Congress Set to Ban Workplace Bias Against Gays

But employers hope for clarifications before the new bill becomes law.

By Martha Lynn Craver, Associate Editor, The Kiplinger Letter

May 29, 2007

Expect the Democratic Congress to ban discrimination against gays by employers this year. There's broad support for a bill that makes it illegal to base decisions for hiring, firing or promotions on a person's sexual orientation or gender identity. A similar bill fell one vote short of passage in the Senate in 1996, and never gained any traction in the Republican-led House. Now that Democrats control both chambers of Congress, the proposal has its best chance ever for passage.

"This is common-sense legislation. Working men and women should be judged on the basis of their performance at work. They should not have to fear being fired because of their sexual orientation," says Rep. Christopher Shays (R-CT), a cosponsor of the legislation.

Employer groups are working to change some troubling language in the bill. The bill would not require employers to provide equal benefits to same-sex couples, but it does open the door for states and localities to require it. Employers say this would chip away at the federal Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), which bars states from mandating employment benefits for companies that self-insure.

Employers are also concerned that the bill's language on transgender persons is too broad, raising questions, for example, about bathroom and locker room access. "This vagueness could create a host of problems. What about those persons going through a sexual transition? At what point do they come under the protection of this bill?" says Michael Layman, manager of employment and labor policy at the Society of Human Resource Management.

Nineteen states already have enacted laws barring discrimination of gays and nearly 90% of Fortune 500 companies include sexual orientation in their corporate nondiscrimination policies.

President Bush is reserving judgment until he sees the final bill.

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