Last week, voters in Anchorage, Alaska voted against a law that would have prohibited employment discrimination against employees because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. Notably, both of Alaska’s U.S. Senators supported the law against discrimination. Sen. Lisa Murkowski said of the law, “I think this is overdue and we make sure that within this community that there’s no discrimination and there’s [no] tolerance for any discrimination at all.”
Maine and other states have had laws that prohibit this type of discrimination on the books for years but there are still some parts of the country that do not. Indeed, a majority of states do not have laws that prohibit employment discrimination against GLBT employees. This is one reason why opponents of employment discrimination have supported a bill in Congress, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, that would illegalize discrimination against GLBT employees.