The Equality Act is Voted On by Congress Tomorrow: What You Need to Know

The Equality Act comes up in the House tomorrow. It will, if passed, amend the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Fair Housing Act to ban anti-LGBT discrimination in employment, housing, public accommodations, jury service, education, federal programs and credit.

It takes extra steps previous acts have not:  In addition to transgender inclusion, the bill seeks to update federal law to include sex in the list of protected classes in public accommodation and expands the definition of public accommodations to include retail stores, banks, transportation services and health care services. Further, the Equality Act would establish that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act — a 1994 law aimed at protecting religious liberty — can’t be used to enable anti-LGBT discrimination.

On hand to discuss this historic measure with us is the National Press Secretary of the Human Rights Campaign, Sarah McBride. Sarah made national headlines when she came out as transgender to her college while serving as student body president at American University and is largely credited with the passage of legislation in Delaware banning discrimination on the basis of gender identity in employment, housing, insurance, and public accommodations.

In July 2016, she was a speaker at the Democratic National Convention, becoming the first openly transgender person to address a major party convention in American history.

With co-host Brody Levesque.