Last month, President Obama set out on a large scale plan to bring about stronger federal laws to protect the LGBT community. Now, Obama is continuing his plans and recently announced that he will sign an executive order to ban workplace discrimination against federal employees based on their gender identity.
According to the Huffington Post, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ruled in 2012 that a federal ban on sex discrimination covers transgender discrimination. However, those affected by the rule, mainly transgender federal employees, say that it hasn’t been enforced, leaving them to endure ongoing discrimination.
One form of discrimination against transgender federal employees is that their health care policies don’t cover gender transition, forcing them to pay tens of thousands in out-of-pocket expenses while they’re transitioning.
Obama announced his plans for the executive order on Monday during a White House reception marking June as LGBT Pride Month. His announcement comes just a couple of weeks after he announced that he plans to sign another executive order that would ban workplace discrimination against the entire LGBT community in all federal agencies.
We definitely applaud Obama for making such pivotal changes in the federal sector regarding LGBT equality and rights, and we hope Congress will follow his lead and pass non-discrimination laws like ENDA which would extend those rights to LGBT employees outside of federal agencies. – nicholas robinson
