With the U.S. Senate expected to pass the Employment Non-Discrimination Act this week, the bill that would protect LGBT people from being fired from their jobs simply because they are gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender, hit a significant hurdle Monday — House Speaker John Boehner.
"The Speaker believes this legislation will increase frivolous litigation and cost American jobs, especially small business jobs," Boehner spokesman Michael Steel said in a statement, according to a story in Huffington Post.
Georgia's own U.S. Rep. John Lewis has joined more than 100 members of Congress in a legal brief arguing that part of the Defense of Marriage Act, the ban on federal recognition of same-sex marriage, is unconstitutional.
“The stories of people in long-term relationships who are denied the right to act on their partners’ final requests are heartbreaking,” Lewis said in a press statement today. “If a state provides the right for gay and lesbian citizens to marry, the federal government should not bar their ability to receive any of the rights and privileges given to any other married citizen.
"To do so seems discriminatory on its face. We must get to the place in our society where we see beyond our own biases and accept each other as one human family," Lewis said.