The National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) on Friday endorsed passage of
the Equality Act.
Reintroduced earlier this month with
bipartisan support, the Equality Act is a federal bill that seeks to
prohibit discrimination against people who identify as lesbian, gay,
bisexual and transgender.
(Related: Pete
Buttigieg endorses LGBT protections bill Equality Act.)
“We support what it does – and we
support it now,” the NAACP's Hilary Shelton told NBC News. “It's
important that it gets through.”
The NAACP is the nation's oldest
African-American civil rights group.
“We believe the same protections that
we have worked for so hard over the 110 years of the NAACP should be
extended to all Americans, particularly members of the LGBTQ
community,” Sheldon
said.
Sheldon added that the group had
previously supported the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA),
which offered similar LGBT protections.