Connecticut’s U.S. senators want to protect LGBTQ+ Americans at the federal level.
They’re calling on the Senate to pass the Equality Act to ban discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
U.S. Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Chris Murphy (D-CT) said Connecticut may have laws to protect the LGBTQ+ community, but other states do not.
They said they are concerned about laws in other states that ban gender-affirming care, restrict drag performances and censor school curriculums.
Murphy said the Equality Act would ban discrimination against LGBTQ+ individuals in the same way that religious, racial and ethnic discrimination is prohibited in the U.S.
“We can't fully protect every single Connecticut citizen’s rights without the Equality Act, to make sure that whatever company you work for, wherever your child goes to school, outside of the state, they are going to be protected — that they can't have their job terminated or their educational rights curtailed just because of their sexual orientation or gender identity,” Murphy said.
Mel Cordner is the executive director of Q Plus, an organization for LGBTQ+ kids. They say the stakes are too high for the federal government to stay silent.
“This is about way more than who we love and whether or not we can have a photo on our desk and whether or not we can apply for a loan,” Cordner said. “I work with queer students around the state and kids are dying.”
The Equality Act has already passed in the House of Representatives. Blumenthal said it has stalled in the Senate because it does not have 60 votes.
“I've been a longtime advocate of abolishing the filibuster, which is our major obstacle because we have more than 50 votes to pass the Equality Act — that's a majority of the United States Senate,” Blumenthal said. “What we don't have clearly yet is more than 60 votes.”
But he still hopes for bipartisan support.
“I'm convinced we can get 60 votes because my Republican colleagues don't want to go back to their states in an election year and say, ‘I voted against equality,” Blumenthal said.
