Obama will sign an executive order shortly which will prohibit discrimination against gay and transgender workers in United States government agencies as well as those it has contracted out to. This order will not contain an exemption that has been requested by a few religious organizations.
In speaking of the effect of this order, President Chad Griffin of the Human Rights Campaign, said, “With two strokes of a pen, the President will have a very real and immediate impact on the lives of millions of LGBT people across the country.”
This order comes right after the ruling by the Supreme Court which permitted certain businesses with a religious leaning to bypass the federal government’s requirement to provide free contraception to workers at no extra charge.
Also, senior administration officials stated anonymously that this ruling will not affect the non-discrimination policies on federal hiring and contracting.
Obama has waited for sometime for action that discriminates gays in the workplace through the United States. And even though a bill titled the Employee Non-Discrimination Act passed the Senate last year, it has not been considered by the Republican-controlled House yet.
So, as a result, he intends to amend two executive orders by Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon by adding gender identity and sexual orientation to the first while adding only gender identity to the second as Bill Clinton already made the other change during his Presidency.
The senior officials also mentioned that these amendments will change lives of almost 28 million workers who are almost one-fifth of the US workforce at the moment.