We’re proud to premiere our LGBTQ State of the Union in partnership with the Financial Times featuring LGBTQ+ movement attorneys discussing the state of the LGBTQ+ community and people living with HIV amid the concurrent health and economic crises created by COVID-19. The virtual roundtable discussion, moderated by Financial Times correspondent Taylor Nicole Rogers, features Avatara Smith-Carrington (Lambda Legal), Taylor Brown (ACLU), and Tyrone Hanley (NCLR).
The CDC recently released a report laying bare the disparities LGBTQ+ Americans have faced from this pandemic. The report finds that “sexual minority persons in the United States have higher self-reported prevalences of several underlying health conditions associated with severe outcomes from COVID-19 than do heterosexual persons, both in the overall population and among racial/ethnic minority groups.”
The roundtable comes as the House prepares to vote on the Equality Act, sweeping federal legislation that will update existing federal nondiscrimination laws, including the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Fair Housing Act, to confirm that discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity is unlawful discrimination based on sex. The Equality Act clarifies sex discrimination laws to prohibit LGBTQ+ discrimination in employment, housing, credit, education, and other areas, and explicitly extends sex discrimination protections to public accommodations and federally funded programs. Lambda Legal CEO Kevin Jennings called the Equality Act “long past-due”.
Watch this important conversation.
