GOP lawmakers voice support for LGBT anti-discrimination policies

Eight House Republicans made a point of expressing support for policies preventing workplace discrimination against the LGBT community.

In a letter this week to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, the lawmakers praised the agency’s first-ever briefing last month dedicated to discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) Americans.

All eight of the letter’s signatories are centrists in their party, many of whom represent swing districts. The GOP lawmakers endorsing the anti-discrimination policies discussed in the commission briefing were Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (Fla.), Frank LoBiondo (N.J.), Charlie Dent (Pa.), Mike Coffman (Colo.), Richard Hanna (N.Y.), Chris Gibson (N.Y.), Carlos Curbelo (Fla.) and Robert Dold (Ill.).

{mosads}”As members of Congress dedicated to promoting equal rights to every American, we believe that no one should lose their job simply because of who they are or who they love,” they wrote.

“This discrimination not only harms individuals and their families, but it also stifles growth, creativity, and innovation in the broader market,” the lawmakers added.

The Senate, then with a Democratic majority, passed a bill to ban workplace discrimination against LGBT employees in 2013, but the GOP-controlled House never took it up.

The letter also comes in the aftermath of last week’s controversy over an Indiana religious freedom law that critics said would allow discrimination against the LGBT community. Indiana Gov. Mike Pence later signed a revised measure under public pressure to clarify that it wouldn’t authorize businesses to refuse services to gays and lesbians.