President Barack Obama signed an executive order that prohibits discrimination against LGBT federal employees and adds them to a list against, against which federal employers cannot discriminate. The order is being considered a partial victory for gay rights advocates since a bill that offers protection to LGBT employees nationally has been stalled by Congress and not seen any development since November 2013.
“We’re on the right side of history. America’s federal contractors should not subsidize discrimination against the American people,” said Obama on July 21.
However, Obama’s order does not change a religious exemption that was put in place by former president George W Bush, which states that religious entities including schools and corporations can use their convictions to make employment-related decisions.
More than a dozen faith leaders, including nonprofits like Catholic Charities, had requested Obama to exempt such institutions from the order, saying that, “this expansion of hiring rights will come at an unreasonable cost to the common good, national unity and religious freedom.” After this, Interfaith Alliance organized a drive to collect more than 100 signatures from religious leaders who wanted the President to include religious entities’ employment practices in the action.
Reverend C Welton Gaddy, head of the alliance, said that he “whole-heartedly supported Obama's action on Monday, but was disappointed that he did not go further to undo the provisions that President George W Bush signed allowing for religious organizations to discriminate against people of other religions in their hiring.”
Obama’s order echoes Supreme Court’s recent decision on religious convictions where faith-affiliated craft supply company Hobby Lobby was exempted from a requirement to offer birth control through insurance coverage. Obama’s executive order builds on two others – one that was signed by Lyndon B. Johnson in 1965 and the other that was signed by
Richard Nixon in 1969. While the first one banned discrimination on grounds of race and sex by federal employers, the latter banned discrimination by the government itself.
