Efforts to end employment discrimination against the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transexual and Queer (LGBTQ) community is now heading to the legislative floor.
Earlier this month, State Rep. Erin Zwiener’s (D-Driftwood) was appointed to the Texas House LGBTQ Caucus, marking her first effort to represent those in the LGBTQ community.
The caucus will focus on its legislative priorities for the LGBTQ community, which include Zwiener’s initiative to end employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.
“There are no employment discrimination protections for LGBTQ Texas. Now is the time to change that in Texas. We’re here, we exist and we deserve equal employment protection.”
–Erin Zwiener, State Representative, Dist. 45
According to the Texas Labor Code, LGBTQ individuals are not protected from employment discrimination, a battle that Texas lawmakers have fought over the past few sessions.
“There are no employment discrimination protections for LGBTQ Texans,” Zwiener said. “Now is the time to change that in Texas. We’re here, we exist and we deserve equal employment protection.”
During the 2013 legislative session, Senate Bill 237 and House Bill 238 sought to prohibit employment discrimination against LBGTQ workers. Both bills, however, ultimately failed to see the light of day.
Despite these challenges in the legislature, a new study by PRRI Polling showed that 64 percent of Texans support nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ people, a finding that combats the current laws in place.
The study based its conclusions after in-depth interviews with nearly 3,000 Texans, with a large percentage supporting anti-discrimination laws for LGBTQ people.
Additionally, all five metropolitan regions of the state, including Austin and its surrounding cities, widely support these changes.
The study also said that these conclusions are bipartisan and cross-religious among Texans.
For Suzanne Bryant, an adaption attorney for LGBTQ Texans, work needs to be done to change these laws.
“Someone could get legally married in Texas, go on their honeymoon, put a picture of them together on their desk, and be fired the next day because they are gay and do not have legal status,” Bryant said. “The protections we have seen for people is going on at a city-wide level, not the state.”
Bryant cited a list of cities that have protections for sexual orientation and gender identity. The latest is Carrollton a city north of Dallas, which adopted these protections in February 2019 for its city employees and contractors.
No cities in Hays County have adopted such protective measures.
Bryant said religious-based adoption agencies, as private entities, can prohibit same-sex couples from adopting children, a dilemma that has taken hold of rural Texas communities as a lack of adoption agencies could hinder a couple from becoming parents.
Adoption allows couples who cannot reproduce to partake in parenthood, but discrimination can make that difficult for same-sex couples. Bryant said the battle goes beyond just employment discrimination and can be seen in other areas of Texas life.
“The American Bar Association just recently stated that what is happening in Texas is state-sanctioned discrimination,” Bryant said. “In the United States, there is a balance the courts are trying to have in regards to people with sincerely-held religious beliefs and the prohibition against discrimination.”
