AG Jeff Landry blocks state contracts that include language preventing LGBT discrimination

Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry has blocked at least 37 state government legal contracts because they include language meant to protect gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people from discrimination in the workplace, according to state documents and interviews with state officials.

The contracts affect legal issues surrounding the state's ports, potential medical malpractice awards for patients and oversight of state bonds, among others, according to a review of documents and interviews with the agencies involved.

The Louisiana Division of Administration -- part of Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards' administration -- said it has tracked at least 26 contracts with private lawyers for a variety of services that Landry rejected because of the nondiscrimination clause. The Department of Insurance -- which is run by Republican Insurance Commissioner Jim Donelon -- submitted 11 legal contracts the attorney general has also blocked because of the nondiscrimination language.

The contracts require lawyers not to judge people's workplace performance based on their sexual orientation and gender identity in addition to other characteristics like race, religious and political affiliation. The administration maintains that all state contracts must include such language in order to comply with Edwards' executive order prohibiting state government discrimination against the LGBT community, which he issued last April.

Read more: http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2016/09/jeff_landry_lgbt.html