Equality Act passes House, moves to Senate

The U.S. House of Representatives on Feb. 25 passed the Equality Act, a sweeping bill that would expand the definition of “sex” in civil rights law to include sexual orientation and gender identity.

The legislation, filed as H.R. 5, would revise every title of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to add these categories as new protected classes in the federal code.

The bill passed the House 224–206. It now moves to the Senate, where 60 votes are required to overcome the filibuster, which would bring the bill to a vote.

In its current form, the bill would likely fall short of this threshold as it did in 2019 when the bill passed the House but died in the Senate.

Read more about the bill and its potential effects on religious liberty at tabonline.org/equality-act.