LGBQT+ Rights

Gary believes that the United States Constitution provides equal protection under the law, for all people within the borders of the United States.


He believes that members of the LGBTQ+ community should unequivocally be afforded the same protections as any other person in the United States. Furthermore, Gary is deeply concerned about the disproportionate killings of Black Trans and Non-Gender Conforming people in the United States. Brayla Stone, Merci Mack, Shakiie Peters, Draya McCary, Tatiana Hall, and Bree Black’s lives mattered. Gary will support and vote for any legislation that classifies persons of the LBGTQ community as a protected class of citizens.

In total there are approximately 117,000 LGBTQ adults in Louisiana[1]


The Executive Order directs agencies to enforce federal laws that prohibit sex discrimination to include discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, consistent with the Bostock decision. This will include, but is not limited to, employment, education, housing, health care and credit:

Prohibit discrimination in employment under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, including hiring, termination, promotion, conditions of employment, and benefits as well as preventing harassment.

[1] These estimates were reached by applying the percentage of people in Louisiana that identify as LGBT (3.2 percent) to the population of Louisiana age sixteen and over (3,655,824) and applying the percentage of people in Louisiana’s labor force that identify as LGBT (4.0 percent) to the number of people in the state’s civilian labor force aged sixteen and older (2,210,208).

    • For example, a bisexual woman cannot be fired from her job just because her employer learned of her sexual orientation, and a transgender man cannot be forced to wear a women’s uniform at his place of employment.
Prohibit discrimination in education under Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, which applies to all federally funded educational programs including K-12, vocational programs and higher education programs
    • For example, a gay student can’t be prohibited from going to his public high school’s prom just because he has a male date, and a transgender girl cannot be harassed by a teacher who refuses to use her correct name or pronoun.
Prohibit discrimination in housing under the Fair Housing Act, which includes home purchases, rentals, public housing programs and homeless shelters.
    • For example, a married same-sex couple applying for public housing would need to be treated exactly the same as any other married couple, and a transgender woman could not be refused a rental apartment because the owner disapproves of her transition.
Prohibit discrimination in health care under the Affordable Care Act, which applies to federally funded health care programs and activities including hospitals and insurance providers.
    • For example, a hospital cannot refuse to treat a broken ankle just because they learn that a patient is a transgender man, and an obstetrics clinic cannot refuse to deliver a woman’s baby just because she is married to another woman.
Prohibit discrimination in credit under the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, which applies to a range of credit including credit cards, store credit, and loans.
    • For example, a non-binary person cannot be denied a credit card just because the financial institution sees their history of a name change, and a bank can’t deny a loan just because the applicant is gay.

Importantly, the executive order also acknowledges that discrimination against LGBTQ people often overlaps with discrimination based on their other characteristics, including race and disability.
Under the executive order, existing civil rights law regarding religious exemptions still apply as the order specifically includes LGBTQ people in our nation’s existing civil rights laws and maintains all the same rules, including the same religious exemptions.

It is still vital that Congress pass the Equality Act to codify these protections and fill in gaps in existing civil rights law.

While the landmark executive order is a crucial step in addressing discrimination against LGBTQ people, it is still vital that Congress pass the Equality Act. The Equality Act would codify the Bostock decision by explicitly including sexual orientation and gender identity in our nation’s civil rights laws. This would make it much more dif icult for opponents of equality in future administrations to refuse to enforce the Bostock decision and strip away LGBTQ civil rights protections in the future.

Additionally, there are two major areas of civil rights law that do not currently prohibit sex discrimination, and therefore are not covered by Bostock. The Equality Act adds prohibitions on discrimination based on sex, sexual orientation, and gender identity to the sections of the Civil Rights Act that cover federally funded programs and public accommodations. Current federal public accommodations law is also sorely outdated, and the Equality Act provides updates that strengthen protections for everyone.


  1. Community Health
  2. Education and Jobs Training Programs
  3. Green New Deal
  4. Reparations
  5. Crime & Law Enforcement
  6. Foreign Policy
  7. Immigration
  8. LGBQT+ Rights