Obama Executive Order Bans Federal Contracts From LGBT Discrimination

President Obama will sign an executive order forbidding federal contractors – about twenty percent of the workforce , according to the Human Rights campaign – from discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity when hiring workers, the White House announced. Currently, there is no federal law forbidding discrimination against LGBT workers. “Following on his pledge for this to be a year of action to expand opportunity for all Americans, the president has directed his staff to prepare for his signature an Executive Order that prohibits federal contractors from discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity,” a White House official told the New York Times.

The order – which expands existing rules keeping government contractors from discriminating on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or natural origin – is not expected to have a large impact on contractors, with many following the private sector’s lead in implementing their own similar discrimination bans. The White House had hoped to enact the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which passed the Senate in 2013, but gridlock within the House has whittled hopes of passing that bill in the near future.