State Senator Determined To Secure Hearing For Bill That Would Make It Illegal In Utah To Discriminate In Areas Of Employment And Housing Based On Sexual Orientation Or Gender Identity

The Salt Lake Tribune reports that state Senator Ben McAdams (Democrat-Salt Lake City) intends to secure a hearing for a bill that would make it illegal in Utah to discriminate in areas of employment and housing based on sexual orientation or gender identity. Senate Bill148 has been stalled in the Senate Rules Committee, which assigns bills to committees for public hearings, for weeks, however next week, McAdams will ask the Senate floor to bypass the rules committee and give his bill a hearing. It is unlikely that he will secure enough votes in the Republican controlled Senate. “We know that a majority of Utahans support these important protections,” Equality Utah executive director Brandie Balken said Friday in an interview. “Equality Utah believes that a committee hearing could be very productive in establishing our common values around non-discrimination as well as understanding what concerns some legislators may have about the [bill’s] language.” This is the fourth year that a Democrat has introduced a measure on Capitol Hill to add sexual orientation and gender identity to existing state laws that ban housing and employment discrimination based on race, religion and other characteristics, the issue last received a legislative hearing in 2009. McAdams also has filed Senate Bill 170, which would afford same sex couples the ability to sue when a wage-earner suffers a wrongful death. SB170 also has not made it out of the Senate Rules Committee. Representative Rebecca Chavez-Houck’s House Bill 108, which would allow second-parent adoptions for same-sex partners, has not received a committee hearing, either. But a duplicate bill, started in the Senate by Senator Ross Romero, did. The Senate Health and Human Services Committee declined to forward the adoption bill to a floor vote. March 10 is the final day of the 2011 session, but committee meetings end next week.