House votes to pass Equality Act, prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender
Source: Washington Post
The House on Thursday voted to pass the Equality Act, a far-reaching measure that has been decades in the making and would prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. The legislation was passed by the House in 2019 but blocked in the Republican-led Senate. This time around, Democrats now control the White House, House and Senate. President Biden has signaled his support for the measure, but it still faces an uphill fight in the Senate, where it would need 60 votes to break a legislative filibuster.
“We have passed it in the House before — the Equality Act, H.R. 5, to end discrimination against the LGBTQ community,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said at a news conference at the Capitol Thursday morning. “This time, it will be not only passed in the House, but on a path to a signing at the White House. We’re very excited about that.” After a tense and often personal debate, the House voted 224-to-206 for the measure, with three Republicans joining all Democrats to vote "yes."
The legislation would amend federal civil rights laws to ensure protections for LGBTQ Americans in employment, education, housing, credit, jury service and other areas. It is a top legislative priority of President Biden, who in a statement last week called the bill “a critical step toward ensuring that America lives up to our foundational values of equality and freedom for all.” A number of religious denominations are lobbying against the measure, saying its lack of religious exemptions creates one of the most sweeping challenges to religious liberty in decades.
Groups including the Church of Latter-day Saints, Orthodox Jews and Seventh-day Adventists, among others, say it could halt free and reduced lunches for children across the country who attend single-gender parochial schools, require church community halls to rent space for LGBT ceremonies and could threaten federal security grants for synagogues and mosques facing violence because of their faiths.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/congress-sexual-orientation-civil-rights-gender/2021/02/25/1351bea4-7779-11eb-8115-9ad5e9c02117_story.html
Full headline: House votes to pass Equality Act, prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity
LONG overdue and typical that that the majority of the GOP would vote against it (although 3 voted for it). 
= new reply since forum marked as read
TY House Dems!
