Photo: Jared Polis. Credit: U.S. House of Representatives.
Rep. Jared Polis sought to narrow the Employment Non-Discrimination Actβs religious exemption with a resolution quietly introduced Tuesday and referred to the House Committee on Rules.
Polis, the lead sponsor of ENDA in the House of Representatives, is attempting to rewrite the religious exemption to mirror that of Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
βSuch organizations are not exempt from the requirements of this Act to refrain from discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity, in the same manner as is required with respect to discrimination based on race, color, sex and national origin under such title,β the resolution states, which would apply to religious corporations, associations and educational institutions.
The move by the out Colorado DemocratΒ comes as several LGBT-rights groups have pulled their support for ENDA over the billβs religious exemption. Last month, Polis also introduced House Resolution 639 that would set the stage for a discharge petition and force the House to vote on ENDA if supporters of the petition garnered 218 signatures.Β
Both attempts are not expected to secure the votes necessary to move forward in this Congress, but illustrate the rapid rate at which ENDA supporters have turned on the billβs religious exemption. It is unclear how narrowing ENDAβs religious exemption could impact Republican support for the bill. Currently, eight House Republicans are cosponsors of the version of ENDA approved by the Senate last November. The Senate approved that bill with the support of 10 Republicans β the most Senate Republicans to ever vote for a piece of LGBT-rights legislation β in part due to the religious exemption. When the religious exemption was adopted with a 402-25 vote in 2007 as an amendment in the House proposed by Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.), it received the backing of not only Democrats like Nancy Pelosi, Barney Frank and Tammy Baldwin, but Republicans like John Boehner, Eric Cantor and Paul Ryan.Β Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) specifically cited the religious exemption when he became one of three Republicans on the Senate Health, Education, Labor & Pensions CommitteeΒ to vote in favor of ENDA last July.
Earlier this week, President Barack Obama signed an executive order prohibiting federal contractors from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity and declined to broaden religious exemptions that existed in previous executive orders β a move pushed for by some faith leaders.
In a statement following the signing of that executive order, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi hinted attempts would be made to narrow ENDAβs religious exemption.
βWe must work to pass a strengthened Employment Non-Discrimination Act in the House of Representatives, where Republicans have been blocking bipartisan legislation passed in the Senate from debate and amendment in the House,β Pelosi said. βDiscrimination has no place in our nation β not in our workplaces, not in our schools, not in our society and not in our government.β
WorldPride DC on Sunday, June 8, 2025 - Photo: Randy Shulman / Metro Weekly
Interviewed on Saturday and Sunday, June 7 and 8, 2025, at the WorldPride Street Festival, Parade, and March for Freedom.
Nic Ashe
Los Angeles, Ca.
Queer, He/Him
Why did you come to WorldPride?
I've been following WorldPride through the lens of Black queerness, namely with a focus on Christianity and religion. Early in my life, when I think about the first times that I was learning that queer may be a pejorative or that being gay was "not good," it was through my church upbringing. So I was very curious to find if there were examples in 2025 of those two oxymoronic opposing forces existing in harmony.
A Christian high school in California went out of its way to recruit a talented baseball player, and then rejected him because he has two gay dads.
Caleb Degala-Burnett, a recently graduated eighth grader from Union City, was invited to a high-level scouting event for the Class of 2029β2030, where 20 top prospects participated in a pro-style workout and game. According to statistical analysis, he had the fastest outfield throw in his class. The website Perfect Game rates him a "college prospect" and a potential pro draft pick "with development."
Jackson Vogel has been sentenced to life without parole for strangling his cellmate -- 19-year-old Micah Laureano, a Black gay man -- inside Green Bay Correctional Institution in what prosecutors described as a racially and homophobically motivated killing.
The Wisconsin inmate was found guilty of first-degree intentional homicide by a jury last month.
Before sentencing, Vogel -- who was already serving a 20-year term for attempting to kill his mother in 2016, when he was just 16 -- told Brown County Circuit Judge Donald Zuidmulder he was "sorry" for his actions, although he did not appear to show any signs of regret.
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