills with the number H.R. 5. This is the one from the 116th Congress.
This bill was introduced in the 116th Congress, which met from Jan 3, 2019 to Jan 3, 2021. Legislation not passed by the end of a Congress is cleared from the books.
How to cite this information.
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Where is this information from?
GovTrack automatically collects legislative information from a variety of governmental and non-governmental sources. This page is sourced primarily from Congress.gov, the official portal of the United States Congress. Congress.gov is generally updated one day after events occur, and so legislative activity shown here may be one day behind. Data via the congress project.
