Surprising News From The White House

Today, at the annual LGBT Pride celebration at the White House, President Obama gave some astounding news.

Last year, the President promised the LGBT community he'd make sure the Affordable Care Act was implemented to insure no one could be denied health insurance based on their sexual orientation OR gender identity. He didn't disappoint. Now he's taking on another challenge for the LGBT community, this time within the work place.

He announced plans to sign an executive order protecting all Federal workers from gender identity discrimination. This order is designed to help protect transgender workers. Previously this month, he announced plans to prohibit federal contractors from discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. Federal employees are already protected from discrimination based on sexual orientation. Together, these orders will insure all LGBT Federal employees and contractors are protected from discrimination for being who they are.

While these most recent executive orders for transgender persons are a big step forward, they apply only to Federal employees, and there is still a lot of work to be done around the country to insure everyone is treated equally. According to the National Center for Transgender Equality, only 37% of Americans live in an area of the U.S. that protects employees on the basis of gender identity. However, these orders by President Obama have set a good example for (hopefully) the rest of the country to follow.

Obama had called on Congress to pass federal legislation prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity, but they would not. So the President decided to issue executive orders instead.

“The majority of Fortune 500 companies already have nondiscrimination policies to protect their employees because it’s the right thing to do and because many say it helps to retain and attract the best talent,” Obama said. “And I agree. So if Congress won’t act, I will.”