The Supreme Court’s Bostock v. Clayton County ruling protects employees against discrimination because of their sexual orientation or gender identity – which President Biden reinforced with an executive order. How would the Equality Act strengthen federal employment protections for LGBTQ people?

In June 2020, the Supreme Court ruled in Bostock v. Clayton County that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act prohibits employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity because they are types of sex discrimination. While this landmark ruling is a crucial step forward in addressing discrimination against LGBTQ people, the Equality Act is still necessary.

President Biden issued an executive order directing agencies to appropriately interpret the Bostock ruling to apply not just to employment discrimination, but to other areas of law where sex discrimination is prohibited, including education, housing, and health care. However, a future administration may refuse to interpret the law this way, leaving these protections vulnerable. The Court’s extension of employment discrimination protections may also be narrowed by a future Court. Congress must codify the Bostock decision by passing the Equality Act to ensure future courts and administrations fully enforce non-discrimination laws.

How does the Equality Act help women?

Our nation’s civil rights laws have long needed an update for the modern world. For example, women are not protected from discrimination on the basis of sex in public accommodations or federally funded programs. The Equality Act would extend protections to millions of women to ensure they don’t have to live in fear of harassment or discrimination.

It would ensure that women cannot be charged more than men by a dry cleaner for laundering a shirt, or that breastfeeding women are not harassed or excluded from public spaces, or that women aren’t turned away from a pharmacy that is refusing to fill a birth control prescription. 

How does the Equality Act help people of color? 

It modernizes public accommodations law to provide increased protections to people of color by updating the public spaces and services covered in current Civil Rights laws to include retail stores, services such as banks and legal services, and transportation services. For example, it would ensure that taxis and car-sharing services cannot refuse service to Black people, and that stores can’t refuse entrance to a Latino person. Many people of color have additional historically marginalized identities that too often compound experiences with discrimination. The Equality Act would make it easier for people who experience discrimination based on two aspects of their identity, such as a Black woman or a gay Asian man, to bring claims.

How does the Equality Act impact religious freedom?

Religious freedom is a fundamental American value, and protecting religious liberty is entirely compatible with protecting LGBTQ people from discrimination. The Equality Act furthers the principle of religious freedom by expanding and enhancing non-discrimination protections for people of all faiths.

The current religious exemptions available under federal civil rights law will be unchanged, this would simply expand protections for people of all faiths. For instance, a person could no longer be denied a ride by a car share service because of their faith or harassed in a store for wearing symbols of their faith or religious garb. 

How does the Equality Act impact Title IX protections?

We can all agree that all kids should be treated with dignity and respect. Kids learn a lot of important life lessons in sports: leadership, confidence, self-respect, and what it means to be part of a team. Transgender kids, like other students, deserve the same chances to learn teamwork, sportsmanship, leadership and self-discipline, and to build a sense of belonging with their peers. When we tell transgender girls that they can’t play girls’ sports – or transgender boys that they can’t play boys’ sports – they miss out on this important childhood experience and all the lessons it teaches.

Schools across the nation are already creating policies that protect transgender youth and ensure a level playing field for all students, and athletic associations across the country, such as the NCAA and IOC, have found for many years that equal participation for LGBTQ student athletes – including girls and women who are transgender – does not harm women’s and girls’ sports in any way. We can celebrate girls’ sports and protect transgender youth from discrimination, making sure that all young people can access the lessons and opportunities that sports afford. This is what the Equality Act is all about: whether LGBTQ people should be treated fairly across all areas of life – or whether they can be unfairly discriminated against because of who they are. 

There are real issues with gender parity in sports, when it comes to funding, resources, pay equity, and more. Promoting baseless fears about LGBTQ student athletes does nothing to address those real problems.The Equality Act also does not change protections for women under Title IX. Rather, Title IX will remain a remedy to any student who experiences sex discrimination. 

Does the Equality Act change what is considered a “public accommodation”?

Yes. In addition to the places of public accommodation included in the original 1964 Civil Rights Act, the Equality Act includes providers of goods and services like stores, accountants, and banks as places of public accommodation. 

Importantly, the Equality Act would prohibit legal services, food banks, salons, and stores from discriminating against LGBTQ people at the federal level. Transportation providers including trains, taxis, and airlines are also included within the bill and are prohibited from discriminating as places of public accommodation. 

These revisions make the Equality Act more consistent with the Americans with Disabilities Act as well as many state public accommodation laws.