POLITICS
Schumer Discusses Equality Act at Town Hall
Pressure on Senate to solidify LGBTQ nondiscrimination protections nationwide
BY TAT BELLAMY-WALKER
Senate Majority Leader
Chuck Schumer, New
York’s senior senator,
wants voters to put heat
on lawmakers to pass the Equality
Act, a bill that would solidify comprehensive
nondiscrimination protections
for LGBTQ Americans.
“You don’t leave bigotry up to the
states,” Schumer said on April 8
during a virtual town hall meeting
on the Equality Act. “You try and
stomp it out.”
The New Pride Agenda, a statewide
LGBTQ advocacy group, and
Freedom for All Americans, a bipartisan
campaign advocating for
LGBTQ nondiscrimination protections,
hosted the virtual Zoom town
hall meeting. Activist Cecilia Gentili,
who serves as a project manager
for New Pride Agenda, spoke
with Senator Schumer about his
plans to garner enough support to
pass the legislation.
The Equality Act would build
on the Supreme Court victory in
the Bostock case last year by affi
rming discrimination protections
for LGBTQ people across housing,
healthcare, education, and other
areas of public life. Out gay Representative
David Cicilline of Rhode
Island is the bill’s lead sponsor in
the lower house, where it passed
in February for the fi rst time since
2019. The bill has been introduced
in the Senate, but faces long odds
in a divided upper chamber still
saddled by the fi libuster.
Still, advocates are expressing
optimism after Democrats narrowly
regained control of the Senate
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer wants advocates to maintain pressure on lawmakers to pass the Equality Act
and ousted former President Donald
Trump.
“We’ve been fi ghting for these
kinds of protections forever,” Gentili
said. “With your leadership and
the leadership of Speaker Pelosi
and having President Biden in the
Whitehouse, we have never had a
better chance.”
During the Q&A, Gentili questioned
Schumer on his response
to opponents of the legislation and
about his plans to defeat the fi libuster.
Gentili acknowledged that
overcoming the fi libuster would be
a challenge.
“In case the fi libuster is still
a thing, will you work with colleagues
on the other side of the
aisle to pass this bill? And get
those 60 votes?” she asked.
“We have no choice,” Schumer
responded. “I don’t want this to be
a partisan issue; this should be an
American issue… We are going to
work very hard to get our Republican
colleagues to join us.”
Schumer reassured viewers on
the Zoom that he has the power
to bring bills to the Senate fl oor
as he noted that the Equality Act
is “very popular with the American
people.”
The senator also took a jab at
Mitch McConnell, the Senate minority
leader, who stood in the way
of legislation such as the Equality
Act when he led the upper chamber.
In the lower house this year,
three Republicans — Tom Reed
of New York’s Ithaca region, John
Katko of Syracuse, and Brian Fitzpatrick
of Pennsylvania — voted
in favor of the bill, down from the
eight GOP lawmakers who voted
for it in 2019.
“McConnell didn’t want to force
anybody to vote on it, but I will,”
Schumer said.
He added, “The Equality Act will
get a vote in the Senate. Every senator
will be forced to show where
they stand on this issue. They
won’t be able to duck and hide.”
The Zoom event also touched on
pressing issues beyond the Equality
REUTERS/ERIN SCOTT
Act. With more than a dozen
transgender people violently killed
thus far in 2021, advocates asked
about the senator’s plans to combat
deadly attacks on the trans
community. Schumer noted that
Congress would take up a bill to
address the rising anti-LGBTQ
and anti-trans hate crimes, which
he attributed in part to the homophobia
and transphobia of the
Trump administration.
“In America, there has always
been, unfortunately, bigotry, but the
better forces and the better souls always
try to push it down,” Schumer
said. “Trump encouraged it.”
Even with Trump out of the way,
passing legislation like the Equality
Act is still proving to be a diffi
cult battle. The Supreme Court’s
ruling in the Bostock case last
year marked a step forward in the
fi ght for nationwide protections,
but LGBTQ rights vary at the state
and local level — and Gentili underscored
that point as she made
her own case for swift passage of
the Equality Act.
“Every time I go to another state,
I have to look at how the laws look,”
Gentili said. “Some of us have to
think twice before visiting family
or traveling or even if we want to
move out of New York.”
April 22 - May 5,16 2021 | GayCityNews.com
/GayCityNews.com
