The Equality Act, H.R. 5, adopted by the House of Representatives on February 25, 2021, and sent to the Senate for consideration, amends federal civil rights law to provide protection against discrimination to LGBT people across the nation. But, as written, it would protect LGBT rights at the great cost of significantly limiting protection for religious exercise and religious organizations. Congress should protect LGBT civil rights—but in a way that also protects the legitimate freedoms of other people and organizations. That way is the Fairness for All Act, H.R. 1440.
The Equality Act in its current form will severely limit the constitutional freedoms of religious organizations and religious people who hold alternative convictions about marriage and human sexuality. This analysis has been made by many religious organizations, religious leaders, and religious freedom advocates. By no means are all critics of the bill opposed to modifying federal civil rights laws to protect, nation-wide, the rights of LGBTQ people.
The Biden administration announced the establishment of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships on February 14, 2021. Through Executive Order 14015 (accompanied by this Fact Sheet), President Biden is reestablishing an institution that is supported by a policy consensus hearkening back to the Obama administration and to the Bush administration before that. The only notice taken of the intervening Trump administration’s faith-based initiative is a section of the executive order that, without naming former President Trump, revokes his Executive Order 13831 of May 3, 2018, which established his version of the initiative. Indeed, it is clear from the Biden Executive Order, the Fact Sheet, and the appointment of Melissa Rogers to direct the reestablished White House Office—which she led in President Obama’s second term—that the new administration plans to resume the initiative as it had developed before the Trump years.