President Barack Obama delivers remarks before he signs an executive order regarding to protect LGBT employees from workplace discrimination, in the East Room of the White House, July 21, 2014. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
Today, President Obama’s Executive Order on LGBT Workplace Discrimination went into effect. This executive order prohibits federal contractors and subcontractors from discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. For the first time, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people employed by federal contractors will have the right to be judged by the quality of their work, not for who they are or whom they love.
In an op-ed in the Advocate today Valerie Jarrett, senior adviser to President Obama wrote, “Today, we take another important step toward equality and fairness with our LGBT brothers and sisters. On July 21, 2014, President Obama signed an executive order to expand the protections of anti-discrimination to apply to the LGBT community with respect to companies who do business with the government. Today, this executive order becomes federal law.
“We’ve estimated that 1.5 million Americans will be protected in the workplace as a result of this executive order. The billions of taxpayer dollars that federal contractors and subcontractors receive to supply goods and services for government agencies will not be used to discriminate against people on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity, in addition to race, color, religion, national origin, disability and veteran status, which are already protected.
“This will effectively prevent any company that does business with the government from firing an employee based on who they are or who they love.”
Commenting on this milestone, Secretary of Labor Thomas Perez wrote on the U.S. Department of Labor Blog, ” … this is a civil rights victory consistent with our founding principles. It will mean a more dynamic and inclusive workforce that captures the talents of more of our people. It advances the principle that we should be leaving no one on the sidelines, that America is strongest when it fields a full team.
“The obligation not to discriminate covers every type of new and modified federal contract – from companies that build our highways and manage our IT infrastructure to those that run our cafeterias, produce our military uniforms and stock our supply closets. And it applies to every establishment of those contractors and subcontractors – not just the ones directly involved in performing the contract. While these protections for LGBT workers go into effect today, they do not require employers to undertake new record keeping, data analysis, goal setting or other similar affirmative action. Nor are employees and job applicants required to identify their sexual orientation or gender identity.”
