![]() Senate passed the bill with a bipartisan filibuster-proof majority, 12 but even before ENDA gained approval in the Senate, Speaker of the House John Boehner expressed opposition to calling a vote on the bill on the contradictory theories that its workplace protections were redundant with existing law and that adding such protections would open the courts to a new category of frivolous lawsuits. This legislation, like its predecessors that LGBTQ supporters have repeatedly introduced in Congress in various forms since 1974, 10 would nationally ban employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. 8 Interest in securing an executive order like 13,672 increased as the Employment Non-Discrimination Act of 2013 9 (ENDA) stalled in Congress. 6 Although most Americans mistakenly believe federal law already prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and identity in all workplaces, 7 no such law exists, and employment discrimination against LGBTQ workers very much remains a reality. Both the history of presidential action to protect minorities and the relative weakness of executive orders as compared to statutory protections strongly suggest that Executive Order 13,672 should not be taken to show that LGBTQ Americans are so politically powerful that they fail to merit heightened judicial protection under the Equal Protection Clause - even assuming the dubious proposition that a court finding of significant power should preclude such protection in the first place.Įxecutive Order 13,672 is the product of decades of organizing and advocacy for LGBTQ rights generally 5 and of several years of efforts focused specifically on obtaining an executive order with 13,672’s employment protections. 4 Although the presidential directive constitutes an important and high-profile victory for LGBTQ Americans, the accomplishment does not evince that these populations are no longer vulnerable. ![]() On July 21, 2014, President Barack Obama signed Executive Order 13,672 2 to prohibit the federal government from employment discrimination on the basis of gender identity 3 and prohibit federal contractors from employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. ![]() 1 It is unsurprising, then, that this debate is playing out in a rapidly developing legal setting. The debate over lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) rights centers on some of the defining civil rights issues of our time.
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