Joe Biden has pledged to prioritize passing a landmark LGBTQ+ anti-discrimination bill in his first 100 days as president.
“To help achieve our vision of equality, I will make enactment of the Equality Act a top legislative priority during my first 100 days—a priority that Donald Trump opposes,” Biden said in a Q&A with the Philadelphia Gay News. “This is essential to ensuring that no future president can ever again roll back civil rights and protections for LGBTQ+ individuals, including when it comes to housing.”
The Equality Act would “amend existing civil rights law—including the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Fair Housing Act, the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, the Jury Selection and Services Act, and several laws regarding employment with the federal government—to explicitly include sexual orientation and gender identity as protected characteristics. The legislation also amends the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to prohibit discrimination in public spaces and services and federally funded programs on the basis of sex.”
So, kinda a big step forward. Of course, Biden needs a Democratic Senate to get this done.
In the Q&A, Biden also pledged to “champion passage of the Ruthie and Connie LGBT Elder Americans Act, which will end discriminatory passages and ensure LGBTQ+ seniors have equal access to services outlined by the Older Americans Act.” He said he would treat LGBTQ rights as a matter for global leadership in relations with brutally discriminatory countries. He explicitly included LGBTQ people in his ongoing promise to build an administration that looks like America. And he specifically addressed the ongoing Republican campaign to use religious freedom to justify discrimination, saying: “Religion should not be used as a license to discriminate, and as president I will oppose legislation to deny LGBTQ+ equal treatment in public places.”