A long-stalled measure to ban LGBT employment discrimination at the federal level made it back to both chambers of Congress last week, with both longtime and new Pennsylvania supporters.
U.S. Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colo.) and Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) introduced the Employment Nondiscrimination Act on April 25. The House bill has 161 cosponsors while the Senate version has four. Both were last introduced in 2011 and died in committee.
The legislation would add sexual orientation and gender identity to the list of classes protected from discrimination in hiring, firing and promotions at companies nationwide with more than 15 employees. Current protected classes include race, age, religion and national origin, among several others.
The legislation has been introduced in every session but one since 1994 and was first proposed in 1974.
The Senate cosponsorship list does not yet include Sen. Bob Casey, who has supported the legislation in the past.
Returning to the House bill as cosponsors are Democratic Congressmembers from Pennsylvania Bob Brady (First Dist.), Michael Doyle (14th Dist.), Chaka Fattah (Second Dist.) and Allyson Schwartz (13th Dist.). New to the cosponsor list are Democrat Matt Cartwright (17th Dist.) and Republican Charlie Dent (15th Dist.).
Cartwright, a freshman lawmaker, has emerged as a strong LGBT ally, said Equality Pennsylvania president Adrian Shanker.
“When Equality Pennsylvania endorsed him last year, we knew he’d be a strong champion for equality and we were proved right,” Shanker said. “He’s backed every LGBT-related bill that’s come across his desk so far. And he represents a district in Northeastern Pennsylvania that includes places like Scranton, Wilkes-Barre, Stroudsburg — not places where we’d always expect a member of Congress to support every single LGBT-equality bill he could.”
Dent has voted for ENDA in the past but he hasn’t cosponsored it, and he’s one of just three Republicans cosponsors.
In a statement last week, Dent said he cosponsored the bill because he doesn’t “believe in any form of workplace discrimination, including discrimination based on sexual orientation.”
“Congressman Dent is a moderate Republican from the Lehigh Valley who has supported and opposed different pieces of LGBT legislation throughout the years, but he deserves a lot of credit for being one of just three Republican cosponsors for ENDA, as well as for the Uniting American Families Act,” Shanker said. “We need more Republicans in Congress willing to support basic nondiscrimination protections.”
Shanker added he hopes Dent’s leadership sways some Republican state legislators to back the state bill to ban LGBT discrimination in employment and other areas.
“I hope that some Republicans in the state House and Senate who share his commitment to some of the same issues will take a look at his cosponsorship of ENDA and realize that this is not at all a controversial issue or something that should be partisan,” Shanker said. “It’s an issue about basic equality for all Pennsylvanians. And I think we will see some Republicans following his lead.”
