{"id":5535,"date":"2016-04-27T12:53:00","date_gmt":"2016-04-27T16:53:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/dems-will-urge-gop-house-leaders-to-hold-hearing-on-lgbt-rights-bill\/"},"modified":"2023-07-24T11:09:36","modified_gmt":"2023-07-24T15:09:36","slug":"dems-will-urge-gop-house-leaders-to-hold-hearing-on-lgbt-rights-bill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/es\/dems-will-urge-gop-house-leaders-to-hold-hearing-on-lgbt-rights-bill\/","title":{"rendered":"Dems Will Urge GOP House Leaders To Hold Hearing On LGBT-Rights Bill"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n

The Equality Act was introduced with gusto last summer — a cabaret of celebrity Democratic Congress members taking turns at a lectern extolling the bill to ban LGBT discrimination federally. But nine months later, the legislation languishes without a hearing.<\/p>\n

On Thursday morning, several of those same lawmakers will press the Republican majority to finally call a hearing on the Equality Act in the House Judiciary Committee.<\/p>\n

The committee’s attention, they will argue, is the sort of process Rep. Paul Ryan promised when he took the role of House Speaker — even if actually passing the bill seems far fetched in a chamber gripped by Republicans.<\/p>\n

“People who think it is okay to discriminate based on sexual orientation or gender identity — they can vote against the bill and should be held accountable if they do,” Rep. David Cicilline of Rhode Island told BuzzFeed News in a phone call. “If they don’t think this bill is the right thing, then have the courage to stand up at a hearing and say you think that LGBT people shouldn’t receive full equality.”<\/p>\n

Cicilline, the bill’s House sponsor, said between 15 and 20 fellow members would attend a press conference Thursday, including House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer, and House Democratic Caucus Chairman Xavier Becerra.<\/p>\n

But the decision to hold a hearing belongs to Rep. Bob Goodlatte of Virginia, who chairs the judiciary committee. His office and committee staff did not respond to BuzzFeed News’ request to comment on why a hearing has not been scheduled, or if he plans to hold one.<\/p>\n

El Ley de Igualdad<\/a> would ban discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity by amending a band of existing laws, most notably the Civil Rights Act of 1964. A companion bill is sponsored in by Sen. Jeff Merkley of Oregon in the Senate, where it has also stagnated.<\/p>\n

On the House side, Cicilline said he will give Rep. Goodlatte a letter Wednesday formally asking for the hearing. But, he said, “It shouldn’t require a special request. It was my hope that once the bill was introduced and had a GOP co-sponsor<\/a>, that would happen.”<\/p>\n

He is especially hopeful the bill could inch forward under Speaker Ryan, who pledged regular order<\/a> when he assumed his current role, saying major bills should be drafted in committee.<\/p>\n

“But that has not been the practice,” Cicilline said. “I think regular order would call for a hearing on this bill. I am incredibly frustrated that Republicans have refused to take up a lot of important issues.”<\/p>\n

Naturally, Cicilline acknowledges little action is likely on numerous Democratically backed bills.<\/p>\n

“But if your position is that anything the Republicans don’t want to pass shouldn’t be pushed,” he said, “then we would sit around not doing very much.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Equality Act was introduced with gusto last summer — a cabaret of celebrity Democratic Congress members taking turns at a lectern extolling the bill to ban LGBT discrimination federally. But nine months later, the legislation languishes without a hearing. On Thursday morning, several of those same lawmakers will press the Republican majority to finally […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[53],"class_list":["post-5535","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-in-the-news","tag-civil-rights"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nDems Will Urge GOP House Leaders To Hold Hearing On LGBT-Rights Bill - Merkley<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/es\/dems-will-urge-gop-house-leaders-to-hold-hearing-on-lgbt-rights-bill\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"es_MX\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Dems Will Urge GOP House Leaders To Hold Hearing On LGBT-Rights Bill - Merkley\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Equality Act was introduced with gusto last summer — a cabaret of celebrity Democratic Congress members taking turns at a lectern extolling the bill to ban LGBT discrimination federally. But nine months later, the legislation languishes without a hearing. On Thursday morning, several of those same lawmakers will press the Republican majority to finally […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/es\/dems-will-urge-gop-house-leaders-to-hold-hearing-on-lgbt-rights-bill\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Merkley\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-04-27T16:53:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-07-24T15:09:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/dems-will-urge-gop-house-leaders-to-hold-hearing-on-lgbt-rights-bill\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/dems-will-urge-gop-house-leaders-to-hold-hearing-on-lgbt-rights-bill\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"\",\"@id\":\"\"},\"headline\":\"Dems Will Urge GOP House Leaders To Hold Hearing On LGBT-Rights Bill\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-04-27T16:53:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-07-24T15:09:36+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/dems-will-urge-gop-house-leaders-to-hold-hearing-on-lgbt-rights-bill\/\"},\"wordCount\":509,\"keywords\":[\"Civil Rights\"],\"articleSection\":[\"In the News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"es-MX\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/dems-will-urge-gop-house-leaders-to-hold-hearing-on-lgbt-rights-bill\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/dems-will-urge-gop-house-leaders-to-hold-hearing-on-lgbt-rights-bill\/\",\"name\":\"Dems Will Urge GOP House Leaders To Hold Hearing On LGBT-Rights Bill - Merkley\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2016-04-27T16:53:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-07-24T15:09:36+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/dems-will-urge-gop-house-leaders-to-hold-hearing-on-lgbt-rights-bill\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"es-MX\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/dems-will-urge-gop-house-leaders-to-hold-hearing-on-lgbt-rights-bill\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/dems-will-urge-gop-house-leaders-to-hold-hearing-on-lgbt-rights-bill\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Dems Will Urge GOP House Leaders To Hold Hearing On LGBT-Rights Bill\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/\",\"name\":\"Merkley\",\"description\":\"Merkley\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"es-MX\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/es\/author\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Dems Will Urge GOP House Leaders To Hold Hearing On LGBT-Rights Bill - Merkley","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/es\/dems-will-urge-gop-house-leaders-to-hold-hearing-on-lgbt-rights-bill\/","og_locale":"es_MX","og_type":"article","og_title":"Dems Will Urge GOP House Leaders To Hold Hearing On LGBT-Rights Bill - Merkley","og_description":"The Equality Act was introduced with gusto last summer — a cabaret of celebrity Democratic Congress members taking turns at a lectern extolling the bill to ban LGBT discrimination federally. But nine months later, the legislation languishes without a hearing. On Thursday morning, several of those same lawmakers will press the Republican majority to finally […]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/es\/dems-will-urge-gop-house-leaders-to-hold-hearing-on-lgbt-rights-bill\/","og_site_name":"Merkley","article_published_time":"2016-04-27T16:53:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2023-07-24T15:09:36+00:00","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/dems-will-urge-gop-house-leaders-to-hold-hearing-on-lgbt-rights-bill\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/dems-will-urge-gop-house-leaders-to-hold-hearing-on-lgbt-rights-bill\/"},"author":{"name":"","@id":""},"headline":"Dems Will Urge GOP House Leaders To Hold Hearing On LGBT-Rights Bill","datePublished":"2016-04-27T16:53:00+00:00","dateModified":"2023-07-24T15:09:36+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/dems-will-urge-gop-house-leaders-to-hold-hearing-on-lgbt-rights-bill\/"},"wordCount":509,"keywords":["Civil Rights"],"articleSection":["In the News"],"inLanguage":"es-MX"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/dems-will-urge-gop-house-leaders-to-hold-hearing-on-lgbt-rights-bill\/","url":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/dems-will-urge-gop-house-leaders-to-hold-hearing-on-lgbt-rights-bill\/","name":"Dems Will Urge GOP House Leaders To Hold Hearing On LGBT-Rights Bill - Merkley","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/#website"},"datePublished":"2016-04-27T16:53:00+00:00","dateModified":"2023-07-24T15:09:36+00:00","author":{"@id":""},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/dems-will-urge-gop-house-leaders-to-hold-hearing-on-lgbt-rights-bill\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"es-MX","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/dems-will-urge-gop-house-leaders-to-hold-hearing-on-lgbt-rights-bill\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/dems-will-urge-gop-house-leaders-to-hold-hearing-on-lgbt-rights-bill\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Dems Will Urge GOP House Leaders To Hold Hearing On LGBT-Rights Bill"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/","name":"merkley","description":"merkley","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"es-MX"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"","url":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/es\/author\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5535","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5535"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5535\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14911,"href":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5535\/revisions\/14911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}