President Obama will reportedly sign an executive order prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity among federal employees and contractors on July 21.
Senior administration officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Washington Blade that Obama would amend Executive Order 11246, which bars discrimination within a number of categories, to include protections for LGBT individuals.
The order will take effect immediately in federal workplaces, and will likely be implemented by early 2015 for federal contractors. Religiously affiliated contractors will be exempt from the rule as it pertains to individuals in the clergy, but the order applies to staff and administrative personnel within those institutions.
"You can use religion to only hire people who share your religion, but you can't discriminate against somebody who is of your faith who happens to be LGBT, unless they fall within the ministerial exemption," officials told the Blade.
Obama's order will apply to about 24,000 companies across the United States and affect about one-fifth of the nation's workforce.
In a statement, Human Right Campaign President Chad Griffin said, "With the strokes of a pen, the President will have a very real and immediate impact on the lives of millions of LGBT people across the country. Each and every American worker should be judged based on the work they do, and never because of a fundamental aspect of who they are— like their sexual orientation or gender identity. These actions from the President have the potential to be a keystone in the arch of his administration's progress, and they send a powerful message to future administrations and to Congress that anti-LGBT discrimination must not be tolerated. We also call on Congress to immediately pass the Employment Non-Discrimination Act."
Washington Blade's article is at: bit.ly/1moEQmQ .
Press releases:
From The Williams Institute
LOS ANGELES- Today, President Obama announced he will broaden a federal nondiscrimination executive order to prohibit workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity— a move that will protect approximately 22 percent ( or 34 million ) of civilian workers in the U.S., according to research by the UCLA School of Law's Williams Institute.
"The executive order will reach workers not protected by the patchwork of existing state-level nondiscrimination policies," said Williams Institute Executive Director, Brad Sears. "Less than half of the states prohibit sexual orientation and gender identity discrimination, leaving a majority of American workers without protections."
An estimated 11 million more workers will be protected from sexual orientation discrimination when taking into account those already protected by state law or employer policy. An additional 14 million workers will be protected from gender identity discrimination. Estimates take recent changes in state nondiscrimination laws into account.
As of May 2014, 86% of the top 50 federal contractors prohibited discrimination based on sexual orientation, and 61% prohibited discrimination based on gender identity. All but two of the top 50 Fortune 500 companies prohibited discrimination based on sexual orientation ( 96% ) as of May 2014, and 70% prohibited discrimination based on gender identity.
A Williams Institute infographic illustrating evidence of workplace discrimination against LGBT people is available at the link: williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/ .
From Center for American Progress
CAP's Winnie Stachelberg on the President's Planned Signing of an Executive Order Banning Discrimination of LGBT Americans by Federal Contractors
Washington, D.C. — With the announcement that President Barack Obama will sign an executive order on Monday that prohibits federal contractors from discriminating against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender, or LGBT, Americans, Center for American Progress Executive Vice President for External Affairs Winnie Stachelberg issued the following statement:
The executive order ensures that 28 million hardworking Americans have the protections they need to provide for their families and can go to work without the threat of losing their jobs simply because of who they are or whom they love. While there is still work to be done, this is a watershed moment in our country's march toward basic fairness, and President Obama has continued to secure his legacy as a champion for equal rights for all Americans.
CAP has long been a leader on workplace fairness for the LGBT community. Click here for more information about the organization's efforts to ensure that all Americans are treated fairly in the workplace.
For more information or to speak to an expert on this topic contact Tom Caiazza at tcaiazza@americanprogress.org or 202.481.7141.
The Center for American Progress is a nonpartisan research and educational institute dedicated to promoting a strong, just and free America that ensures opportunity for all. We believe that Americans are bound together by a common commitment to these values and we aspire to ensure that our national policies reflect these values. We work to find progressive and pragmatic solutions to significant domestic and international problems and develop policy proposals that foster a government that is "of the people, by the people, and for the people."
From GetEQUAL
LGBTQ Activists Celebrate President Obama's Announcement That LGBTQ Executive Order Will Be Signed Without Religious Exemptions
Today GetEQUAL congratulated the White House in its announcement that President Obama will sign an executive order on Monday barring LGBTQ discrimination by federal contractors, and that the order will not include religious exemptions.
Heather Cronk, GetEQUAL director, issued the following statement:
"We're so proud today of the decision made by the Obama Administration to resist the calls by a small number of right-wing conservatives to insert religious exemptions into civil rights protections. While we will continue to press for full equality under the law for LGBTQ Americans, we're thrilled with the announcement today and look forward to President Obama signing his name to an executive order on Monday that we can all be proud of."
For weeks, GetEQUAL — a national social justice organization that advocates for full equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer ( LGBTQ ) Americans — has pressured the Obama Administration to take this action without including religious exemptions in order to avoid creating a dangerous precedent not only for the LGBTQ community, but for women, immigrants, young people, and many others.
Just yesterday, GetEQUAL engaged in a silent protest during Vice President Biden's keynote address at the annual Netroots Nation conference in order to draw attention to the danger of religious exemptions inside this federal contractor executive order.
From HRC
HRC Statement on the LGBT Executive Orders to be Signed Monday
WASHINGTON — Following the news that President Obama will sign executive orders Monday outlawing anti-LGBT discrimination among federal contractors and federal employees, Human Rights Campaign ( HRC ) President Chad Griffin issued the following statement:
"With the strokes of a pen, the President will have a very real and immediate impact on the lives of millions of LGBT people across the country. Each and every American worker should be judged based on the work they do, and never because of a fundamental aspect of who they are — like their sexual orientation or gender identity. These actions from the President have the potential to be a keystone in the arch of his administration's progress, and they send a powerful message to future administrations and to Congress that anti-LGBT discrimination must not be tolerated. We also call on Congress to immediately pass the Employment Non-Discrimination Act."
