Why Federal Laws Don’t Explicitly Ban Discrimination Against LGBT Americans

America’s Second Sin

Polls show that most Americans oppose discrimination against LGBT people, and many believe that it’s already illegal. But federal laws don’t ban discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity the way they do regarding sex and religion. And the odds of Congress changing that in the immediate future are slim.

While courts and federal agencies have found some protections for gay and transgender Americans under existing statutes, efforts to pass a law that explicitly makes it illegal to deny them an apartment or fire them from a job have faltered.

LGBT rights advocates have been pushing to pass such laws for decades, starting long before their successful fights to legalize same-sex marriage and allow gay people to serve open in the military. And in March, lawmakers from both chambers of Congress launched yet another attempt, introducing the Equality Act of 2019, a sweeping measure that would ban discrimination in areas ranging from housing to public accommodations (a realm that includes public bathrooms as well as bakeries, two areas of recent contention).

More From TIME Magazine (subscription required):