House and Senate Democrats reintroduced the Equality Act this morning, a bill that would add LGBTQ+ anti-discrimination protections to the 1964 Civil Rights Act. This is the sixth time the bill has been introduced since 2015.

Democrats held an almost hour-long press conference this morning to reintroduce the bill. Speakers included out Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), out Rep. Mark Takano (D-CA), out Rep. Chris Pappas (D-NH), Speaker Emeritus Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ), Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), and Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR).

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“Freedom is the right to participate fully in every aspect of our national life,” Merkley declared to open the press conference. “Freedom is the right to live as your authentic self without fear… Freedom is the right to be treated as equal with all other Americans.”

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“Since day one of this administration,” he continued, “our authoritarian president and his lackeys have been trying to erase and endanger LGBTQ+ Americans by greenlighting discrimination against the entire community in critical aspects of daily life… with particularly vicious attacks on transgender Americans.”

“No one should be discriminated against because of who they are or whom they love. That is why we must pass the Equality Act,” he said.

Takano added that he has “whole, complete, and total” faith in the constitution and that “we have seen and overcome darker times before.” He reminded listeners that being out was once “nearly impossible” and “our existence was [once] universally criminalized.”

“We were born for this fight,” he declared, adding that LGBTQ+ people have inherited “grit, persistence, and incomparable strength” from their ancestors. “We will not stop until the Equality Act is the law of the land.”

The legislation remains unlikely to pass while Republicans control both Congress and the executive branch. A press release from the Human Rights Campaign states that recent polling shows over 75% of Americans support the act.

During his 2020 presidential campaign, Joe Biden pledged to sign the Equality Act within his first 100 days in office. The landmark legislation was one of the central promises made by the Biden campaign to LGBTQ people. Of course, it did not succeed. The House of Representatives did pass the bill, but it was never taken up in the Senate.

The Equality Act has been introduced in every session of Congress since 2015 (though the original version of the bill was proposed in 1974). In 2019, the House of Representatives passed the bill for the first time, but the Republican-controlled Senate did not even bring it up for a vote.

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