Kara Coredini Photo by: MassEquality
BOSTON, Mass.─This morning, President Obama signed two executive orders establishing nondiscrimination protections for federal employees and employees of federal contractors based on sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression.
MassEquality Executive Director Kara Coredini made the following statement regarding the President’s orders:
“By now, it is well documented that LGBTQ Americans are highly under-employed and experience high levels of poverty and homelessness because of anti-LGBTQ discrimination in every area of civic life. We applaud President Obama for this historic action today, which will begin to level the playing field for millions of LGBTQ Americans, and we hope that it will be a first, important step toward establishing the comprehensive protections from discrimination at work, in schools, in housing and in public places that LGBTQ Americans need. We thank President Obama for his leadership and urge Congress to move forward with ensuring comprehensive protections.” [pullquote]”We applaud President Obama for this historic action today, which will begin to level the playing field for millions of LGBTQ Americans, and we hope that it will be a first, important step toward establishing the comprehensive protections from discrimination at work, in schools, in housing and in public places that LGBTQ Americans need. …” —MassEquality ED, Kara Coredini[/pullquote]
Currently pending before Congress is the Employment Non Discrimination Act (ENDA), which would provide job protections for LGBTQ people across the country. In its current form, ENDA contains a religious exemption that is broader than that contained in other federal civil rights laws and that, as a result, would provide LGBTQ people less protection than that afforded other groups protected under existing federal civil rights law. MassEquality opposes this broad RELIGIOUS exemption, as ENDA is about ensuring fairness and equality, both of which are undermined by an exemption that would result in second-class protections for LGBTQ people.
MassEquality will continue to work with the Commonwealth’s Congressional Delegation to ensure that all legislative efforts to end the range of discrimination that LGBTQ people face fully reflect America’s values of fairness and equality and that the current, discriminatory exemption in ENDA is not part of the final bill that reaches the President.
MassEquality is the leading statewide grassroots advocacy organization working to ensure that everyone across Massachusetts can thrive from cradle to grave without discrimination and oppression based on sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression.
[From a News Release]
