WASHINGTON — Even as the Supreme Court banned employment discrimination against LGBTQ people Monday, Congress remains far from passing legislation that would do the same in other facets of life. The House approved a bill barring discrimination on the basis of sexuality or gender identity in May 2019, with all Democrats and eight Republicans in favor. But the Equality Act has gone nowhere in the Republican-controlled Senate, where it has only one GOP co-sponsor. Now, advocates say, the Supreme Court ruling extending employment protections for gay, lesbian and transgender Americans shows the need for more action by Congress. Justice Neil Gorsuch, a President Trump appointee who wrote Monday's Supreme Court ruling, crafted it narrowly to apply only to whether people can be discriminated against in their work. "Sadly, there's still a large swath of ways in which LGBTQ individuals can be discriminated against without federal statutory protection," said Kimberly West-Faulcon, a constitutional law professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles. Public accommodations, for example, such as having the right to eat in restaurants or use the same bathrooms as others, are not affected by Monday's ruling. LGBTQ rights advocates could use the ruling to try to expand court protections… Read full this story
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