➤ GOP BILL WITH OPT-OUTS, from p.6
the law for LGBTQ Americans. The
Senate should bring the Equality
Act up without further delay.”
Another out gay member of Congress,
Sean Patrick Maloney of
New York’s Hudson Valley, warned
the public to avoid getting fooled by
a bill that he said has nothing to
do with fairness.
“The bipartisan Equality Act
is the only bill in the House that
will bring equal protections under
the law for LGBTQ people,” he said
in a written statement to Gay City
News. “This weak legislative stunt
by the Republican Party won’t deter
us in our fi ght for true equality.”
Additional out LGBTQ members
of Congress voiced similar feelings.
Mark Pocan of Wisconsin described
the bill as the “so-called” Fairness
For All Act and said in a written
statement that it “is an attempt to
codify bigotry, plan and simple.”
“This bill would allow religious
organizations and people to discriminate
against LGBTQ communities,”
he explained. “Legalizing
discrimination against any person
for their sexual orientation or gender
identity is unacceptable and
this bill should be seen for what it
is — a deliberate attempt to legalize
prejudice.”
Out lesbian Representatives
Sharice Davids of Kansas and Angie
Craig of Minnesota did not immediately
return requests for comment.
The American Civil Liberties
Union expectedly ripped the bill.
ACLU national political director
Ronnie Newman said in a written
statement that “this bill facilitates
efforts to allow taxpayer-funded
discrimination, undermines existing
civil rights protections, and
gives a green light to turning LGBTQ
people away from jobs, health
care, housing, and more.”
He continued, “The bill would
change the critical balance between
our fundamental values of
religious liberty and prohibiting
discrimination that Congress already
struck in the Civil Rights
Act of 1964 in order to license more
discrimination. There’s no reason
laws prohibiting discrimination
should be different for LGBTQ people.”
A joint statement from numerous
civil rights and other advocacy
groups — incluing Human Rights
Campaign, GLAAD, Lambda Legal,
PFLAG National, the Transgender
Law Center, the National Black
Justice Coalition, National Queer
Asian Pacifi c Islander Alliance, the
American Civil Liberties Union,
Americans United for Separation
of Church and State, the Center for
American Progress, the Leadership
Conference on Civil and Human
Rights, and the NAACP — stated,
“The ‘Fairness for All’ Act is anything
but fair, and it certainly does
not serve all of us. It is an affront
to existing civil rights protections
that protect people on the basis
of race, sex, and religion and creates
new, substandard protections
for LGBTQ people with massive
loopholes and carve-outs, and upends
critical federal programs that
serve children in need. This legislation
is deeply dangerous for many
reasons, mainly because it would
erode protections that already exist
for people based on race, sex,
and religion, rolling back protections
that have been on the books
for decades. It would expand the
number of places and situations
in which lawful discrimination
could occur. At the same time, it
would introduce new, problematic
provisions purportedly seeking to
prohibit discrimination based on
sex, sexual orientation and gender
identity with broad exemptions,
essentially licensing discrimination
against LGBTQ people and
women.”
A different tone, however, came in
a written reaction from the Transgender
People of Color Coalition.
Its director, Kylar Broadus, stated,
“Today’s endorsement of federal
antidiscrimination protections by
conservative religious organizations
marks a historic moment in
the struggle for full equality for
LGBTQ people. Especially for LGBTQ
people of color living in conservative
communities, building
bridges across political and religious
divides is essential to securing
the basic legal protections that
our community so urgently needs.
While we are still analyzing the
details of this specifi c bill, we welcome
the opportunity to work with
all those who support equality and
freedom for LGBTQ people.”
WHEREVER YOU ARE
OUR LARGE SELECTION OF
DOCTORS & SPECIALISTS IS THERE FOR YOU.
Health Plan
Now is your chance to
join our health plan.
Call 1.855.809.4073
or visit metroplus.org.
WE’RE METROPLUS. WE’RE NEW YORK CITY.
MKT 19.119
GayCityNews.com | December 19, 2019 - January 1, 2020 7
MET2794 City Colors Campaign 2019 - CNG - HALF 8.75x5.6875.indd 3 11/19/19 4:53 PM
/metroplus.org
/GayCityNews.com
