House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday
called passage of the Equality Act a “priority.”
The federal LGBT protections bill
cleared the House last year but stalled in the Senate. While
President Joe Biden has promised to sign the bill, former President
Donald Trump signaled his opposition.
During her weekly news conference,
Pelosi said that the House could vote on the legislation as early as
March.
“I'm optimistic about it because I do
think we will get strong bipartisan support in the House and in the
Senate,” Pelosi said in responding to a question from the
Washington Blade.
Republican support is necessary for
passage in the Senate, where 60 votes are needed to overcome a
legislative filibuster. Pelosi said that she believes the business
community's support for the legislation will help in getting the
votes needed for the bill to clear the Senate.
“We passed it in the last Congress.
No success in the Senate. It went to Mitch McConnell's graveyard, the
'grim reaper,'” she
said.
The Blade reported that the
legislation is likely to be reintroduced during the week of February
22.
Pelosi called the Equality Act “an
early priority for us.” “And again, it's about ending
discrimination,” she added.
Pelosi also praised Biden for signing
two LGBT executive orders in his first week in office. One order
reversed Trump's ban on transgender troops serving openly, while the
other implements
a Supreme Court ruling (Bostock)
that found employers cannot discriminate against LGBT workers.
The decision has wide-ranging implications beyond the workplace and
was largely ignored by the Trump administration.
(Related: LGBT
groups cheer Biden's order reversing Trump's ban on transgender
troops.)
“I'm very pleased with what President
Biden has done so far, especially pleased about eliminating the
prohibition on trans people from serving in the military,” Pelosi
said. “That too, I think, was a triumph for decency and justice in
our country.”