The Equality Act is a bill in the United States Congress, that, if passed, would amend the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (including titles II, III, IV, VI, VII, and IX) to prohibit discrimination on the basis of sex, sexual orientation and gender identity in employment, housing, public accommodations, education, federally funded programs, credit, and jury service. The Supreme Court's June 2020 ruling in Bostock v. Clayton County protects gay and transgender people in matters of employment, but not in other respects. The Bostock ruling also covered the Altitude Express and Harris Funeral Homes cases.

The bill would also expand existing civil rights protections for people of color by prohibiting discrimination in more public accommodations, such as exhibitions, goods and services, and transportation.

Much like the Bostock v. Clayton County decision, the Equality Act broadly defines sex discrimination to include sexual orientation and gender identity, adding "pregnancy, childbirth, or a related medical condition of an individual, as well as because of sex-based stereotypes". The intended purpose of the act is to legally protect individuals from discrimination based on such.

While various similar bills have been proposed since the 1970s, the modern version of the Equality Act was first proposed in the 114th United States Congress. During the 116th Congress, it passed the United States House of Representatives on May 17, 2019, in a bipartisan 236–173 vote. However, the United States Senate did not act upon the bill after receiving it; even if they had, then-President Donald Trump signaled that he would have vetoed it. On February 18, 2021, the act was reintroduced in the 117th Congress. The House passed the act by a vote of 224 to 206 on February 25, 2021, with support from three Republicans. The bill then moved on to the Senate for consideration, but did not overcome a filibuster, and did not advance further.

Purpose and content

As of 2026, twenty-seven states lacked laws prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. At the federal level, statutory protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) individuals remained limited. According to survey data, approximately two-thirds of LGBTQ Americans reported having experienced discrimination in their personal lives. The Equality Act, if enacted, would extend anti-discrimination protections to LGBTQ individuals nationwide by applying existing civil rights frameworks at the federal level.

The Equality Act seeks to incorporate protections against LGBTQ discrimination into the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964. Specifically, it prohibits discrimination based on sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, and intersex status in a wide variety of areas including public accommodations and facilities, education, federally funded programs, employment, housing, credit, and jury service.

It also seeks to expand existing civil rights protections for people of color, women, and other minority groups by updating the definition of public accommodations to include places or establishments that provide: Exhibition, entertainment, recreation, exercise, amusement, public gathering, or public display Goods, services, or programs Transportation services According to the text of the Act as introduced in the 117th Congress, discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity by governments violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, saying:Discrimination by State and local governments on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity in employment, housing, and public accommodations, and in programs and activities receiving Federal financial assistance, violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. In many circumstances, such discrimination also violates other constitutional rights such as those of liberty and privacy under the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

History

Early history (1970s–1990s) The original Equality Act was developed by U.S. Representatives Bella Abzug (D-NY) and Ed Koch (D-NY) in 1974. The Equality Act of 1974 (H.R. 14752 of the 93rd Congress) sought to amend the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to include prohibition of discrimination on the basis of sex, sexual orientation, and marital status in federally assisted programs, housing sales, rentals, financing, and brokerage services. The bill authorized civil actions by the Attorney General of the United States in cases of discrimination on account of sex, sexual orientation, or marital status in public facilities and public education. The bill was never voted on by the House.

From 1994, the more narrow Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) was introduced, but faced opposition over whether transgender Americans would be protected. An expanded version of ENDA which included both sexual orientation and changed sex to gender identity in its protections passed the United States Senate in 2013, but did not advance in the House.

Bostock v. Clayton County, Georgia (2020)

On June 15, 2020, the United States Supreme Court ruled that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination against gay and transgender people in employment. LGBTQ rights advocates welcomed the ruling and reaffirmed support for passage of the Equality Act, stating that the ruling only covered employment, and in many states LGBTQ people still lack non-discrimination protections in housing, public accommodations, public education, federal funding, credit, and jury service which would be covered under the Equality Act. The ruling said that the Civil Rights Act protects "gay and transgender" people in matters of employment but left the terms undefined.

Public opinion

A Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted in May/June 2019 found that most Americans do not know that LGBT people lack federal protections. Only one-third of respondents knew that such protections do not exist on the basis of transgender identity, and only one-quarter knew that they do not exist on the basis of lesbian, gay, and bisexual identity.

A nationwide and state-by-state poll on the issue conducted throughout 2017 by the Public Religion Research Institute as part of its annual American Values Atlas survey said that 70% of Americans, including a majority in every state, supported laws that would protect LGBTQ people against discrimination, while 23% opposed such laws, and 8% had no opinion. A 2020 PRRI poll said 83% of Americans would favor such anti-discrimination laws, and specifically regarding discrimination in employment, housing, and public accommodations. 16% of Americans oppose such laws. Support for such anti-discrimination laws was at 94% for Democrats, 85% for independents, and 68% for Republicans. According to a 2021 PRRI survey, about 22% of Americans support religious exemptions for business owners pertaining to anti-discrimination law based on sexual orientation, while about 76% of Americans oppose such exemptions.

A poll conducted by Quinnipiac University in April 2019 found that 92% of American voters believed that employers should not be allowed to fire someone based on their sexual orientation or sexual identity, while only 6% believed that employers should be allowed to do so. A wide consensus on this question was found among both Democratic and Republican voters, as well as Independents, although Democratic voters were slightly more likely to believe that this kind of discrimination should be illegal, with only 1% of them believing that employers should be allowed to fire someone based on their sexual orientation or sexual identity.

Support and opposition Support The Equality Act is supported by more than 547 national, state and local organizations.

Organizations related to human rights and social justice: American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Anti-Defamation League, GLSEN, Human Rights Campaign, Human Rights Watch, Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), Lambda Legal, the Navajo Nation, National Organization for Women, NAACP, and AARP.

Calling for the bill's passage in 2016, civil rights icon John Lewis said, "This legislation is what justice requires. This legislation is what justice demands. And like the Supreme Court's recent decision, it is long overdue ... We are a society committed to equal justice under the law. ... We have fought too hard and too long against discrimination based on race and color not to stand up against discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity."

National professional organizations: American Psychological Association, American Medical Association, American Counseling Association, American Federation of Teachers, American Bar Association, American Academy of Pediatrics, and the National PTA.

American businesses: Apple, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, eBay, IBM, Facebook, Airbnb, Twitter, Intel, Red Hat, Netflix, 3M, Kellogg's, Visa, Starbucks, Mastercard, Johnson & Johnson, Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, and the US Chamber of Commerce.

Celebrities: Alexandra Billings, Karamo Brown, Gloria Calderón Kellett, Charlie Carver, Max Carver, Nyle DiMarco, Sally Field, Marcia Gay Harden, Dustin Lance Black, Jamie Lee Curtis, Jane Lynch, Justina Machado, Adam Rippon, Taylor Swift, Bella Thorne, and Jesse Tyler Ferguson.

Feminist and women's groups: National Organization for Women, 9to5: the National Association of Working Women, the Coalition of Labor Union Women, Feminist Majority, Girls, Inc., Jewish Women International, The National Black Women's Reproductive Justice Agenda, NARAL, MANA, A National Latina Organization, MomsRising, National Alliance to End Sexual Violence, National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum (NAPAWF), National Association for Female Executives, National Women's Health Network, National Women's Law Center, Planned Parenthood, Positive Women's Network-USA, and United State of Women. The Women's Sports Foundation, the Women's National Basketball Players Association (WNBPA), Athlete Ally, along with Megan Rapinoe, Billie Jean King, Candace Parker and 176 current and former athletes in women's sports have spoken up for full LGBTQ inclusion in sports, including of transgender athletes.

Religious groups: The Episcopal Church, The United Methodist Church, The United Church of Christ, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, More Light Presbyterians, African American Ministers in Action, The Association of Welcoming and Affirming Baptists, The Union for Reform Judaism, United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association, Muslims for Progressive Values, the Hindu American Foundation, and the Unitarian Universalist Association.

Opposition Numerous political pundits and politicians have stated their opposition to the Equality Act at various times. Notable among these was Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), which caused a brief political feud between her and Representative Marie Newman (D-IL). Greene had said in a speech that the proposed act "destroys God's creation, ... completely annihilates women's rights and religious freedoms", and "puts trans rights above women's rights".

Fox News anchor, Tucker Carlson, called the Equality Act a "terrifying agenda that eliminates women". Candace Owens appeared on Carlson's Fox News talk show in the same segment and said that Democrats "don't know what equality is" in regards the Equality Act