Today, Congressman Chris Pappas (NH-01), Co-Chair of the Congressional LGBTQ+ Equality Caucus and New Hampshire's first openly gay member of Congress, issued the following statement after the Biden administration announced new executive actions advancing LGBTQ+ equality:
"No one should be a second-class citizen in the United States, but some of our LGBTQ+ community members still don't have the same legal protections guaranteed to others. That's why today's executive actions are so important and why we must continue to work toward equality for all. I'll continue fighting to advance legislation to codify and strengthen these protections and ensure all Americans have the same rights, responsibilities, and opportunities."
The Biden administration's executive order takes critical steps to protect LGBTQI+ people by addressing anti-LGBTQI+ state actions, preventing so-called "conversion therapy", safeguarding health care access for LGBTQI+ people, preventing LGBTQI+ suicide, strengthening protections for LGBTQI+ older adults, protecting LGBTQI+ foster youth, and addressing LGBTQI+ homelessness, among other provisions.
Background:
Pappas is an original co-sponsor of and helped to pass the Equality Act in the House. The Equality Act prohibits discrimination based on sex, sexual orientation, and gender identity in areas including public accommodations and facilities, education, federal funding, employment, housing, credit, and the jury system. Specifically, the bill defines and includes sex, sexual orientation, and gender identity among the prohibited categories of discrimination or segregation.
Pappas also leads the Gay and Trans Panic Defense Prohibition Act with Senator Edward Markey (MA), which would ban the use of "gay panic" and "trans panic" defenses in federal court. The bill would curtail the availability of gay and trans panic defenses that defendants use to blame victims for the violence committed against them, a step that many in the LGBTQ+ and legal communities have been urging for years.
Pappas has introduced legislation to support LGBTQ+ veterans, including the SERVE Act which would guarantee and protect VA benefits for LGBTQ+ veterans discharged from the Armed Forces due to their sexual orientation or gender identity. This legislation takes critical steps to ensure LGBTQ+ veterans who received an Other Than Honorable (OTH) or Entry-Level Separation (ELS) discharge solely due to their sexual orientation or gender identity are afforded the VA benefits they rightfully earned after serving their country. This includes veterans who were issued blue discharges during World War Two, and veterans discharged under "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" (DADT) or the Trump Administration's discriminatory ban on transgender servicemembers.
Pappas also leads legislation that would establish the LGBTQ Veterans Advisory Committee at VA and has helped introduce legislation that would amend the VA's definition of "minority group member" to explicitly include lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender veterans. These bills would help direct VA resources towards the unique needs of the LGBTQ+ veterans who have historically faced challenges accessing the health care and benefits they have earned due to the impact of discriminatory policies such as ‘Don't Ask, Don't Tell.'
Pappas has repeatedly called on the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to reassess an outdated and discriminatory policy that blocks members of the LGBTQ+ community from donating blood and put in place policies governing blood and blood product donation that are grounded in science and based on individual risk factors that do not unfairly single out any group of individuals so that all those who can safely donate can do so.
In the 116th Congress, Pappas helped introduce the Put Patients First Act, which would have blocked a Trump-Pence Administration rule that permitted discrimination in health care by allowing personal beliefs to dictate treatment and care. This legislation will affirm a lower court's decision to block that rule and further safeguard the health care received by all Americans.
Original source can be found here.
