by Mike Andrew - SGN Staff Writer

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced at a March 7 news conference that Democrats would reintroduce the Equality Act in the coming week.

The Equality Act would amend the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Fair Housing Act of 1968 to ban anti-LGBT discrimination in employment, housing, public accommodations, jury service, education, federal programs and credit.

The bill also seeks to update federal law to include sex in the list of protected classes in public accommodation, and to expand the definition of public accommodations to include retail stores, banks, transportation services, and health care services.

'Next week, we will be launching our Equality Act to end discrimination for the LGBTQ community, and we will be launching our initiative to protect the DREAMers and temporarily protected status persons in our country,' Pelosi said.

Citing the Democratic House majority's achievement in passing background checks for gun purchases and government reform legislation, Pelosi said equal pay legislation for women workers and reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act would come later in March.

'We said these things during the campaign, and we're getting it done and we are telling the public about the paths that we are on to get them turned into law to make a difference in the lives of the American people,' Pelosi said.

After the news conference, Pelosi told reporters 'we'll see' when asked when she'd bring legislation to a floor vote but was confident the House would approve it. (The Republican-controlled Senate is a different story.)

'As we go along, it's the tempo of the floor, but it is a priority for us,' Pelosi said. 'I'm very pleased because we have a great deal of outside support for it, which I hope will help us pass it in the Senate. We most certainly will pass it overwhelmingly in the House.'

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