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Norton Condemns Latest Republican Attack on D.C.’s LGBT Community and Vows to Defeat It

March 14, 2018

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today condemned the introduction of the First Amendment Defense Act (FADA), sponsored by Senator Mike Lee (R-UT), which would prohibit the federal and District of Columbia governments, but not state governments, from denying benefits, contracts and the like to individuals, non-profits and for-profits that discriminate against LGBT people, as well as individuals who engage in extramarital relations, based on a sincerely-held religious belief or moral conviction. Norton said FADA could effectively gut D.C.'s LGBT anti-discrimination laws by not only prohibiting the D.C. government from enforcing the law, but could also be read to prohibit private citizens from enforcing it, too, either by stripping courts of their authority to impose penalties, or by allowing defendants in private civil suits to raise FADA as a defense. The bill defines the District government as part of the federal government.

"This bill is the latest outrageous Republican attack on the District, focusing particularly on our LGBT community and the District's right to self-government," Norton said. "We will not allow Republicans to discriminate against the LGBT community under the guise of religious liberty. We are especially offended that this bill was rewritten to single out the District. I intend to see that this discriminatory, anti-home-rule bill does not become law."

When FADA was introduced last Congress, it only applied to the federal government. While the FADA sponsors said publicly last Congress that the bill would be rewritten to apply to D.C., this is the first time it in fact does so.

Norton said Lee frequently disregards his professed support for local control when it comes to the District. In prior Congresses, Lee has introduced bills to ban abortions in the District after 20 weeks of pregnancy and to gut D.C.'s occupational licensing laws.