This past week, The Dominion Post editorial board sat down with representatives from and allies of Fairness West Virginia to discuss the Equality Act, which passed the U.S. House and now heads to the Senate.
Jake Jarvis, Fairness WV’s communications manager, described this as a “once-in-a-generation” opportunity, and we agree.
The Equality Act would expand the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to forbid discrimination based on sex, sexual orientation and gender identity. The Equality Act extends protections in employment and housing to LGBTQ+ people and expands Civil Rights Act protections to federally funded programs and “public accommodations,” which include restaurants, senior centers, stores, health care facilities, shelters, government offices, transportation and more.
The new law would codify the Supreme Court’s ruling in Bostock v. Clayton County, which determined “the protections guaranteed by the 1964 Civil Rights Act on the basis of sex also extend to discrimination against lesbian, gay and transgender Americans.”
For some reason, support for equal rights and protections for LGBTQ+ individuals seems to fall along a sharp partisan line in Congress, but the same is not true for the rest of Americans.
According to the Public Religion Research Institute, the majority of Americans support nondiscrimination laws. That includes Republicans. In fact, 62% of Republicans, 85% of Democrats and 78% of Independents support protections for LGBTQ+ people. Even among Republicans over 50 years old, support is still 56%. In other words, there’s very little reason for Republican lawmakers to stand in the Equality Act’s way.
As Pastor Zac Morton said in our conversation, religion is the “intersectional elephant in the room.” However, the Equality Act will expand religious freedoms: Protection from discrimination based on religion will extend to all public accommodations.
As Pastor Morton noted in his own experience and PRRI recorded in their research, support for LGBTQ+ protections is favored by the majority of Christians, Jews and the unaffiliated faithful, so religious objections to LGBTQ+ rights is on the decline.
Despite decades of effort by advocates and allies, West Virginia has never been able to pass a law giving protections for LGBTQ+ people. Now, we have an opportunity to guarantee equal rights for this marginalized community on the federal level — a nationwide blanket of protection that will safeguard LGBTQ+ individuals wherever they may go.
Since the Equality Act now awaits the attention of the Senate, we look to Sens. Joe Manchin and Shelley Moore Capito.
With basic protections for millions of people — including thousands of West Virginians — on the line, this is not the time for Manchin to flex his partisan line-straddling muscles. Human rights should not be up for negotiation, and we need him to stand firmly in support of the Equality Act.
As for Capito, we have our doubts that she’s willing to cross the party line. But the folks at Fairness WV have faith in her. Jarvis called her a bipartisan leader and someone who has supported the idea of fairness in the past. This is Capito’s opportunity to prove that her constituents’ faith in her is not misplaced.
