Lawyers Ted Olson and David Boies on
Wednesday endorsed a bill that seeks to bar anti-LGBT discrimination
in all areas of civil rights law.
The bill, titled the Equality Act of
2015, is expected to be unveiled during a press conference at noon on
Thursday.
(Related: Democrats
to introduce LGBT protections bill Thursday.)
In a joint statement, Olson and Boies,
the legal team that successfully challenged California's ban on gay
marriage, Proposition 8, said that the bill was needed to protect the
livelihoods of “many of the same couples who fought so long and so
hard to have their marriages recognized.”
“The introduction of the Equality Act
marks a historic moment for our country,” Olson
and Boies said. “The patchwork of protections in this country
has provided a crazy quilt of laws, threatening the livelihood of
many of the same couples who fought so long and so hard to have their
marriages recognized. That’s why we support the idea of a
comprehensive approach to non-discrimination protections that would
embrace LGBT people as other groups who are protected by our civil
rights laws. We urge Republicans and Democrats to once again come
together to support this important legislation that provides the same
protections to LGBT people as other Americans.”