By: Alvin Wilson Staff Writer
Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR) visited Western’s Werner University Center on Feb. 5 to discuss his new bill, the Equality Act, with a small audience of students.
According to Merkley’s website, “The Equality Act amends existing federal civil rights laws to prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity in education, employment, housing, credit, and Federal jury service.”
Merkley’s visit started with a story about the events that eventually led to him writing the Equality Act.
In 2013, Merkley helped lead the effort to pass the Employment Non-Discrimination Act in Congress.
“During that battle, it was really interesting because it was very hostile, very emotional,” said Merkley. “I remember driving into the underground parking at the Capitol and having people kind of tap on my windshield, hold up placards to my windshield, yell and scream at me, tell me what a horrible person I was.”
“But I felt like a very good person,” he continued. “I felt this was the right thing not just in terms of our constitutional vision of fairness, opportunity and equality, but in terms of fundamental human rights.”
But that bill didn’t pass because the House of Representatives refused to debate it on the floor.
“The House of Representatives was led by the other party, the Republican party, which was not willing to do this,” said Merkley. “We felt that we had the votes in the House of Representatives, but to win the vote it has to be held, and the leadership of the house refused to do so.”
This prompted Merkley to write a new piece of legislation.
“We decided it was time to talk differently about this,” he said. “It was time not to talk about chipping away here or there, it was time to simply say our LGBT community deserves the same fundamental laws against discrimination that are enjoyed by Americans in regard to gender, ethnicity, and race.
“The bill that I wrote is about utilizing the 1964 Civil Rights Act as a foundation.”
The Equality Act already has 40 cosponsors, but it hasn’t passed yet.
“I don’t think that my Republican majority colleagues are going to hold a hearing on the bill,” said Merkley. “So, what are we doing in the meantime? We are building a stronger coalition.”
He said they are recruiting companies to endorse the bill, and they already have 20 Fortune 500 companies on board.
“We’d like that to be 200 Fortune 500 companies,” he said.
Merkley said one Republican recently agreed to cosponsor the bill.
“Mark Kirk of Illinois, who had been a partner of mine with the Non-Discrimination Act, endorsed it,” he said. “So, we can now call it a bipartisan bill.”
So, what’s next for the Equality Act?
“Really, the next step right now is building awareness of it, getting citizens to lobby their house and senate members to become cosponsors, and getting the corporate world to endorse it,” said Merkley.
