15-05-2025
Louisiana lawmakers again reject LGBTQ+ worker discrimination protections
Following a call from a state legislator in June, the head of the Louisiana Department of Health allegedly asked staff to scrub the agency's online accounts of all content related to LGBTQ+ Pride month, according to internal emails the Illuminator has obtained. (Ludovic Bertron, Flickr)
For the fourth year in a row, Louisiana legislators have killed a proposal to prohibit employers from discriminating against new hires based on their gender identity or sexual orientation.
House Bill 429 by Rep. Delisha Boyd, D-New Orleans, was shot down Thursday on a 4-6 vote in the House Committee on Labor and Industrial Relations, with all Republicans voting against the measure. Boyd has been the sponsor of the proposal all four years it's been killed in the same committee.
Though conservatives on the committee raised concerns Boyd's legislation would have placed what they see as excessive regulation on private businesses, Louisiana law already prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin and cultural hairstyle.
Boyd was joined in presenting her bill by Kenny Oubre, an LGBTQ+ New Orleanian who works in human resources.
'[The bill] does allow people to bring their entire selves to work, and the data does show, if you're able to bring your entire self to work, you're able to be more productive,' Oubre said.
The Louisiana Retailers Association opposed Boyd's legislation.
Rep. Roger Wilder, R-Denham Springs, who sponsored legislation last year restricting what bathrooms transgender people can use, raised concerns Boyd's bill would create a slippery slope.
'Is the next bill going to be about furries and now that every company has to put a litter box in the corner?' Wilder asked.
'Where's the line?' Wilder said. 'So do we have any specific examples versus just a conjecture?'
Oubre told the committee one of Louisiana's few pediatric cardiologists left Louisiana in 2023 in response to anti-LGBTQ+ legislation state lawmakers had approved as well as the lack of protections for LGBTQ+ people.
'Twenty nine percent of trans people do live in poverty, and that is a direct result of not having job security,' Oubre said. 'So this protection actually allows people to have security, to get a job, to bring their whole selves to work and to be productive.'
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