Decades of Williams Institute research has established the need for federal legislation that would expressly prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity under existing civil rights laws. In 2009, Founding Executive Director Brad Sears testified before the U.S. House of Representatives about the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), which would have prohibited LGBT discrimination in employment. Three years later, Lee Badgett testified about the bill before the Senate.
Today, ENDA has transformed into the Equality Act, comprehensive legislation that would provide explicit federal non-discrimination protections in education, public accommodations, housing, credit, and employment. The current bill is informed by a wide range of Institute research, including studies on adoption and foster care by same-sex couples, experiences of LGBTQ youth in foster care, poverty among LGBTQ people, the harms of conversion therapy, and the pattern of discrimination against LGBTQ people by state governments.
Williams Institute scholars Lee Badgett, Todd Brower, Kerith Conron, Jody Herman, Christy Mallory, Ilan Meyer, Brad Sears, and Bianca D.M. Wilson have submitted over 160 pages of testimony in support of the Equality Act. This February, the House of Representatives passed the Equality Act. The following month, the Senate Judiciary Committee held the first-ever Senate hearing on the bill.
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