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This vote was on one of the Democrats’ top priorities, the so-called “Equality” Act. The bill would amend the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to equate sexual orientation and gender identity with race and sex under anti-discrimination laws. Proponents of the bill claim it will advance equality for gay and transgender Americans. In reality, it undermines the conscience rights of religious Americans and those who disagree with the sexual identity ideology of the Left.
The First Amendment guarantees Americans the rights of free expression and free association in how they do business. The Equality Act would trample on those rights, using the power of the federal government to force churches, businesses, public and private schools, and hospitals to recognize a person’s “chosen gender” instead of their “biological sex.” Catholic hospitals could be forced to perform sex-change surgeries. The safety of women and girls would be endangered by a provision of the law that explicitly states that “an individual shall not be denied access to a shared facility, including a restroom, a locker room, and a dressing room, that is in accordance with the individual’s gender identity.” Businesses that refuse to cater to same-sex marriage ceremonies for religious reasons would be charged with “discrimination” and punished.
Further, a principle of good lawmaking is that laws are clear and easily understood by all. The contradictory nature of “gender identity” precludes that principle. “Gender identity” is defined by the bill as “the gender-related identity, appearance, mannerisms, or other gender-related characteristics of an individual.” “Mannerisms” and “other gender-related characteristics” are vague and undefined. How can a person’s appearance or mannerisms point to an individual’s gender identity when transgender activists deny that there are meaningful differences between men and women? Where does the concept of gender fluidity, where an individual can identify as a man sometimes and a woman at other times, based on how they feel at the moment, fit into this law? How can the law be clear on who is being discriminated against and what qualifies as discrimination when the very concept of gender, according to the Left, is a feeling? The law cannot answer these questions, and the government should not create a protected class of people based on feelings.
The House of Representatives voted to pass the Equality Act on May 17, 2019 at 12:12 PM in a roll call vote of 236 – 173.
To see how your elected officials stack up or other votes that compose the Liberty Score, view our full scorecard here.
CR position: NO
U.S. House of Representatives*
YEAs — 236
*Minority party (Republicans) in italics
| Adams Aguilar Allred Axne Barragán Bass Beatty Bera Beyer Bishop (GA) Blumenauer Blunt Rochester Bonamici Boyle, Brendan F. Brindisi Brooks (IN) Brown (MD) Brownley (CA) Bustos Butterfield Carbajal Cárdenas Carson (IN) Cartwright Case Casten (IL) Castor (FL) Castro (TX) Chu, Judy Cicilline Cisneros Clark (MA) Clarke (NY) Clay Cleaver Cohen Connolly Cooper Correa Costa Courtney Cox (CA) Craig Crist Crow Cuellar Cummings Cunningham Davids (KS) Davis (CA) Davis, Danny K. Dean DeFazio DeGette DeLauro DelBene Delgado Demings DeSaulnier Deutch Diaz-Balart Doggett Doyle, Michael F. Engel Escobar Eshoo Espaillat Evans Finkenauer Fitzpatrick Fletcher Foster Frankel Fudge Gabbard Gallego Garamendi García (IL) Garcia (TX) | Golden Gomez Gonzalez (TX) Gottheimer Green (TX) Grijalva Haaland Harder (CA) Hastings Hayes Heck Higgins (NY) Hill (CA) Himes Horn, Kendra S. Horsford Houlahan Hoyer Huffman Hurd (TX) Jackson Lee Jayapal Jeffries Johnson (GA) Johnson (TX) Kaptur Katko Keating Kelly (IL) Kennedy Khanna Kildee Kilmer Kim Kind Kirkpatrick Krishnamoorthi Kuster (NH) Lamb Langevin Larsen (WA) Larson (CT) Lawrence Lawson (FL) Lee (CA) Lee (NV) Levin (CA) Levin (MI) Lewis Lieu, Ted Lipinski Loebsack Lofgren Lowenthal Lowey Luján Luria Lynch Malinowski Maloney, Carolyn B. Maloney, Sean Matsui McAdams McBath McCollum McEachin McGovern McNerney Meeks Meng Moore Morelle Mucarsel-Powell Murphy Nadler Napolitano Neal Neguse Norcross | O'Halleran Ocasio-Cortez Omar Pallone Panetta Pappas Pascrell Payne Pelosi Perlmutter Peters Phillips Pingree Pocan Porter Pressley Price (NC) Quigley Raskin Reed Rice (NY) Richmond Rouda Roybal-Allard Ruiz Ruppersberger Rush Sánchez Sarbanes Scanlon Schakowsky Schiff Schneider Schrader Schrier Scott (VA) Scott, David Serrano Sewell (AL) Shalala Sherman Sherrill Sires Slotkin Smith (WA) Soto Spanberger Speier Stanton Stefanik Stevens Suozzi Takano Thompson (CA) Thompson (MS) Titus Tlaib Tonko Torres (CA) Torres Small (NM) Trahan Trone Underwood Van Drew Vargas Veasey Vela Velázquez Visclosky Walden Wasserman Schultz Waters Watson Coleman Welch Wexton Wild Wilson (FL) Yarmuth |
NAYs — 173
| Abraham Aderholt Allen Amash Amodei Armstrong Arrington Babin Bacon Baird Balderson Banks Barr Bergman Biggs Bilirakis Bishop (UT) Bost Brooks (AL) Buchanan Buck Budd Burgess Byrne Calvert Carter (GA) Carter (TX) Chabot Cheney Cline Cloud Cole Collins (GA) Collins (NY) Comer Conaway Cook Crawford Crenshaw Curtis Davidson (OH) Davis, Rodney DesJarlais Duncan Dunn Emmer Estes Ferguson Fleischmann Flores Fortenberry Foxx (NC) Fulcher Gaetz Gallagher Gianforte Gibbs Gohmert | Gonzalez (OH) Gooden Gosar Granger Graves (GA) Graves (LA) Graves (MO) Green (TN) Griffith Grothman Guest Guthrie Hagedorn Harris Hartzler Hern, Kevin Herrera Beutler Hice (GA) Higgins (LA) Hill (AR) Holding Hollingsworth Hudson Huizenga Hunter Johnson (SD) Jordan Joyce (OH) Joyce (PA) Kelly (MS) Kelly (PA) King (IA) King (NY) Kinzinger Kustoff (TN) LaMalfa Lamborn Latta Lesko Long Loudermilk Lucas Luetkemeyer Marchant Marshall Massie Mast McCarthy McCaul McClintock McHenry McKinley Meadows Meuser Miller Mitchell Moolenaar Mooney (WV) | Mullin Newhouse Norman Nunes Olson Palazzo Palmer Pence Perry Posey Reschenthaler Rice (SC) Riggleman Roby Rodgers (WA) Roe, David P. Rogers (AL) Rogers (KY) Rooney (FL) Rose, John W. Rouzer Roy Rutherford Scalise Schweikert Scott, Austin Sensenbrenner Shimkus Simpson Smith (MO) Smith (NE) Smith (NJ) Spano Stauber Steil Stewart Stivers Taylor Thompson (PA) Thornberry Timmons Tipton Upton Wagner Walberg Walorski Waltz Watkins Webster (FL) Wenstrup Williams Wittman Womack Woodall Wright Yoho Zeldin |
Not Voting — 23
| Brady Bucshon Burchett Clyburn Dingell Duffy Johnson (LA) Johnson (OH) | LaHood Moulton Peterson Ratcliffe Rose (NY) Ryan Smucker Steube | Swalwell (CA) Turner Walker Weber (TX) Westerman Wilson (SC) Young |
*Minority party (Republicans) in italics
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