Biden's team says landmark LGBTQ rights legislation could take more than 100 days to pass

President-elect Joe Biden is saying that LGBTQ people may have to wait more than 100 days for the Equality Act but that he’s going to get moving right away on ending the transgender military ban.

Biden had previously said that he would sign the Equality Act into law in his first 100 days in office, but in a conference call with LGBTQ activists, his transition team said that that may be difficult in the face of the coronavirus vaccine rollout and the Senate’s impeachment trial for Donald Trump. Sources on the call tell LGBTQ Nation that Democrats don’t think they can advance the legislation in the Senate despite holding the majority.

The team, though, stressed that Biden will immediately begin the process of reversing Trump’s transgender military ban. It may take a year for transgender people to be allowed to serve openly in the military, even if Biden starts the process on his first day in office.

The Equality Act was Biden’s biggest promise when it comes to LGBTQ equality. If passed, the law would add sexual orientation and gender identity to existing federal civil rights laws, banning discrimination against LGBTQ people in housing, public accommodations, credit, and other areas, and reinforce the Supreme Court’s decision in Bostock v. Clayton Co. that found that the government’s ban on job discrimination “because of sex” includes discrimination against LGBTQ people.

The bill has been introduced in Congress repeatedly since 2015, passing the House in 2019 with little Republican support but never coming up for a vote in the Republican-held Senate. Trump himself opposes the Equality Act.

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