Sponsors (47)
The bill extends comprehensive federal civil‑rights protections to LGBTQ+ people and many other marginalized groups across housing, employment, education, credit, public accommodations, and jury service—strengthening enforcement and access—while imposing meaningful compliance costs, increased litigation and federal enforcement, and sharp religious‑liberty and privacy tradeoffs for some institutions and communities.
Millions of people — especially LGBTQ+ individuals, women, people of color, pregnant people, people with disabilities, immigrants, and low-income Americans — gain explicit, nationwide federal protection from discrimination across employment, housing, credit, education, jury service, public accommodations (including many online services), federally funded programs, and federal employment.
Stronger enforcement and clearer legal rules: the bill incorporates Civil Rights Act enforcement provisions and clarifies statutory definitions and cross‑references, preserving existing remedies and giving DOJ and courts clearer authority to bring and decide discrimination claims, likely making enforcement more consistent.
Health and safety protections improve for vulnerable people — the bill bans conversion therapy for youth and clarifies protections for pregnancy, childbirth, and related medical conditions, reducing harmful medical or counseling practices and improving access to care.
Small businesses, landlords, creditors, schools, and other covered entities face materially higher compliance and litigation costs to update policies, training, facilities, and procedures, which could lead to higher rents, prices, fees, or reduced services for consumers and tenants.
The bill will likely produce increased litigation and transitional uncertainty — including disputes about statutory scope and the need for agency guidance — and expanded federal enforcement that could generate more federal suits against state and local entities.
Religious organizations and individuals face constrained religious-liberty defenses (including limits on asserting RFRA against covered titles), creating a significant source of legal conflict and likely high-profile litigation over religious exemptions and First Amendment claims.
Based on analysis of 12 sections of legislative text.
Adds sexual orientation and gender identity to federal civil-rights protections across housing, public accommodations, credit, employment, jury laws, and federal funding, and limits RFRA defenses.
Introduced April 29, 2025 by Jeff Merkley · Last progress April 29, 2025
Extends federal civil-rights protections to explicitly cover sexual orientation and gender identity across many laws. It amends housing, credit, public-accommodation, jury, employment, and federal-funding anti-discrimination statutes to treat “sex” as including sexual orientation and gender identity, expands the definition of public accommodations (including many online and transportation services), adds definitions and rules of construction that preserve existing remedies, and limits use of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act as a defense. The bill affects private businesses and service providers, employers (including federal employees), people seeking housing, credit, jury service, medical and other services, recipients of federal funds, enforcement agencies, and courts. It does not specify funding or an effective date in the provided text; enforcement would operate through existing civil-rights remedies and agencies under the amended statutes.